AEJNE Volume 2 Number 1
June 1996
Editorial
Reflections while clearing out the filing cabinet
I'm not sure if it goes with the turf, but I have a
history of accumulating paper. Specifically paper with
information that I once thought invaluable to me and my
teaching. The downside to such a past is that the paper
will not of its own free will leave. And so it came to be
that I found myself re-examining and saying goodbye to a
filing cabinet draw full of material that was 10 to 15
years old. Outdated and irrelevant mostly. Yet amongst
such archives can riches be found.
So it was that some old assignments from my
undergraduate days caught my eye. They were about power
and control in the curriculum process; about the things
that (then) constrained educational choices at both the
macro (curriculum development) and the micro
(instructional planning) levels. In reading these again I
reflected on what has changed. When those essays were
written nursing was still a hospitable based certificate
program. In this state the curriculum was dictated by
external registering bodies. The medical view of
"illth" was clearly supreme.
Now, nursing is a preregistration bachelor level
program throughout Australia. There is greater variation
in the emphasis across curriculums. Yet it seemed to me
that perhaps nurses do not yet have the program they
want. Despite the alleged "freedom" of
Universities nursing curriculums still must be approved
by registering bodies who dictate what "outcomes /
domains" they expect to be demonstrated. Financial
constraints determine both the length of the
pre-registration programs and the parameters of clinical
programs. Nursing remains discriminated against when
other health professional programs are compared. The
immediate demands of "service needs" may be
diluted to some extent, but tension continues within the
profession as to what a graduate "should be able to
do".
The medical dominance of our programs may have been
lessened, but power and control is not yet ours.
Peter Cleasby
PS. Special thanks to my co-editor
John Stevens for his support and efforts for this
edition.
Volume 2
- No. 1
|
