Evidencing Enquiry Based Learning: An Innovative Approach to Educating Children and Young People's Nursing Students

This discussion paper gives an overview of an innovative online distance learning pre-registration BSc (Hons) Children and Young People's nursing program underpinned by Enquiry-Based Learning pedagogy. Whilst the program is delivered to all four fields of practice (Adult, Children and Young People, Learning Disability, and Mental Health), in all four nations of the UK (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland), the focus here is Children and Young People's nursing. Nurse education programs are delivered in accordance with the Standards for Nurse Education developed by the professional nursing body in the UK. This online distance learning curriculum uses a life-course perspective for all fields of nursing. Students develop the general knowledge and skills to care for all people across the life course but as the program progresses, they learn how to care for people within their own field of practice in greater depth. The educational context of the Children and Young People's nursing program highlights that the use of Enquiry-Based Learning can help address some of the challenges faced by Children and Young People's nursing students. A critical evaluation of Enquiry-Based Learning and its use within the curriculum concludes that Enquiry-Based Learning provides Children and Young People's nursing students with the graduate attributes of being able to communicate with infants, children, young people, and their families, adopt critical thinking to clinical settings and have an ability to find, generate, or synthesize their own knowledge in order to lead and manage evidence-based quality care for infants, children, young people, and their families in a variety of care settings and within interprofessional teams.