Using the arts and humanities to promote a liberal nursing education: Strengths and weaknesses

SummaryBackgroundThe requirement that all student nurses in the United Kingdom will be educated to degree level from 2013 permits a review of the current state of nursing education in university contexts. Recent educational standards for these new programmes (NMC, 2010) allow a liberal, or broad-based, education, with its features of breadth of knowledge, formativity, critical thinking and working with others, to be considered.ObjectiveSelect narratives from a PhD study featuring student nurses and nurse teachers exploring the relationship between reading literature and poetry and ethical practice are presented to critically support the place of liberal education within these programmes.DesignThese narratives are drawn from a research study based upon the use of a narrative methodology.SettingsThe study was set within the educational context of a school of nursing and midwifery in one Scottish university.ParticipantsEight student nurses and four nurse teachers participated in the study.MethodsThese narratives were constructed from data derived from focus groups and individual interviews.ResultsThese narratives suggest that liberal education can be promoted within international curricula via careful positioning of, and student nurse engagement with, the arts and humanities. A liberal education can influence student nurses' sense of discernment, enhance their own responsibility for learning, support ethical regard for others, provide different perspectives on human experience and contribute to a balanced curriculum. Although a liberal education cannot guarantee fully skilled and ethically sensitive practitioners, it can contribute towards its achievement.ConclusionThe current university education climate presents obstacles to the promotion of liberal education. Nevertheless, the considerable professional and personal challenges of nursing practice in global terms make such an educational preparation essential. If nursing education to degree level is to commence from 2013, these principal features of liberal education, via these educational standards, must be embedded prominently into new programmes.