Joumal of Advanced Nurstng, 1992,17,1391-1592
Guest editorial IS BRITISH NURSING EDUCATION JUMPING OUT OF THE FRYING PAN INTO THE FIRE?
Of course, employers have always complamed that the education system was failing them, they have always found that pupils had left school not knowmg enough of the very subject they had considered important At In the United Kingdom, as in many other countnes, nursmg every level, complaints about the inadequacy of education education is in a state of transition Before long, students of continue today Tertiary education, the kmd which enables students to nursing will be relieved, at least for part of their course, of responsibility for providing service For at least part of the develop cntical thinking, to be creative and analytical, time, their cumculum will be student-centred instead of has always been reserved for an elite, for tbe wealthy, service-dictated What is surpnsing is tbe alacnty with the influential Until very recently, access to university which the newly formed Bnhsh colleges of nursmg have education m the Umted Kmgdom was hghtly controlled, established a foothold m academia and their thirst for and restncted to a very small percentage of the population, accreditation by institutions in the terhary educational especially of women Selechon for eventual entry to universities started very early m life before general sector With it has gone a scramble for academic trappings such availability of secondary education via grammar schools, as fancy titles, e g faculties, deanships, academic affair and almost at birth via the early booking of places at departments No doubt the purpose of it all is, in the long preparatory schools and public schools run, to attTact the best possible candidates, to give them the ClecU'ly, under such social conditions nursmg did not best possible training, and to prepare them to give the best qualify as a proper subject for tertiary educahon The very possible service few nurses who by accident emerged with a tertiary In order to assess how change will affect the future of educahon were regarded as a threat, not only to the nursing, it might be useful to adopt, for a moment, the medical establishment, but also to the nursmg hierarchy The scene has changed, however, in recent years perspective of education rather than health services Let us face it, prepanng people for the work they are going to do Unskilled jobs are now difficult to find Not to be educated IS an expensive business, at all levels Employers do not like cames mcreased nsk of unemployment The Bntish to take financial responsibility for this, least of all on a long- govemment has belatedly recognized that countnes where term planning basis They prefer their labour force ready the uptake of tertiary educahon is high, where occupahonal made at someone else's expense If all else fails, taxation quahficahon is obtainable in colleges of higher educahon, are economically more successful Better management and a will do as a source of finance more highly skilled workforce seems to be the prerequisite Early mdustnal development demanded that workers should be able to read and wnte, child labour became too for the economic success of a nahon Hence we now have an expansion of terhary educahon hazardous to be prohtable, hence the establishment of pnmary education Technological advance necessitated a More young people are urged to stay m full-time educahon more broadly educated work force, hence the development longer, more part-hme courses are to be ofifered If this is to of universal compulsory secondary educahon Advanced apply to the populahon generally, nursing cannot be skills and knowledge could no longer profitably be created excluded More student places, more courses, more qualifiby apprenticeship traming, hence the creation of day cations are the order of the day, providmg, of course, that it can be done cheaply release courses and colleges of further education Shidents are not to expect grants sufficiently large to Always, of course, one had to prevent workers becommg feed, clothe and house them, let alone allow them to enjoy too well educated for the employers' comfort Once people could read there was the danger that they might read books themselves They must expect to borrow money for their People might get to like education and get ideas beyond study, thus mortgaging their future Colleges must not their station This might be a threat to the establishment expect increased funding for more staff, books or equipBut young people have always tned to get off the ment In rehim for higher shident numbers, colleges of educational ladder, to start earning money as soon as higher educahon will be allowed to change then- name to possible and to contnbute to the family budget rather than 'university' be a dram on it In the past nursmg was one way of gainmg University lecturers are not to be allowed the luxury of early independence researching as well as teaching Universihes must abandon 1391
Guest editorial
the aim of pushing out tbe frontiers of knowledge Shidents wiU no longer have time and space to explore, to think, to study m depth They will have to think about value for money by changmg to a four term year, shorter degree courses, attendance in crowded lecture halls instead of participahng m small group tutonals We must, therefore, ask if nursing is jumping from the frymg pan into the fire in joirung the academic bandwagon at this time when all the former benefits of tertiary education are fast disappeanng Is it wise to create unidisaplme colleges under the umbrella of some terhary college
1392
of higher education, a practice which teacher trammg abandoned years ago because it was found to be restnchve? It will take a lot of energy and enthusiasm to create the kind of nursing profession we want when everythmg in the educahonal world seems to be stacked agamst us Armie T Altschul CBE BA MSc RGN RMN RNT FRCN Ementvts Professor of Nursmg Studies Umverstty ofEdtrtburgh
Guest editorial IS BRITISH NURSING EDUCATION JUMPING OUT OF THE FRYING PAN INTO THE FIRE?
Of course, employers have always complamed that the education system was failing them, they have always found that pupils had left school not knowmg enough of the very subject they had considered important At In the United Kingdom, as in many other countnes, nursmg every level, complaints about the inadequacy of education education is in a state of transition Before long, students of continue today Tertiary education, the kmd which enables students to nursing will be relieved, at least for part of their course, of responsibility for providing service For at least part of the develop cntical thinking, to be creative and analytical, time, their cumculum will be student-centred instead of has always been reserved for an elite, for tbe wealthy, service-dictated What is surpnsing is tbe alacnty with the influential Until very recently, access to university which the newly formed Bnhsh colleges of nursmg have education m the Umted Kmgdom was hghtly controlled, established a foothold m academia and their thirst for and restncted to a very small percentage of the population, accreditation by institutions in the terhary educational especially of women Selechon for eventual entry to universities started very early m life before general sector With it has gone a scramble for academic trappings such availability of secondary education via grammar schools, as fancy titles, e g faculties, deanships, academic affair and almost at birth via the early booking of places at departments No doubt the purpose of it all is, in the long preparatory schools and public schools run, to attTact the best possible candidates, to give them the ClecU'ly, under such social conditions nursmg did not best possible training, and to prepare them to give the best qualify as a proper subject for tertiary educahon The very possible service few nurses who by accident emerged with a tertiary In order to assess how change will affect the future of educahon were regarded as a threat, not only to the nursing, it might be useful to adopt, for a moment, the medical establishment, but also to the nursmg hierarchy The scene has changed, however, in recent years perspective of education rather than health services Let us face it, prepanng people for the work they are going to do Unskilled jobs are now difficult to find Not to be educated IS an expensive business, at all levels Employers do not like cames mcreased nsk of unemployment The Bntish to take financial responsibility for this, least of all on a long- govemment has belatedly recognized that countnes where term planning basis They prefer their labour force ready the uptake of tertiary educahon is high, where occupahonal made at someone else's expense If all else fails, taxation quahficahon is obtainable in colleges of higher educahon, are economically more successful Better management and a will do as a source of finance more highly skilled workforce seems to be the prerequisite Early mdustnal development demanded that workers should be able to read and wnte, child labour became too for the economic success of a nahon Hence we now have an expansion of terhary educahon hazardous to be prohtable, hence the establishment of pnmary education Technological advance necessitated a More young people are urged to stay m full-time educahon more broadly educated work force, hence the development longer, more part-hme courses are to be ofifered If this is to of universal compulsory secondary educahon Advanced apply to the populahon generally, nursing cannot be skills and knowledge could no longer profitably be created excluded More student places, more courses, more qualifiby apprenticeship traming, hence the creation of day cations are the order of the day, providmg, of course, that it can be done cheaply release courses and colleges of further education Shidents are not to expect grants sufficiently large to Always, of course, one had to prevent workers becommg feed, clothe and house them, let alone allow them to enjoy too well educated for the employers' comfort Once people could read there was the danger that they might read books themselves They must expect to borrow money for their People might get to like education and get ideas beyond study, thus mortgaging their future Colleges must not their station This might be a threat to the establishment expect increased funding for more staff, books or equipBut young people have always tned to get off the ment In rehim for higher shident numbers, colleges of educational ladder, to start earning money as soon as higher educahon will be allowed to change then- name to possible and to contnbute to the family budget rather than 'university' be a dram on it In the past nursmg was one way of gainmg University lecturers are not to be allowed the luxury of early independence researching as well as teaching Universihes must abandon 1391
Guest editorial
the aim of pushing out tbe frontiers of knowledge Shidents wiU no longer have time and space to explore, to think, to study m depth They will have to think about value for money by changmg to a four term year, shorter degree courses, attendance in crowded lecture halls instead of participahng m small group tutonals We must, therefore, ask if nursing is jumping from the frymg pan into the fire in joirung the academic bandwagon at this time when all the former benefits of tertiary education are fast disappeanng Is it wise to create unidisaplme colleges under the umbrella of some terhary college
1392
of higher education, a practice which teacher trammg abandoned years ago because it was found to be restnchve? It will take a lot of energy and enthusiasm to create the kind of nursing profession we want when everythmg in the educahonal world seems to be stacked agamst us Armie T Altschul CBE BA MSc RGN RMN RNT FRCN Ementvts Professor of Nursmg Studies Umverstty ofEdtrtburgh
