Meeting the challenge of the curriculum revolution: problem-based learning in nursing education

Nursing education today faces a great challenge as it reviews the outcomes of traditional teaching strategies and seeks to explore new alternatives in preparing the nursing student for the complex and diverse profession of nursing. Problem-based learning is one alternative to meeting the needs of a society with health requirements as diverse as its population. Nurses must be capable of exploring options, asking questions, articulating explanations, and developing appropriate nursing care plans based on reflective decisions. They must continue to value learning throughout their careers to maintain their expertise. The role of the educator today is to probe student thinking toward conceptual understanding, to increase depth of subject knowledge, to provide student learning opportunities, and, by encouraging the articulation and contrasting of different points of view, to allow the emergence of common understandings. A problem-based curriculum can provide the framework for the revolution in nursing education to occur.