Innovations: Nursing Science, Education, Practice - University of ...

“ To move nursing
f o rward, we need to
present ourselves
as partners with
people from the
beginning of their
lives until the end.”
— JOYC E TH O M P S O N
envelope to get out of traditional ruts
and modes of teaching is vital.
Linda Brown: I believe our universities
should be a place where students are
able to push the boundaries of their
abilities. At times, educators may
take a minimalist approach to what
students “should learn.” As nurse
educators, we have a responsibility to
guide students to the edge of their
boundaries and beyond. Naturally,
this boundary will be different for
each student, and, consequently,
courses and programs need to plan
creatively for this individuality. In an
undergraduate program, the opportunity
for faculty to provide outstanding
learning opportunities is enormous
by virtue of the length of time
a student is in course work. Students
should be able to come away with a
generalist foundation but have several
opportunities to obtain depth in
disciplines to give students valuable
skills unattainable in just one area.
Graduates of the joint program
between Wharton and Nursing will
leave with a knowledge of clinical
practice and the management of
health care. The graduates of the
Nursing/Engineering program will
bring technology and health care
together. And moving to our new
program with the Annenberg School
of Communication, we know that
mass communication has the greatest
possibility — whether it is television
or newspaper or the Internet — for
teaching people about health by sharing
information and decision-making
with the public. The synergy in these
joint programs will enhance the other
disciplines as well as nursing.
It is very exciting to talk about
nursing to potential students, to tell
them the profession will allow them
to combine several careers, from
Joyce E. Thompson,
DrPH, CNM, FAAN, RN
as well. I look at my own nieces and
grandsons and their facility with the
Web and technology and I see how
dramatically different are the ways
people learn. I’m not advocating as
an educator that we move to the 45-
second sound bite, but I do believe
the concept of adult education needs
to permeate everything we do.
Instead of the traditional lecture,
many students today are saying, “Tell
me what I can learn with my hands;
tell me what pieces of the puzzle this
particular course fills.” We also need
to clearly define where faculty members
need to interact with students to
give form to the facts. Pushing the
specific areas of interest. For students
to have the opportunity to work,
travel, publish, and speak with faculty
while developing these specific
areas of interest is essential and perhaps
the most important role that
faculty can play for students.
Norma Lang: That’s one of the advantages
of having the environment that
we do at Penn, where all kinds of
disciplines exist and the students
have the opportunity to learn and
live with students from other disciplines.
Our new joint-degree curricula
integrate nursing with other
highly intensive care in an academic
center to marketing the newest pharmaceuticals
or running their own
home-care companies. There’s such
potential out there and much for us
in academic leadership to do to
ensure that potential is reached. ■
16 P e n n N u r s i n g