Transforming Nursing Education: A Partnership Social System for Alignment with Philosophies of Care
It has been made clear by nurse educators and theorists such as Bevis (1989), Benner, Tanner, and Chesla (1996), and Bevis and Watson (2000) that a movement away from the traditional, behavioral, medical-model of lecture and behaviorism as the main modalities for teaching and learning in nursing is essential. Why is it then that nursing education by and large is still taught via lecture and behavioralist methodologies (Bevis & Watson, 2000), despite the proliferation of research related to innovations in nursing education? This paper examines the parallel between the prevailing Western dominator social system or paradigm, masculine values/ traits, and the established behavioralist-medical methodology of teaching nursing. How nursing education in general has been influenced by the dominator social system is discussed and an argument for why nurse educators might consider working towards more effective means of closing the gap between caring-humanistic nursing philosophies and actual educational practices presented.