The complexity of practical nursing skills requires a comprehensive approach to learning. It is also important to acknowledge that learning takes time. During nursing education, practical nursing skills are learned in simulation centers as well as during clinical placement. After graduation, nurses must continue to improve their performance of practical nursing skills in the clinical setting, and to learn new skills as they emerge in the wake of developments in nursing and medical treatment (Mlambo, Silén & McGrath, 2021).

The learning process involves many aspects that must be considered to develop good conditions for learning. Examples of these aspects are the necessity to acquire appropriate knowledge, opportunities to observe others, practice in varied settings, receive feedback and reflect on own and others’ performance of practical nursing skills (Ravik, Havnes & Bjørk, 2017 a, b; Ravik & Bjørk, 2021). Traditionally, practical nursing skills learning research has been preoccupied with technical aspects of learning in the simulation center. This is partly due to a behaviouristic understanding of what it means to perform practical nursing skills where speed, fluency and accuracy in the manual movement have been central concepts (Bjørk & Romyn, 1999). We appreciate that this knowledge is also necessary, but advocate for research that considers the relational and situational aspects inherent in practical nursing skills, as illustrated in the Model of Practical Skill Performance (Bjørk et al., 2013).