Practical placements in real work environments are a requirement for successful completion of many professional learning programs. Indeed, this activity may account for half of the learning hours within such curricula. Recent research examining the practicum experiences of nursing students in Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, as well as those of Australian and Ethiopian radiography undergraduates, support the argument that the eight core propositions within the theory of human relatedness, may reflect the criteria stakeholders implicitly use to evaluate pre-registrant workplace learning. These studies and comparable earlier ones, however, have not detailed how student relatedness may affect practicum performance. Applying the concepts of self-efficacy and feedback cycles, this theoretical paper, therefore, examines the impact of relatedness upon practice proficiency. Moreover, it argues educators must strive to disrupt negative relatedness feedback cycles and create conditions to promote positive relatedness if learner performance within real work settings is to be optimized. © 2025 International Journal of Work-Integrated Learning. All rights reserved.
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