Discursive influences on clinical teaching in Australian undergraduate nursing programs

Clinical teaching is a vital, yet multidimensional component of Australian undergraduate nursing courses. Unlike other parts of curricula, clinical teaching relies on the both higher education and health care sectors to meet prescribed goals and for effective student learning to occur. As such it is influenced by discourses from within both education and health. Whilst there is considerable literature related to undergraduate nursing clinical teaching; it mainly deals with practical aspects such as effectiveness of clinical teaching or discussions of models employed. Only a small pool of literature exists that discusses the construction of clinical teaching including the factors that have influenced the development of practices both in the past and present. Using the work of Foucault, this paper examines dominant and competing discourses influencing clinical teaching through their constructions within the literature. These are discourses of academia, nursing, and economics. The discussion situates these discourses and discusses how some of the resultant issues surrounding clinical education remain largely unresolved.