Teaching family nursing: strategies and experiences

The traditional hospital-based approach to Australian nurse education curricula was primarily based on the medical model and directed towards the preparation of nurses who were able to give care to individual clients. The major focus was on the needs of the individual. A notable absence in curricula was any consideration of the role or importance of families to individual and family health. This was despite the continuing involvement that nurses have in their practice with the families of their clients. This paper describes the experiences of introducing a family nursing subject in an undergraduate, preregistration nursing programme which focuses on the family as a unit of care. Educational strategies, clinical experiences, and evaluation of the unit of study are discussed.