title: The mandala:  first-year undergraduate nursing students' learning experiences.
abstract: The mandala is a circular art form used by psychologists to access subconscious thought through symbolism and it has recently been adopted by nurse educators as a learning strategy for self-awareness. The lived experiences of six first-year undergraduate nursing students who completed a mandala assignment for emotional learning were explored using hermeneutic phenomenology. Participants experiences diverged from their original expectations that the mandala assignment would allow for a fun and free expression of 'self'. Participants did describe experiences of self-discovery; however, their experiences also resembled those associated with socialization in nursing education. Participants described both self-reflection and critical-reflection while completing the mandala assignment. Nurse educators and researchers can gain insight regarding the use of this assignment as an integrated transformative learning approach for emotional learning.
authors.affiliation: University of Western Ontario. djamies6@uwo.ca
authors.forename: Diane J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Mahar
authors.forename: Carroll L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Iwasiw
authors.forename: Marilyn K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Evans
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000739:Anecdotes as Topic; D001294:Attitude to Health; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D008297:Male; D024802:Nurse's Role / Q000523:psychology; D009864:Ontario; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012647:Self-Assessment; D029181:Spirituality; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D013561:Symbolism; D055815:Young Adult