Balancing the curriculum: promoting aesthetic knowledge in nursing

The undergraduate nursing students' experience and perceptions of aesthetics education: A qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Nursing's dual identity as an art and a science requires a balance within the curriculum. Aesthetics in nursing education, in the form of a course, a program, or an activity, is helpful to empower future nurses with aesthetic knowledge and competence in caring for patients in an artistic and humanistic way. However, the integration of aesthetics into nursing curricula remains underexplored.

AIM

To describe the undergraduate nursing students' experience and perspectives of aesthetics education, as a reference to the potential benefits and challenges of nursing aesthetics education.

DESIGN

Descriptive phenomenology qualitative approach.

METHODS

Purposive and snowball sampling were used to recruit participants from different provinces in China from July to August 2023. Data were collected through online individual interviews with 16 participants. Data were analyzed using the Colaizzi method.

RESULTS

Three themes and 12 subthemes were extracted. The themes were Growth through internalizing values and externalizing actions, unique connotations of nursing aesthetics, and expectations and suggestions for nursing aesthetic education.

CONCLUSIONS

The students had a deep understanding of aesthetics' role in nursing practice and profoundly improved their personalities, professional competence, and commitment through aesthetics education.

Preserving Creativity in Nurse Education

In this column on the humanbecoming teaching-learning model, the author explores creativity in nurse education as an alternative to routinized learning strategies. There is an explanation of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Essentials, domains, competencies, subcompetencies, concepts, and spheres of care, followed by an explanation of competency-based education. These topics are contrasted with the humanbecoming paradigm and the humanbecoming teaching-learning model. Infusing artforms in teaching-learning nursing is proposed as a way to preserve creativity. An assignment with first-semester pre-licensure students is explained and exemplars are provided to demonstrate the preservation of creativity while teaching-learning nurse students.

Clarifying the concept of the four-season symphony (I SEA) in nursing practice: A Wilson's approach to concept analysis

Acquired knowledge provides one with intuitive rationality as a means of achieving a goal. Spiritual, ethical and esthetic competencies are also required for acquiring intuitive rationality. Nurses pay less attention to intuitive rationality, think only with their brain rather than observe with their heart and therefore deprive themselves of proper, immediate and comprehensive cognition of their environment. An initiative to harmonize sensory receptors in charge of thinking, speaking, and acting in nurses is required for establishing a symphonic intellectual, spiritual, ethical, and aesthetic (I SEA) nursing practice. The present research was conducted to clarify the concept of four-season symphony of I SEA in nursing practice. The present study was conducted by employing Wilson's method of concept analysis and searching databases including Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, Scopus, PubMed, SID, and Magiran using symphony, rationality, intellectuality, spirituality, ethics, aesthetic, and nursing practice as keywords. According to the integrated concept of the four-season symphony in nursing care, nursing practice refers to performing the symphonic action of four seasons of I SEA in orderly and smart thinking, speaking and acting in looking, listening, speaking, heartfelt sympathy and using the hands for caregiving and steps for accompanying patients. This symphony provides an opportunity for the emergence of perfect nurses of four seasons and helps with individual and organizational symphonic improvements in nursing care and nurses. According to this perspective, nurses should always ask themselves whether their thought, speech, and action are intellectual, spiritual, ethical and aesthetic.

Concept analysis of the Four-Season-Symphony of Intellectuality-Spirituality-Ethics-Esthetics (FSS: I SEA) in nursing research

BACKGROUND

The Four-Season-Symphony of intellectuality, spirituality, ethics, and esthetics (FSS: I SEA) in nursing research is a new concept that has not been addressed in previous nursing theories and studies.

AIM

This study was conducted to clarify the concept of the FSS: I SEA in nursing research.

DESIGN

Wilson's method of concept analysis was used.

DATA SOURCE

Empirical and conceptual literature.

REVIEW METHOD

This study has been conducted based on Wilson's 11-step approach by searching keywords with Symphony, Rationality, Intellectuality, Spirituality, Ethics, Esthetics, and Nursing research in databases including Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, Sid, Oxford Dictionary, Dehkhoda Dictionary, and nursing theory textbook.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

Richness and elegance of the symphony in nursing research cannot be achieved by a single-tool benchmark; rather, a more integrated assessment can be achieved with the use of a tool combining different intellectuality, spirituality, ethics, and esthetics tools. This symphony contains a philosophical and deep understanding of the meanings of researcher, research problem, research process, and symphonic product. Through identifying the facilitators and barriers of this concept, nursing researchers, professors, and practitioners will be able to design and implement their research activities on FSS basis to pave the way for the continued transcendence of comprehensive nursing care.

Bringing a novel to practice: An interpretive study of reading a novel in an undergraduate nursing practicum course

Novels are one humanities resource available to educators in health disciplines to support student reflection on their own professional practice and therapeutic relationships with patients. An interdisciplinary team, including nurses, a physician, and an English instructor, carried out an interpretive study of the use of a novel by clinical nursing instructors in an undergraduate practicum course. Students placed in assisted living or long term care facilities for the elderly were expected to read a contemporary work, Exit Lines, by Joan Barfoot, which is set in a comparable facility. The objective was to increase understanding of the meanings that participants ascribed to the novel reading exercise in relation to their development as student nurses. By using a hermeneutic approach, we used dialogue throughout the study to elicit perspectives among participants and the interdisciplinary research team. Major themes that emerged included the students' tacit awareness of epistemological plurality in nursing, and the consequent importance of cultivating a capacity to move thoughtfully between different points of view and ways of knowing.

Nursing Care Aesthetic in Iran: A Phenomenological Study

Background:

Despite the emphasis of contemporary nursing theories on the belief that nursing is a science and an art in care, published studies show that only the nursing science has developed. Many experts believe that by recognizing and perceiving this concept, the clinical field can develop aesthetic knowledge in nursing and education of students.

Objectives:

The purpose of this study was to explain clients and nurses perspective of nursing care aesthetics.

Patients and Methods:

Using an interpretive phenomenology, 12 clients and 14 nurses were interviewed. Participants in this study were purposefully selected and their experiences were analyzed using Van Manen’s hermeneutic phenomenological framework.

Results:

Emerged themes were as follows: subjective description, overt spirituality, opening desperate impasse, sense of unity, continue to shine, and painful pass and pleasing. According the participants experiences, nursing care aesthetics includes subjective description of spiritual and desirable caring behaviors combined with sense of unity and sympathy between the nurse and the patients, which leads to opening in desperate impasse with creating the feeling of satisfaction and peace in the patient. It is a shining of clinical capabilities and an action beyond what should be combined with a decorating care that leads to a pleasant ending against the pain and suffering of the others for the nurse.

Conclusions:

Many caring behaviors associate with aesthetic experience for both patients and nurses and despite two different views, findings of this study showed that these experiences were similar in most cases. The aesthetics of nursing care was defined as what reflects the holistic nature of nursing with an emphasis on spirituality and skill. Results of this study are effective in identification of the values existed in nurse caring behaviors and developing of profession by instruction, implementation, and evaluation them.

Exploration of artistry in nursing teaching activities

BACKGROUND

By promoting hope and providing care to patients, nurses serve as both artists and professionals in clinical contexts. However, current nursing education mainly emphasises the teaching of medical knowledge and skills.

AIM

The aim of this study is to explore the perspectives of year one nursing undergraduates on the definitions of artistry and the relationship of artistry with the sciences and nursing care.

DESIGN

A qualitative approach with content analysis was adopted in this study.

METHODS

Seventeen students from a nursing problem-based learning (PBL) class participated in three artistic activities, namely composing songs, writing poems, and drawing, and in two rounds of interviews. Content analysis and peer checking was implemented to ensure that the generated results were trustworthy.

RESULTS

According to the participants, it is probable that the artistic activities encouraged them to relate the arts to their daily lives. Some participants stated that they would like to show their consideration for patients through the arts.

CONCLUSIONS

Although there was no consensus among the participants on the relation between artistry and the sciences/nursing, most of the students gained a better understanding of artistry and some were able to link nursing care with artistry. Nursing educators are encouraged to think beyond the boundaries of traditional teaching approaches and nurture their students with the artistry of clinical practice.

The practice competency gap: challenges that impede the introduction of national core competencies

This paper reports the findings from a study commissioned by the English National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting (ENB), entitled Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Educational Preparation for Critical Care Nursing. One aim of the study was to generate evidence that incorporated the national perspective on the priorities for core competencies and a national threshold standard of the ENB critical care clinical awards. Although these courses are no longer validated by the professional statutory body, the findings illuminate some key insights into the current challenges facing providers and consumers of critical care education as well as into implications for all post-registration education provision. The paper outlines how the study data were collected, how the core competendes were generated and the national consultation exercise and the levers and barriers that affect the introduction of core competencies. Other aspects of the study data are reported elsewhere (Scholes and Endacott, 2002).

A introdução das artes nos currículos médicos

A capacitação profissional apropriada no campo da infecção pelo HIV/Aids prevê que tratamento e cuidados sejam oferecidos de maneira adequada, ética e humanizada. A preocupação com esta capacitação tem acentuado a discussão sobre como a formação médica pode integrar a aquisição de excelência técnica e traços humanistas. Assim, a Educação Médica passa a incorporar o desafio de adequar-se, para providenciar aos médicos, produtos finais de seus currículos, uma formação humanista e humanizadora. As Humanidades, em específico as Artes, são disciplinas que classicamente cumprem esta função. Postula-se e discute-se que elas sejam introduzidas nos currículos médicos, seja pelo seu valor intrínseco, fonte de experiência estética e conhecimento, seja para facilitar a execução de objetivos mais amplos dentro desses currículos.

Ambiguous opportunity: toiling for truth of nursing art and science

This article questions traditional boundaries between nursing art and nursing science and explores how nurses build knowledge and truth. A brief overview of familiar notions about nursing art is followed by questions that are meant to deepen understanding about nursing and the knowledge required for a discipline. Authors describe understanding as an event that heralds human creation of meaning and potential action. Art is then shown to be a way to enhance understanding and meaningful knowledge when woven with nursing theory to guide practice. Findings from Parse's research method are described as artistic expressions, and borders that have served to separate notions about nursing art and science are challenged. The hermeneutics of human becoming are presented as beacons for truth and understanding. Authors call for tolerance of ambiguity and openness to support dialogue and discovery.

Evaluating student learning: an Australian case study

Determining the quality of student learning is an ongoing challenge to all educators. However, for educators and students in the health professions, evaluation of learning takes on a different dimension in terms of ensuring that graduates are competent, and thus safe, practitioners. This paper outlines the processes and methods by which student learning has been evaluated throughout a 22-year period at a large school of nursing in a Australian university. First, a historical overview of the major methods used demonstrates how relevant educational theories and sociopolitical forces and movements have influenced the whole curriculum including evaluation methods. Second, examples of current evaluation methods for undergraduate clinical and theoretical units are described. Reflections about past successes and future challenges conclude the paper.

The commonality and synchronicity of mental health nurses and palliative care nurses: closer than you think? Part two

This is the second of a two-part paper which explores the areas of commonality and synchronicity between palliative care (PC) nurses and mental health nurses. The authors argue that this commonality is best articulated under the headings: defining the needs of the client group, the role of the nurse in non-physical care, the nurse--client relationship, and the locus of control. They also argue that the differences between these groups of nurses are best articulated under the headings: facilitation/confrontation and the focus on physical care. Part one focused on the first three areas of commonality, whereas this paper focuses on the fourth commonality, the locus of control. It also focuses on key differences and the implications of such similarity. The paper highlights the practice, education and research implications of this alleged commonality. It suggests, given the evidence that clients perceive the therapeutic relationship as the vital and unique aspect of PC nursing, that those working within palliative care need to question whether or not RGN registration is an essential requirement, or whether those with other skills, such as psychiatric/mental health (P/MH) nurses, should be considered for such roles. It highlights the need for the provision of post-basic counselling courses and the potential value for PC nurses of receiving clinical supervision from P/MH nurses or mental health liaison nurses. Lastly, it posits that the research issues arising out of this alleged commonality centre on the potential impact such transitions in care delivery may have on the care delivered, on the nurses themselves and on the clients.

A formula for diversity: a review of critical care curricula

This paper is based on a documentary analysis and literature review of critical care nursing commissioned by the English National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting. Five critical care programmes were included in the analysis: ENB 100, 124, 199, 176/183, and 415. In total, 105 curricula were reviewed from 30 institutions. Data were extracted and analysed using an adapted grounded theory approach. The documentary analysis was supplemented by two telephone surveys with lecturers (n = 84) and clinical managers (n = 81). There was great diversity in the programmes in terms of the academic level at which the courses were set, module configuration, approaches to practice assessment and the amount of student effort for the same professional award. Diversity arose because of different university module formulae, different methods to differentiate level 2 and level 3 practice, different views about the purpose of the course, and an attempt to make the programmes increasingly flexible to accommodate a heterogeneous student population. Documentary analysis has its limitations, and although the research team were able to check out issues with lecturers throughout the analysis, they were unable to capture the lived experience of the curriculum. A second study has been commissioned by the ENB to explore how these issues influence practice.

Student Voice in Curriculum Making

Undergraduate student nurses (n = 117) were asked to reflect critically on their psychiatric clinical learning experience and identify strengths and weaknesses not only in the actions and behaviors of others, but also in their own. A questionnaire was specifically constructed to encourage the voicing of issues, concerns, actions, and behaviors that centered around the concept of quality in relation to four predetermined categories: clinical practice, clinical nursing staff, clinical facilitators, and students. Themes, inductively derived from the collected information within each category, were organized into clusters and then into frequency distributions to facilitate interpretation. The study generated information that should be useful in planning and supervising effective and mutually satisfying clinical practicums in any psychiatric context. Moreover, the responses gave voice to matters that otherwise may have gone unrecognized in the curriculum. The study confirms that student voice must become an integral part of the alternatives from which curriculum-making choice is made.

Some important limitations of competency-based education with respect to nurse education: an Australian perspective

Issues concerning competency-based education (CBE) have recently promoted much discussion and debate throughout most developed countries. This paper provides an Australian perspective and adds to the wider debate about CBE by deliberating on the part professional competency standards should play in a university curriculum, specifically the undergraduate nurse education curriculum. A position is developed by addressing the following thesis statement: the competency-based approach to nursing education is an indisputable reality but nursing competencies must not be allowed to control the curriculum. Some background material is briefly reviewed in order to situate CBE, nurse education, and nursing competencies in their Australian economic and sociopolitical context. The position is then explicated through an examination of some intersections between nursing competencies and aspects of undergraduate nurse curriculum making.