Power and vested interests--tacit influences on the construction of nursing curricula?

Educational reform and the introduction of Project 2000 has presented an opportunity to construct broader curricula with the intention of educating adaptive, critical practitioners who are able to deliver holistic patient care. Evidence within nursing literature, and from a small-scale descriptive research study (N = 38), suggests that there is a lack of consensus about how knowledge from various cognate disciplines should be emphasised and structured within nursing curricula. Findings from the research study suggest that the emphasis placed on different cognate disciplines within nursing curricula may reflect individuals' vested interests and power. A conceptual framework based upon the sociology of knowledge, and conflicts and tensions between groups within a profession, is presented as a construct which lends support to this suggestion. It is hoped that this paper will stimulate reflection and critical debate about how knowledge from a variety of cognate disciplines is selected and emphasised in the construction of nursing curricula.