Teaching history to nurses: Will this make me a better nurse?

doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2007.09.008

Nurse Education Today

Volume 28, Issue 5, July 2008, Pages 524-529

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2007.09.008 Get rights and content

Summary

Nursing has a long and rich past. Yet this is rarely conveyed to undergraduate nursing students resulting in nurses devaluing the achievements of earlier nurses. It is argued here that studying the history of nursing has a number of benefits for undergraduate students as well as the profession at large. It provides students with a realistic understanding of nursing and what has influenced past developments to bring us to the present situation. As such, it provides students with the context of nursing practice and thus a firm foundation for other nursing courses to build upon. In addition, studying the history of nursing, especially at the beginning of the undergraduate program, builds fundamental critical thinking skills by encouraging students to question the evidence before them and to seek out influencing factors or ‘the bigger picture’. These issues are outlined in this paper, along with factors to consider when teaching the history of nursing to students, including the information presented, what approach to take, teaching strategies and resources.

Introduction

Healthcare in the twenty-first century is complex and fast-paced. Consequently, the curricula of undergraduate programs such as nursing are consistently under pressure to ensure the content adequately prepares healthcare professionals to work in this environment. Over the last few decades of the twentieth century this has meant discipline areas such as history have been displaced by more scientifically or technologically based ones. This paper argues that the history of nursing can form an integral and important component of an undergraduate nursing curriculum, and that studying the history of nursing offers students the opportunity to enhance their understanding of nursing in the twenty-first century as well as develop fundamental skills necessary to be a nurse. This paper will illustrate how this has been accomplished in the Bachelor of Nursing program at Central Queensland University: the principles underpinning the inclusion of history of nursing with the program; and the practicalities of teaching history to nursing students.

Section snippets

What does the history of nursing have to offer students?

There are two very compelling reasons why the history of nursing needs to be included in undergraduate curricula. Firstly, history can provide students with a sense of identity by expanding their historical consciousness and enabling them to see how the past has shaped the present. This can include local as well as international developments within nursing. Secondly, studying history provides an opportunity to develop critical thinking. Each of these reasons will be explored in more detail.

Teaching history to nurses

Unlike most undergraduate healthcare programs, the history of nursing is a compulsory first year course at Central Queensland University. As such, a number of issues need to be considered when endeavouring to teach history to these students. Firstly, the majority has not undertaken history at school, and hence come into the course with little prior understanding or knowledge of the past. Secondly, many students do not immediately recognise the relevance of history to their goal of becoming

Conclusion

D’Antonio (2006) argues the clinical background of nurses influences the types of historical questions nurse historians ask of nursing’s past, as opposed to other historians. This relates not only to researching nursing’s past, but also to teaching the history of nursing to undergraduate students. Nursing practice needs to be at the centre of this teaching: who and what influenced nursing practice and how. Furthermore, the practice of past nurses needs to be valued and understood within the

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Studying the old masters of nursing: A critical student experience for developing nursing identity
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In the past professional identity in nursing was inculcated in students alongside institutional pride. A strong sense of professional identity is key to staff retention and recruitment and key to the delivery of quality nursing care. With the wholesale transfer of pre-registration nursing education to the third level sector, however, the reality is that students now divide their affiliations between university and healthcare institutions and professional identity development may be stymied. For this reason, there is need to explore alternative means of developing professional identity. Exposure to nursing history may counteract this tendency. Based on adult nursing students’ reflections of a visit to the Florence Nightingale Museum, we discuss the potential of this activity in aiding development of critical professional identity.
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Citation Excerpt :
The significance of this research is that it demonstrates the role of nurses and nursing in the development of modern approaches to health and health care, situating nursing practice in its broader historical and social context. However, this research does not often find its way into Western, university based nurse education programmes, despite attempts to develop strategies for its use (Madsen, 2008; McAllister, Madsen, Godden, Greenill, & Reed, 2010). These scholars have identified that there are a number of factors which contribute to the overt sidelining of history in nurse education, namely lack of space in the curriculum, lack of expertise in historical teaching and research, and a perceived lack of relevance to the requirements of clinical practice (Lewenson, 2004; McAllister et al., 2010).
The role of history in developing professional identity in nursing is well known, and the discipline of nursing history research continues to flourish. Yet this work often struggles to find its way into undergraduate university nurse education courses.
We put forward a model for “history as reflective practice” in which we suggest that historical studies can be used as a form of evidence to develop critical thinking and clinical reasoning, as well as situate nursing practice within its social and political context.
In this model, we draw on historical scholarship related to the profession, practice and person, focusing on work which demonstrates nursing's contribution to broader systems of health care.
Drawing on Lewenson and Lynaugh's ‘history by stealth’ approach, curriculum mapping and constructive alignment techniques are used to identify the moments in an existing programme where historical scholarship is relevant to an intended learning outcome. We then use an interdisciplinary team to develop learning activities and assessment tasks drawing on both primary and secondary sources that are then embedded within existing subjects.
This model encourages students to consider history as a way of knowing and as a form of evidence within their reflective practice. Furthermore, it creates knowledge that continues to foster and acknowledge nurses’, and nursing's, contribution to the development of human health.
Why history matters to nursing
2015, Nurse Education Today
This paper proposes that poor knowledge and understanding of the history of nursing particularly in the UK influences the media and public analysis of nursing practice. Comparing reports of current poor practice with a ‘golden age’ of nursing in the past undermines public confidence in today's nursing and nurse education and has the potential to lead to simplistic and flawed policy decisions in response. The lack of detailed knowledge of past nursing practice, experience and values suggests the need for more historical research in this field. A greater critical understanding of nursing history could strengthen and enrich nursing identity and further develop critical thinking skills in nursing students.
An integrative review of the literature on the teaching of the history of nursing in pre-registration adult nursing education in the UK
2015, Nurse Education Today
Citation Excerpt :
Madsen (2008) advocated the use of a blended learning approach with online and face-to-face tutorials. Madsen (2008) recommended the use of a set of reading lists linked to set activities. A number of authors proposed a skills-based approach to teaching history, with the use of primary sources to engage students in historical thinking such as the use of local resources, film, oral histories from clinical colleagues and friends (Kirby, 1998; Lait, 2000; Madsen, 2008; Toman and Thifault, 2012).
To present an integrative review of literature on the teaching of nursing history in pre-registration adult nursing education.
Despite successive reconfigurations in healthcare systems and education policy, the teaching of the history of nursing remains contested in pre-registration curricula. Recent curriculum reviews acknowledge the need for systematic study of nursing education. To date in the UK, there has been no systematic review of the literature on the teaching of nursing history in pre-registration training programmes.
An integrative review of the literature.
A search of the electronic databases of CINAHL (1982–2013), HMIC (1979–2013), BNI (1994–2013) and MEDLINE (Pub Med) (1966–2013) was concluded in January 2014, using the keywords ‘adult nursing’, ‘history’ ‘pre-registration’, ‘education’ and ‘teaching’.
An integrative literature review was conducted. Identified titles and abstracts were screened separately by researchers for relevance and eligibility and papers were independently assessed for inclusion. Data were abstracted from included papers and quality evaluation of included papers was conducted. The papers were analysed and reported in a narrative synthesis.
Twelve papers were selected for review. The majority of articles were discursive papers and there was a paucity of empirical reports. Content indicated concerns for teaching nursing history in regard to curriculum policy and methods of teaching and assessment.
Substantial support exists for mandatory inclusion of the teaching of historical literacy in nursing centred on the themes of health and disease, hegemony, nursing work and image and ideology. Due to space and teaching expertise issues this could ideally be achieved through the use of nursing museum visits, the usefulness of which could be critically explored in future research.

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Teaching history to nurses: Will this make me a better nurse?

Summary

Introduction

Section snippets

What does the history of nursing have to offer students?

Teaching history to nurses

Conclusion

Nursing Outlook

Nursing and Social Change

Florence Nightingale and the nursing legacy

Placing history: territory, story, identity – and historical consciousness

Teaching History

Convicts and care giving in colonial Australia, 1788–1868

History as a practice profession

Nursing Inquiry

From the sphere of Sarah Gampism: the professionalisation of nursing and midwifery in the colony of Victoria

Nursing Inquiry

Do we have to read all of this? Encouraging students to read for understanding

Teaching History

It’s a lot harder than politics … students’ experience of history at advanced level

Teaching History

Public health nursing in Australia – historically invisible

International History of Nursing Journal