A synthesis of caring praxis and critical social theory in an emancipatory curriculum

As several schools of nursing in New Zealand are accepting the challenge to prepare nurses better in order to meet changing health care needs, one lecturer discusses the design and implementation of a new degree curriculum at Manawatu Polytechnic. The author has drawn from educational, nursing and feminist literature to provide a background for the central concepts in order to explain their role in the development of the curriculum. It is contended that the caring imperative is central in all student-educator-clinician relationships when the purpose of the curriculum is to emancipate students to become nurses who care for individuals, families and communities in a transformative way. The transformative teacher is also aware of the power of open and regular dialogue when teaching caring within a critical social paradigm, and has a responsibility to ensure students understand the mandate for social action. It is through such consciousness-raising that nurses are empowered to both provide the best possible nursing care, and become agents of social change through an overhauled health care system.