Breaking through the hegemony of homogeneity: revitalizing curriculum and students

Undergraduate programs provide fertile ground from which future practitioners, researchers, and teachers of psychiatric mental health nursing will emerge. Health care has changed dramatically, offering opportunities for new and innovative roles and prompting faculty to develop novel ways of thinking about the future role of psychiatric nurses. Nursing faculty are challenged to devise new and creative approaches to teaching psychiatric nursing at the undergraduate level in ways that will instill enthusiasm for the field. In this article, the efforts of the University of Pennsylvania to approach psychiatric mental health courses in new ways will be described. These innovations are designed to stimulate passion for what the authors see as a complex and exciting field that requires revitalization.