Institutional restraints upon education reforms: the case of mental health nursing

Authors: Porter, S.

Journal: Nurse Education Today

Volume: 12

Issue: 6

Pages: 452-457

eISSN: 1532-2793

ISSN: 0260-6917

DOI: 10.1016/0260-6917(92)90137-D

Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to temper over-optimistic expectations about the degree to which Project 2000 training will improve the quality of psychiatric nursing care. The paper commences by citing evidence that, to date, psychiatric nurses have tended not to adopt therapeutic approaches towards their patients. Curricular innovations aimed at encouraging them to do so have had little effect. It is argued that the effects of the latest education reforms may be similarly compromised. The reasons for mental health nurses not engaging in therapeutic care are as much to do with the institutions they work in as with the training that they receive. As long as nurses feel that it is part of their role to maintain institutional order, their therapeutic role will be compromised; while the latter requires social proximity, the former demands social distance. Moreover, because it is informal, rather than formal, therapeutic interactions that patients value in their dealings with nurses, it is not clear that the sort of knowledge that Project 2000 curricula are designed to impart will be therapeutically effective. © 1992.

Source: Scopus

Institutional restraints upon education reforms: the case of mental health nursing.

Authors: Porter, S.

Journal: Nurse Educ Today

Volume: 12

Issue: 6

Pages: 452-457

ISSN: 0260-6917

DOI: 10.1016/0260-6917(92)90137-d

Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to temper over-optimistic expectations about the degree to which Project 2000 training will improve the quality of psychiatric nursing care. The paper commences by citing evidence that, to date, psychiatric nurses have tended not to adopt therapeutic approaches towards their patients. Curricular innovations aimed at encouraging them to do so have had little effect. It is argued that the effects of the latest education reforms may be similarly compromised. The reasons for mental health nurses not engaging in therapeutic care are as much to do with the institutions they work in as with the training that they receive. As long as nurses feel that it is part of their role to maintain institutional order, their therapeutic role will be compromised; while the latter requires social proximity, the former demands social distance. Moreover, because it is informal, rather than formal, therapeutic interactions that patients value in their dealings with nurses, it is not clear that the sort of knowledge that Project 2000 curricula are designed to impart will be therapeutically effective.

Source: PubMed

Institutional restraints upon education reforms: the case of mental health nursing

Authors: Porter, S.

Journal: Nurse Education Today

Volume: 12

Issue: 6

Pages: 452-457

DOI: 10.1016/0260-6917(92)90137-D

Source: Manual

Institutional restraints upon education reforms: the case of mental health nursing.

Authors: Porter, S.

Journal: Nurse education today

Volume: 12

Issue: 6

Pages: 452-457

eISSN: 1532-2793

ISSN: 0260-6917

DOI: 10.1016/0260-6917(92)90137-d

Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to temper over-optimistic expectations about the degree to which Project 2000 training will improve the quality of psychiatric nursing care. The paper commences by citing evidence that, to date, psychiatric nurses have tended not to adopt therapeutic approaches towards their patients. Curricular innovations aimed at encouraging them to do so have had little effect. It is argued that the effects of the latest education reforms may be similarly compromised. The reasons for mental health nurses not engaging in therapeutic care are as much to do with the institutions they work in as with the training that they receive. As long as nurses feel that it is part of their role to maintain institutional order, their therapeutic role will be compromised; while the latter requires social proximity, the former demands social distance. Moreover, because it is informal, rather than formal, therapeutic interactions that patients value in their dealings with nurses, it is not clear that the sort of knowledge that Project 2000 curricula are designed to impart will be therapeutically effective.

Source: Europe PubMed Central