Wonder, Awe, and Imagination in Nursing Professional Practice Education

Education for nursing entered universities based on the assumption that the complexity of nursing practice required an education beyond apprenticeship-style training focused mostly, if not wholly, on technical knowledge and skills. Although there were calls for academic education as early as 1932, this shift as an entry-to-practice did not happen in Canada until the early 2000s. In the intervening years, the argument for a liberal-arts education defined the expectations for academic nursing leadership, the institutions that provide BSN education, and nurse educators. The value of both science and the humanities was clear. Over the past decades, economic and ideological positions have generated doubts about this clarity and re-ignited resistance to a liberal arts and humanities education. These reservations have eroded the foundations for nurses' academic education. In contrast to the call for humanities-informed nursing, academic nurse leaders are enticed to shift the focus from educating for human flourishing to producing market-ready graduates. As part of a multi-method study on educating nursing students for dispositions deemed important for safe, competent, and ethical nursing practice, we have engaged in philosophical enquiry. In this study, we are extending the work of Derek Sellman, who draws from Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue, to develop an account of what makes a good nurse. Here we compare the MacIntyrean approach with that of Kristján Kristjánsson, an educationalist whose work has informed research related to character education for the professions. For Kristjánsson, wonder, awe, and epiphanies are crucial parts of this approach, particularly in relation to enchanted human flourishing. In this article, we pose the following question and formulate a preliminary answer: Is the integration of Kristjánsson's view into nursing education complementary to Sellman and not only possible, but promising, for nursing in the twenty-first century?