Creative nursing: processive care and more?

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Curriculum Development
• Healthcare Professional Training

Background:

• Final year nursing students at the University of Cape Town exhibited excellent personal qualities not translated into professional hospital practice.
• The existing Bachelor of Science (Nursing) curriculum was found to neglect students' innate abilities like common sense, logic, and life experience.
• Early exposure to hospital wards as the primary clinical learning area disconnects nursing students from the realities of daily living and individualized patient care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To critically evaluate and radically revise the BSc (Nursing) curriculum at the University of Cape Town.
• To address the disconnect between nurses' personal attributes and their application in professional practice.
• To propose an innovative educational model that integrates real-world experiences into nursing training.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of final year nursing students' practical application of personal qualities in clinical settings.
• Review of the existing nursing curriculum's educational approach and its impact on student learning.
• Development and initial implementation of an experimental, staged learning curriculum.

Main Results:

• The current curriculum fails to leverage students' inherent strengths and life experiences.
• Hospital wards as initial clinical sites lead to a detachment from holistic patient care.
• A staged learning approach, starting with community-based care, is proposed as a more effective model.
• The traditional nursing process may stifle creativity, suggesting a need for its further development.

Conclusions:

• A radical curriculum revision is necessary to bridge the gap between personal qualities and professional nursing practice.
• Integrating real-world experiences and community-based learning prior to hospital exposure is crucial for holistic nursing education.
• Rethinking the nursing process is essential for fostering creativity and advancing nursing science as an art.