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Published on: June 21, 2010
Disciplinary knowledge in nursing education: going beyond the blueprints.
Marlaine Smith1, M Patrice McCarthy
1Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA.
Nursing Outlook
|February 2, 2010
Summary
Formative documents from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) insufficiently emphasize nursing
Area of Science:
- Nursing Education
- Curriculum Development
- Disciplinary Knowledge
Background:
- Recent formative documents from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) guide nursing curricula.
- These documents are crucial for preparing nurses at baccalaureate and graduate levels.
- There is an ongoing discussion regarding the core disciplinary knowledge of nursing.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze the extent to which nursing's disciplinary knowledge is represented in current AACN formative documents.
- To propose strategies for enhancing the focus on nursing as a discipline within educational programs.
Main Methods:
- Overview of nursing education in the United States.
- Summary of the literature on the focus of the nursing discipline.
- Analysis of AACN formative documents against the discourse on nursing's disciplinary knowledge.
Main Results:
- The analysis revealed an insufficient emphasis on nursing's core disciplinary knowledge within the AACN formative documents.
- Current documents may not adequately prepare nurses with a deep understanding of nursing philosophies, theories, research, and practice models.
Conclusions:
- Faculty should supplement existing AACN documents to ensure a robust grounding in nursing's disciplinary knowledge.
- Strengthening the focus on the discipline is essential for educating generalist, advanced generalist, and advanced specialty nurses.
- A deeper integration of nursing philosophies, theories, research, and practice models is recommended.
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