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International Journal of Mental Health Nursing (2014) 23, 1–2
doi: 10.1111/inm.12056
Editorial
The Yarra River flows through Melbourne: So what? ‘What do they teach kids at school these days?’ was a question posed in response to a group of teenagers not being able to answer the trivia question: What river flows through Melbourne? The question reflected an apparent concern that the modern education system was not equipping students with the skills and knowledge they should have; a clear indication of a decline from how things were ‘when I was at school’. This struck me as interesting for two main reasons. First, why is it important to know what river flows through Melbourne? How might one’s employment prospects or quality of life be enriched by knowing this fact? My second and more important response can be summed up in one word ‘Google’. This type of information can be easily accessed in a nanosecond. With tablets and smart phones, most people can find it in not much longer than it takes to ask the question. Not only can they find the name of the river, but they can easily access the much more important information about what functions the Yarra serves and how it fits into the bigger picture. So on reflection, my short answer to the question: ‘What do they teach kids in schools these days?’ would be ‘Something more valuable than factual information that can easily be retrieved from the Internet on a need-toknow basis’. This then led me to reflect on our current approach to nursing education and why it is as it is. During my 24 years in nursing education in universities, I have witnessed many wonderful innovations in teaching, and watched many students take the journey from student to graduate nurse. While acknowledging the positives, I do feel that we remain too heavily focused on content. Curriculum meetings are often focused on what students must know, how we can equip them to be ‘work ready’, to ‘hit the ground running’. Clinical partners often remind us about what students do not know, and much discussion occurs about how we can be innovative in teaching ‘what they must know’. Back at the university, we frequently proclaim the overcrowded curriculum as the reason for not including this and that, including more mental health nursing content, and so we go around and around in a © 2014 Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc.
cycle, where we try to stuff more in at the same time as trying to stop other stuff from falling out. As we know, mental health nursing is often a loser. Years of history suggests that this is not likely to change in any widespread or sustainable way. So how do we respond? How can we make the most of limited time in preparing nurses for practice with the knowledge and skills they need in mental health nursing wherever they choose to work? We continue to set assignments that generally require students to access information, synthesize it, and spit it back at us in some way, shape, or form. Students hate writing them, academics hate marking them, and what positive outcomes are realized? If we are lucky, some students get ‘good’ at assignments, but does that make them better nurses? How does the information they have gained from that exercise improve their practice? Encourage them to become compassionate? Reflective? How does it increase their interest in mental health nursing and encourage them to see the value wherever they might practice in the future? What evidence do we have that our current approach to curricula contributes to improved practice? Inspire a quest for life-long learning? Encourage problem solving and solution seeking? If anyone can answer these questions, please call me! I suspect that we (the more senior members of the mental health nursing profession) are still somewhat caught up in the way we were taught, with a focus on factual knowledge and content. How relevant it was back then is questionable, but today there is no question. When so much of the knowledge we need today, right now (which might be totally different tomorrow) is so readily available, we need to change our focus. We need to ask the question: What do we want nurses in mental health to be like in the future? What essential characteristics do we want them to have? Do we want them to be able to recite the essential components of a mental state examination (information that could be easily accessed), or would we prefer them to know the importance of this aspect of practice? To understand why it is done? To have
2
effective communication skills? To respect the lived experience of the person they are ‘assessing’? To value recovery and the importance of hope? I know my answer to these questions, and trust it is the same for most members of our profession. If that assumption is correct, the need to reform our current approach to education is essential. We need to deepen our understanding of pedagogy; we need to focus less on content and more on the
EDITORIAL
educational approaches that can facilitate the development of the type of nurse we want to take carriage of ‘our’ profession into the future. We need to stop teaching them things they can easily learn themselves. Brenda Happell Editor-in-Chief
© 2014 Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc.
International Journal of Mental Health Nursing (2014) 23, 1–2
doi: 10.1111/inm.12056
Editorial
The Yarra River flows through Melbourne: So what? ‘What do they teach kids at school these days?’ was a question posed in response to a group of teenagers not being able to answer the trivia question: What river flows through Melbourne? The question reflected an apparent concern that the modern education system was not equipping students with the skills and knowledge they should have; a clear indication of a decline from how things were ‘when I was at school’. This struck me as interesting for two main reasons. First, why is it important to know what river flows through Melbourne? How might one’s employment prospects or quality of life be enriched by knowing this fact? My second and more important response can be summed up in one word ‘Google’. This type of information can be easily accessed in a nanosecond. With tablets and smart phones, most people can find it in not much longer than it takes to ask the question. Not only can they find the name of the river, but they can easily access the much more important information about what functions the Yarra serves and how it fits into the bigger picture. So on reflection, my short answer to the question: ‘What do they teach kids in schools these days?’ would be ‘Something more valuable than factual information that can easily be retrieved from the Internet on a need-toknow basis’. This then led me to reflect on our current approach to nursing education and why it is as it is. During my 24 years in nursing education in universities, I have witnessed many wonderful innovations in teaching, and watched many students take the journey from student to graduate nurse. While acknowledging the positives, I do feel that we remain too heavily focused on content. Curriculum meetings are often focused on what students must know, how we can equip them to be ‘work ready’, to ‘hit the ground running’. Clinical partners often remind us about what students do not know, and much discussion occurs about how we can be innovative in teaching ‘what they must know’. Back at the university, we frequently proclaim the overcrowded curriculum as the reason for not including this and that, including more mental health nursing content, and so we go around and around in a © 2014 Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc.
cycle, where we try to stuff more in at the same time as trying to stop other stuff from falling out. As we know, mental health nursing is often a loser. Years of history suggests that this is not likely to change in any widespread or sustainable way. So how do we respond? How can we make the most of limited time in preparing nurses for practice with the knowledge and skills they need in mental health nursing wherever they choose to work? We continue to set assignments that generally require students to access information, synthesize it, and spit it back at us in some way, shape, or form. Students hate writing them, academics hate marking them, and what positive outcomes are realized? If we are lucky, some students get ‘good’ at assignments, but does that make them better nurses? How does the information they have gained from that exercise improve their practice? Encourage them to become compassionate? Reflective? How does it increase their interest in mental health nursing and encourage them to see the value wherever they might practice in the future? What evidence do we have that our current approach to curricula contributes to improved practice? Inspire a quest for life-long learning? Encourage problem solving and solution seeking? If anyone can answer these questions, please call me! I suspect that we (the more senior members of the mental health nursing profession) are still somewhat caught up in the way we were taught, with a focus on factual knowledge and content. How relevant it was back then is questionable, but today there is no question. When so much of the knowledge we need today, right now (which might be totally different tomorrow) is so readily available, we need to change our focus. We need to ask the question: What do we want nurses in mental health to be like in the future? What essential characteristics do we want them to have? Do we want them to be able to recite the essential components of a mental state examination (information that could be easily accessed), or would we prefer them to know the importance of this aspect of practice? To understand why it is done? To have
2
effective communication skills? To respect the lived experience of the person they are ‘assessing’? To value recovery and the importance of hope? I know my answer to these questions, and trust it is the same for most members of our profession. If that assumption is correct, the need to reform our current approach to education is essential. We need to deepen our understanding of pedagogy; we need to focus less on content and more on the
EDITORIAL
educational approaches that can facilitate the development of the type of nurse we want to take carriage of ‘our’ profession into the future. We need to stop teaching them things they can easily learn themselves. Brenda Happell Editor-in-Chief
© 2014 Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc.
