The emergence of liberal education in nursing education, 1893 to 1923

This is a study of the liberal education theme in nursing education as articulated in nursing literature from 1893 to 1923. The major questions addressed are: What did nurse educators believe to be the nature of liberal education? What did they believe would be the effect of a liberal education on the profession of nursing? To what extent did the articulation of the beliefs regarding liberal education parallel the development of collegiate-level nursing programs? The resources for this study are viewed in a historical and philosophical context, relating education beliefs, beliefs about professions, and the development of nursing education. The materials used for research include literature published in the major nursing journals of the time, proceedings of the national professional organizations for nursing practice and education, and major studies of nursing by various committees and commissions. The writings of nurse educators were examined for central themes. The study concludes that nurse educators believed the purposes of a liberal education for nurses were to foster the development of the individual, to prepare the individual for citizenship, to provide the individual with a broad knowledge base, and to develop the individual's critical thinking and judgment skills. Practitioners of nursing with these attributes would increase the credibility of nursing's claim to professional status. Although nurse educators believed that institutions of higher education were the logical sites for professional nursing education, the development of collegiate-level educational programs that incorporated a general education as part of the program of study for nursing lagged behind the articulation of beliefs.     

The Financial Distress of Higher Education: Impact on Nursing

Until recently, serious financial problems were of limited concern to nursing education. With generous program and student aid from government sources, nursing education has not felt the same kind of severe financial distress that has afflicted the rest of higher education (Gonyea,1978). Unfortunately this state of affairs is changing. Funding of such programs is an expensive proposition for colleges and universities, and some institutions of higher education have begun to question the feasibility of continuing to fund their nursing programs (Allen & Gray,1975). Additionally, as supply and demand gaps in nursing manpower have narrowed, there is less incentive for the government to underwrite the costs of nursing education.
It is expected that tuition costs to nursing students will continue to escalate. Job opportunities for graduates will be less attractive and fewer in number than previously. Fewer women in the future are likely to select nursing as their career field. Small nursing education programs will be unable to sustain the very high costs of educating students and will likely cease to exist. Nursing education programs within colleges and universities will very likely compete less successfully with other institutional programs than they have in the past for the limited dollars.
As in all of higher education, nursing education will increasingly be held accountable for its costs, costs that will only increase in the coming decade. It will be asked to do more with far fewer resources, in terms of dollars, numbers of students, and numbers of programs. Should this trend continue, the profession may well be confronted in 20 to 30 years with another critical shortage of nurses across the nation.     

Internet-based education for enrolled nurses: could it be e-ffective?

There has been an extraordinary growth of technology-mediated learning in the higher education system over the last 10 years (IHEP 2000, p.1), predominantly in the area of distance education. These technological advances provide exciting opportunities for the delivery of education to those who have not previously been able to access on-campus learning, usually because of barriers of distance and cost. While there are a growing number of studies supporting the implementation of distance education programs in nursing education, the use of Internet-based learning as a sole means of education delivery is relatively new. This paper investigates the current literature available regarding the use of Internet-based education delivery for registered and enrolled nurses in undergraduate and postgraduate programs, and reviews contemporary education trends in Victoria, Australia, for enrolled nurses (ENs). The challenge in nursing education currently is to design curricula that will address the health care needs of the future. This is not easy with the rapidly changing environment health care professionals, especially nurses, face in their daily work. To prepare graduates who can function successfully as professional nurses in this new century, nurse educators must examine the dominant trends in health care and education, and analyse whether the processes used to prepare students for practice will result in the desired outcome (Jorgensen et al 1998, p.109). The current growth and impact of web-based and online learning courses has been proposed by some as a major revolution for education, and has been firmly embraced by many tertiary institutions as the way of the future (Sims 1998, p. 21).     

Reforms in nursing education across Western Europe: from agenda to practice.

The overall goal of this research was to analyze implementation processes translating the nursing education reform agenda into practice across 20 Western European countries. The analysis centered on the substantial changes in structure and ethos created in nursing programs and the adjustments required from nursing faculty members as part of their integration into higher education institutions. Based on the model of implementing organizational change by Pettigrew, Ferlie, and McKee, three major implementation domains were analyzed: (1) the adjustment of nursing faculty members into higher education settings and toward their new roles; (2) the applicability of the graduate profile; and (3) the adequacy of the nursing curriculum for higher education institution and the reformed health care systems. A critical analysis of the scientific literature and policy documents revealed a striking similarity with regard to the difficulties and concerns appearing in the various Western European countries implementing nursing education reforms. Three sorts of difficulties emerge repeatedly in the reforming nursing education programs. These difficulties are related to (1) the adjustment of nursing faculty members into higher education settings and toward their new roles, (2) the competencies held by graduates of preregistration programs, and (3) the content and structure of the nursing curriculum. Future questions, lessons, and potential directions are discussed in this article.     

护理学专业认证的回顾与展望

专业认证作为高等教育质量保证的重要措施,促使高等教育机构质量保障由外部力量转变为教育机构自我发展、自我激励、自我约束的内在需求。科学的专业认证制度既能有效地保障专业教育发展的基本需求,又能调动专业教育院校的特色化和个性化发展的积极性。该文通过回顾国内外护理学专业认证、教育标准和规范的发展现状,探讨我国护理学专业认证的未来与发展。     

Reforms in nursing education across Western Europe: implementation processes and current status.

The aim of this review was to provide a comprehensive outlook on nursing education reforms enacted in Western Europe in the last three decades. Specifically, this analysis aimed to describe major trends in the implementation processes of nursing education reforms and the current academic status of nursing programs across Western Europe. A critical analysis of the scientific literature and policy documents was conducted. The results indicate that two major phases of reform were initiated in nursing education over the last three decades. The first phase was geared at creating a unified European platform of solid preregistration programs. The second phase was predominantly geared at integrating nursing programs into higher education institutions. In contrast to the first stage of reform, which yielded unity, the second phase resulted in a notable variation among existing structures, levels of education, duration of studies, and the titles (degrees) awarded. As a result, Western Europe today represents a myriad of arrangements for preregistration nursing programs. Nursing has viewed these reforms in the education system as vital in promoting the profession and crucial for responding to the reforming health care system. This research indicates that nursing goals have only been partially obtained.     

Demographic characteristics of Victorian nursing students: a comparison between hospital and higher education recruits.

This paper compares the demographic characteristics of 191 nursing students in hospital-based programs and 321 nursing students in higher education institutions in Victoria. The study found that a greater proportion of males were recruited to hospital programs and that they tended to enter several years after leaving secondary school. In contrast, more direct from school entry students of both sexes and students from country areas were recruited to higher education programs.     

Creating a culture of success: A framework for addressing at-risk student

The lack of diversity in nursing and the projected nursing shortage is a clarion call for higher education to create inclusive programs where all students can thrive. Despite an increase in enrollment, attrition remains an issue. To address the looming nursing shortage, colleges and universities are expected to increase the enrollments in baccalaureate and accelerated baccalaureate programs. As traditional and nontraditional students are admitted into nursing programs, institutions and nursing programs will be faced with tackling issues students who are historically labeled as “at-risk” may have. To help these students succeed, colleges and universities must come up with new ways to work with at-risk students. In this paper, we are proposing a new framework for how faculty in nursing programs can perceive “at-risk” students by systematically examining the factors that lead to this at-risk status. The framework proposes that students encounter a plethora of individual and institutional critical elements, categorized into domains. By understanding the critical elements that impact student outcomes, nursing programs will be better able to strategize ways to effectively support and sustain student success.     

Providing care to a culturally diverse community: a mobile academic nursing center

Health care institutions are increasingly collaborating with nursing education programs to provide quality and cost-effective primary health care services to the community. Mobile academic nursing centers are emerging as viable alternative sites for these services because they can provide immediate access to health care services and circumvent logistical problems in access to care. Although not a new concept, their development as an integral component of the nursing academic unit is being reexamined in light of health care reform and nursing's role in this reformation. Unlike stationary clinics, these "clinics on wheels" provide multisite access to diverse populations and communities. This article describes how a mobile academic nurse managed center can provide nurses and students with opportunities to develop competencies in community-based experiences.     

全球健康理念与课程的兴起与发展

全球健康是目前医学、护理学界及公共卫生学界非常重视的发展方向,更由于过去数年期间所发生的跨国界的传染病,如爱滋病、非典型肺炎、禽流感、埃博拉病毒传染等疾病在国际间的流行后,全球健康（Global Health）的呼吁与实践迅速的受到重视。全球健康的领域包括传染及非传染疾病的筛查、预防及治疗。随着中国在全球健康领域中承担越来越重要的责任,国家对于相应领域的人才需求日益迫切,学生们在学习健康知识之际,也需要建立健康的全球视野,因应时代的要求,理解不同的疾病对全球人们健康及大环境的影响。本文通过对国内外相关文件的检索,介绍全球健康理念的起源与发展,并且针对全球健康课程在国内外的设立、改进与发展趋势进行比较,以期为本校建立全球健康相关课程,协助学生深入的认识全球健康的挑战与机遇。     

Challenges and issues facing the future of nursing education: implications for ethnic minority faculty and students

Current trends in higher education in the United States demand that nursing take stock of how it is prepared or being prepared to face challenges and issues impacting on its future. The intense effort made to attract students to pursue advanced training in science and engineering in the United States pales in comparison to the numbers of science and engineering majors produced yearly in international schools. As a result, more and more jobs are being outsourced to international markets. Could international outsourcing become a method of nursing education? Authors submit that to remain competitive, the nursing profession must attract a younger cohort of technologically savvy students and faculty reflective of the growing diverse population in the United States. Additionally, nursing programs in research universities face even more daunting challenges as it relates to mandates for funded research programs of educational units. This article offers suggestions and recommendations for nursing programs in higher education institutions on ways to attract and retain ethnic minorities and of how to harness the power of research to address burgeoning societal health challenges.     

Nursing's epistemology revisited in relation to professional education competencies.

As nursing continues to debate entry-into-practice issues, it is important to re-examine patterns of knowing as well as their end products for the discipline in relation to the overall competencies of liberal and professional education. The changing landscape of society, along with the needed skills to provide comprehensive care that promotes the health and well-being of the people nursing serves, requires a close examination of what institutions of higher education can provide the discipline of nursing. A discussion of the epistemology of the nursing profession, needed competencies, and the goals of higher education are presented in this article. Patterns of knowing distinguish disciplines from one another. Nursing patterns of knowing and subsequent clinical, conceptual, and empirical knowledge require placement in institutions of higher learning that promotes both professional competencies and attitudes.     

Planning and implementing a practice/academic partnership during COVID-19

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, nursing programs were challenged to continue educating students at practice sites, and educational institutions limited or eliminated face-to-face education. The purpose of this article is to report on a university and community college nursing program and an academic medical center that implemented an academic-practice partnership with the goal of creating opportunities to continue clinical experiences for nursing students during the pandemic. Principles and implementation of this successful partnership provide direction for other nursing programs and practice settings that may continue to have challenges in returning students to clinical and keeping them in clinical as the pandemic continues.     

Collaborative nursing education programs: challenges and issues

Collaborative nursing education programs have been offered to facilitate access to baccalaureate-level nursing education. Our Collaborative Nursing Program involved 10 institutional partners and has been one of the largest of such programs. The collaborative approach to nursing education has been identified as an important model; the benefits include optimal use of resources and opportunities to develop and share knowledge across institutions. However, there has been little public discussion of the issues and challenges that emerge, including differing cultures, priorities, vulnerabilities, goals and aspirations between colleges and universities; desire to preserve autonomy and uniqueness; and complexity of approval and accreditation processes. Some of our college partners have chosen to offer an independent applied degree in nursing rather than continuing in a collaborative academic degree program. This paper describes the challenges inherent in maintaining quality of the degrees and strategies to increase the likelihood of continuing collaboration. Clarity and transparency are vital, and supportive programs involving mentorship of educators can foster increasing autonomy of colleges. Collaborative nursing programs pose many challenges, and their future will hinge on understanding mutual goals and expectations.     

An update on the Regents External Degree Program

Many new pathways to learning are being developed as nursing and higher education respond to current societal conditions. Cooperation between education and service is now more important and more possible than ever. The Regents College Nursing Program, while continuing to serve the needs of individual nurses, also has an increasing commitment to develop interinstitutional partnerships designed to plan and implement learning options for other capable and motivated students. Its three-part strategy is deliberately inclusive. It is based on the belief that those already in nursing should be encouraged and helped to achieve their full potential. The process of learning is focused, but flexible; the required outcomes and methods of documentation are specifically prescribed. Opportunity, collaboration and competence are the cornerstones of this interinstitutional approach. Generic nursing programs at the undergraduate and graduate level are essential; but so are innovative adult-oriented BSN and MSN programs that capitalize on the experience and motivation of those already in the discipline of nursing. Many colleges and service agencies already have demonstrated their interest in forming partnerships for the mutual benefit of nursing students and institutions. The incorporation of assessment methods, such as those developed by Regents College, enhances individual learning options, the attainment of required competencies, and the professionalization of nursing.     

Snakes and ladders: the immediate future of nurse education?

This paper considers the recent increase in proposals to merge colleges of nursing and midwifery with higher education institutions. It reviews the differing natures of proposed mergers. It considers some major challenges posed by such mergers: the academic, the cultural, the professional, personal and identity, and the epistomological. It reflects on some ways in which these challenges might be met by the application of management theory, and enlightened practice. It concludes by suggesting that the opportunities afforded colleges by individual mergers are so divergent as to risk fragmenting nurse education within the higher education sector, rather than uniting it into a coherent whole, and compromising the development of nursing, midwifery and health visiting as learned practice professions.     

Individual and institutional characteristics associated with short tenures of deanships in academic nursing

BackgroundThe departures of chief academic administrators of nursing programs within a short tenure are likely to affect the operation of their institutions significantly.PurposeTo help nursing schools improve recruitment and retention of chief academic administrators.MethodsWe obtained deans' records from the membership database of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) for 11 starting cohorts between 2001 and 2011 and matched the data with dean data collected in the AACN Annual Survey to retrieve additional information on individual and institutional characteristics. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to examine the association between a characteristic and short tenures (less than 5 years).FindingsWe found that 41% of deanships have short tenures, and the figure increased from earlier cohorts to later cohorts in general. We did not find that first-time deans were more likely to experience a short tenure. However, we found in bivariate analyses that deans in newly created nursing programs have a higher likelihood of leaving deanships in less than 5 years. We also found in bivariate and multivariate analyses that an individual characteristic, age 60 or older, and three institutional attributes, deans with a title as Chair, Director, or Department Head, deans in nursing schools without a tenure system, and deans in baccalaureate or associate degree granting institutions are more likely to have a short tenure. In brief, our findings show that deans in smaller nursing programs are more likely than deans in larger nursing programs to experience a short tenureDiscussionOur findings that deans in smaller programs and newly created programs are more likely to experience early attrition provide useful information to the nursing education community so more focused efforts can be made to improve the retention of chief academic administrators in nursing programs.     

Academic integrity in nursing education: Policy review

BackgroundAcademic integrity is a matter of concern in nursing education. While cases of academic dishonesty are not public record, policies used to promote integrity in nursing education programs are widely available. A review of integrity policies in nursing programs explores common grounds in practices to promote integrity.MethodIntegrity policies were collected from leading United States nursing programs. Using publicly posted academic integrity statements identified through internet search engines, policies were reviewed to identify common approaches.ResultsNursing programs articulate a variety of approaches to academic integrity. Most programs display honor codes, although requirements for student affirmation vary. Hearings are required for all accusations in only a handful of institutions. A majority of the policies include formal references to nursing values and integrity standards.ConclusionThe academic integrity policies of nursing programs are shaped by systemic features of host institutions. An exploration of the range in approaches provides insights to faculty and administrators who provide ongoing leadership in policy development. The exploration provides an opportunity to pose probing questions as they shape approaches to preserve and promote integrity in nursing students and graduates.     

The scholars' nursery

There has never been a more critical time for the development of cadres of younger, better-prepared nurse researchers. The following 3 current factors underscore this need: the current and prolonged nursing shortage that affects practice, research, and teaching; the increased emphasis on health promotion, disease prevention, and reduction in health disparities as articulated in Healthy People 2010; and the renewed effort to advance the image of nursing as an intellectual as well as compassionate enterprise. There are a limited number of institutions equipped to prepare these nurse scholars with undergraduate and graduate education and postdoctoral training in an accelerated manner, to provide mentoring throughout their education by funded faculty researchers, and to protect the focus of this career preparation and trajectory. Schools of nursing that have baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral programs and are highly ranked with respect to their National Institutes of Health funding have the opportunity and responsibility to create accelerated research-intensive tracks that link the baccalaureate through doctoral programs and move the graduates to postdoctoral training. These schools of nursing will have to identify which students to recruit and how the development of the research-intensive track will modify their schools' curricula and the institutions themselves. The profession will have to identify and create the environment that sanctions the legitimacy of scholars prepared in this way.     

Interprovincial partnership in nursing education

The Canadian Nurses Association endorsed the position that baccalaureate education is essential to practise nursing. Provincial adoption of this position began efforts to increase seats in baccalaureate programs as early as the late 1980s. These efforts have generated many different models of collaborative baccalaureate nursing programs in Canada. One model, the UNB-Humber Collaborative Nursing Program, began to offer nursing courses in the fall of 2001. As UNB already offered its basic baccalaureate program in four New Brunswick sites and Humber College had well-established nursing diploma and continuing education programs, a partnership approach to nursing education seemed beneficial to both institutions. This article describes, from the perspective of one faculty member in Ontario and one in New Brunswick, how the development and implementation of this collaborative program and its curriculum were guided by a similar philosophy. The authors describe how the curriculum values of primary health care, social justice and caring influenced their relationships in the program development process. They also discuss strategies the partnership has used for developing the curriculum collaboratively, ensuring similarity of courses across sites, addressing academic freedom and sharing and learning together.