Factors confounding the development of innovative roles and practices

Nurse educators are critically examining current educational practices and considering new paradigms for curriculum, teaching and learning. At the same time, society's health and nursing needs are changing and the knowledge, skills and values which form the substance of the curriculum must also be reformulated. The result, at every level of nursing education, is the development, in whole or in part, of many new and different programs. Teachers are expected to teach differently; students to learn differently, and graduates to practice differently. This article, using data collected from a 4-year evaluation of an innovative nursing education program in Canada, urges nurse educators to be cautious as they engage in program and curriculum development and revision. Using student narrative data, it focuses on a number of factors which can complicate and confound faculty and curriculum intentions to develop innovative teacher, learner and nurse roles and practices.