Article Gold Open Access 2024

When nursing education becomes political: Norm-critical perspectives in a campus-based clinical learning environment

Nursing Inquiry
Journal · Vol. 31 · Issue 2 · Art. e12597
Abstract

Nursing education is in the process of incorporating critical thinking, social justice, and health inequality perspectives into educational structures, aspiring to help nursing students develop into professional nurses prepared to provide equal care. Norm criticism is a pedagogical philosophy that promotes social justice. This qualitative case study aimed to gain an understanding of and elaborate on an educational development initiative in which norm criticism was incorporated into the composition of a new campus-based clinical learning environment for nursing education. By analyzing documents and interviews with the help of reflexive thematic analysis three themes were generated: “Intention to educate beyond nursing education,” “Educating in alliance with society,” and “The educative ambiguity of the Clinical Learning Centre.” The case study indicates that the incorporation of norm criticism into a campus-based clinical learning environment may encourage nursing students to evolve social skills for nursing practice that support health equality within healthcare. By collaborating with society, nursing education can considerably improve its educational frameworks in alignment with societal demands. However, the inclusion of norm criticism in a setting such as a campus-based clinical learning environment entails a clash with established institutionalized norms and being perceived as too proximate to politics. © 2023 The Authors. Nursing Inquiry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Keywords

Author Keywords

social justice Nursing education Social skills campus-based clinical learning environment health inequalities norm criticism norms politics

Index Keywords

learning human nursing student Humans Students, Nursing Article interview learning environment Thematic analysis social justice qualitative research nursing education human experiment philosophy Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate Education, Nursing social competence Critical thinking nurse politics nursing practice health disparity Health Status Disparities
Author Affiliations
Department of Health Sciences, Högskolan Väst, Trollhattan, Vastra Gotaland, Sweden
Department of Health Sciences, Mid Sweden University, Östersund, Ostersund, Sweden
Funding & Acknowledgements
No funding information
References 10 References
1 Abrandt-Dahlgren, Madeleine, Theorising simulation in higher education: difficulty for learners as an emergent phenomenon, Teaching in Higher Education, 21, 6, pp. 613-627, (2016)
2 Abualrub, Iyad, How are universities responding to demands for an improved learning environment?, Journal of Further and Higher Education, 42, 5, pp. 721-732, (2018)
3 Journal of Learning Spaces, (2017)
4 Arnone, Jacqueline Michele, Plato, Nightingale, and Nursing: Can You Hear Me Now?, International Journal of Nursing Knowledge, 26, 4, pp. 156-162, (2015)
5 Bell, Blythe Victoria, White dominance in nursing education: A target for anti-racist efforts, Nursing Inquiry, 28, 1, (2021)
6 Bengtsson, Jenny, Strategies for inclusion and equality–‘norm-critical’ sex education in Sweden, Sex Education, 20, 2, pp. 154-169, (2020)
7 Clinical Wisdom and Interventions in Critical Care A Thinking in Action Approach, (1999)
8 Educating Nurses A Call for Radical Transformation, (2010)
9 Berger, Roni B., Now I see it, now I don’t: researcher’s position and reflexivity in qualitative research, Qualitative Research, 15, 2, pp. 219-234, (2015)
10 Caring for the Vulnerable Perspectives in Nursing Theory Practice and Research, (2008)
Quick Actions
Full Text via DOI
Citation Metrics
5
Times Cited (Scopus)

References 10
Document Identifiers