The argument of this thesis is that the link between learner motives and effective
learning can only be understood in the context of the influences from and on the
learning organisation. This work is an exercise in applied social science utilising a multi-method participative action research approach. An outline and assessment of a series of planned interventions in educational delivery to groups of trainee health care professionals (nurses, midwives and radiographers) is provided. The argument put forward is that effective learning for these health care professional groups is dependent upon a particular combination of student motivation, staff perceptions and attitudes and other features of the structure of the organisation within which the learning takes place. Effective interventions into improving learner motivation and, thereby, learner effectiveness, must also incorporate interventions into educator motivations and into the organisational context within which learner and educator progress together. From within the writer's role of an active participant developer and researcher, traditional concepts of learning style and motivation are rejected in favour of the analysis and modification both of motivational narratives and of the organisational context of learning. Although drawing primarily upon research with nursing students and nurse lecturers it is argued that these principles of effective
learning apply to all health care professionals. The thesis adds to knowledge by
advocating and describing the development of the technique of the vision workshop; by developing and applying the concept of the caring learning organisation; and by the introduction of a narrative approach to motivation applied to the learning process. The thesis concludes with specific recommendations for educational and organisational development in the training of health care professionals.