Nursing Education as a Discipline
Nursing As A Discipline
For
nursing education, it is important to conceptualize nursing as a discipline. We
will first examine the idea of disciplines as originally articulated by King
and Brownell (1976). We will then discuss nursing as a learned profession, a
discipline that has direct and immediate practical relevance, and relate this
idea to nursing education. The question of what to teach must be examined as a
preliminary to the questions of teaching and facilitating learning.
Characteristics Of The Disciplines
Classical
educational theorists King and Brownell (1976) developed a set of descriptive
features of the disciplines as a basis for their treatment of curriculum
issues. These characteristics should be general descriptors for all
disciplines:
•
Academic Community
•
Focused on a unique social need
•
Specialized network
•
Specific knowledge and skills
•
Contains a value system
•
Has an established teaching community
The
key to the nature and uniqueness of each discipline is the unique approach and
perspective it takes on human issues. By every discipline it is revealed that
what is meanings to be in the world and to be alive. See Parker (2006) for a
description of these traits and their importance in nursing.
The most basic of these characteristics is that a discipline addresses a single explicit social need. This tells us that each discipline offers a unique perspective on human affairs, and indeed each discipline is unique. King and Brownell (1976) described disciplines as communities of scholars who willingly collaborate around a single, focused social need or concern. A discipline creates and imaginatively uses specialized networks, methods and materials designed to produce and deploy specific knowledge and skills in response to that specific and unique concern.
A discipline has a value system and is organized as a teaching community. New disciplines emerge in two ways. One way for a discipline to develop is for a critical mass of members of an existing discipline to adopt a more focused perspective: a new discipline, such as the practical discipline of physical therapy, may emerge. This discipline rose when knowledge of anatomy, physiology and physics were used in a developed science and practice focused on the prevention and cure of physical health disorders.
Such a new discipline would be created from a range of research, science and theory, and new or unique contributions related to society, distinct from those to existing disciplines. The second way in which a discipline develops is through the intersection of two or more disciplines. In this way, a new discipline can emerge whose approach builds on specialized aspects of several parent disciplines. A discipline like biochemistry is an example of a new discipline that emerged from the extension of biology and chemistry.
The same
processes can produce sub-disciplines and specializations within a discipline,
i . H. smaller specialized focus interests that maintain a clear connection to
the focus of the broader discipline, such as athletics. These discipline
development processes have contributed to the expansion of formal nursing
knowledge and practice while clarifying the core focus of the nursing
discipline and service. These processes have also led to specialization within
the discipline of nursing practice.
The Nature of Nursing Discipline as Practiced,
As Educational Profession
Nursing practice is both a source and a goal of nursing knowledge. Nursing science, research, theories, and education are based on the practice of the nursing discipline. The selection and development of effective methods of nursing education are based on the understanding that nursing content encompasses the goals and methods of nursing practice and the integral connections of the practice with various knowledge related to the practice.
Using a nursing practice situation is a teaching method that builds on the expert knowledge of the teacher and encourages creative and reflective learning. Studying the complexity and beauty of nursing practice gives substance and meaning to the idea of a practiced discipline, a learned profession. Nursing as a practiced discipline and learned profession has a unique focus on what it means to be human.
Nursing is a discipline that is often grouped with multiple disciplines categorized as human service or health-related disciplines such as social work, medicine, and physical therapy. The interests and responsibilities of nursing as a discrete discipline within a group of disciplines are necessarily different from those of other related disciplines, although linked to them. Social work, medicine, physiotherapy and nursing, for example, are linked by their concern for the health and well-being of people through health promotion and disease prevention practices.
If there were not a single body of knowledge built from a nursing perspective and contributing to a broader knowledge base, there would be no need for a discipline called nursing among the disciplines of health and human services. Without a single body of nursing knowledge, there is no basis to claim a single service or practice. In other words, it is nursing's unique knowledge base that warrants a unique service or practice called professional nursing.
Another link in this logical sequence brings us to the primary goal of nursing education and thus to the central principle for curriculum design, whether at the program or individual lesson level.This purpose is to support individuals who wish to enter the professional role of nursing to develop knowledge and understanding of nursing as a basis for designing, providing and evaluating nursing.
Nursing faculty can better facilitate learning by applying a strong understanding of nursing discipline and practice to every learning experience, while being open to and encouraging new ways of thinking, knowing, and working in nursing. This discussion clarifies the principle that the selection and use of teaching methods for nursing education should be tailored to the unique focus and purpose of the nursing discipline. In education, it is a generally accepted principle that instruction is tailored to the content and to the learner.
Combining these three ideas (discipline, content, learner) helps us understand that any teaching method used to train nursing must be consistent with the uniqueness of the nursing discipline and that nursing students need educational strategies that maximize nursing development. values, knowledge and skills that make up nursing knowledge.
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