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Leading healthcare and nursing education experts have issued a call to transform the way nurses are educated. Innovative, evidence based, teaching approaches are needed to challenge and inspire nurse educators and researchers. (IOM, 2011; Benner, 2010).
A model of teaching from nursing situations as an organic, pedagogical approach is presented. The model is based on the assumptions nursing knowledge is embedded in stories of day-today practice (nursing situations) and caring is the central domain of nursing. The study of nursing situations allows faculty and students to uncover the knowledge, skills and practices most relevant to nursing and focuses on the caring between the nurse and one nursed ( person, family or group). The focus of caring is to nurture well-being. This is the seedling of understanding self and others as living caring grounding the co-creation of nursing responses. Nursing situations are examined from multiple ways of knowing to explore the meaning and practices of nursing by weaving together clinical and classroom experiences to assist the student in making the connection between theory, research and practice.
Educational research provides evidence for innovative approaches that help illuminate and unify the complex, divergent dimensions that must be studied in order to practice nursing thoughtfully and competently (IOM, 2010; Benner, 2010). The findings of a Heideggerian Hermeneutic qualitative research study exploring the lived experience of faculty teaching from the perspective of nursing situations assign meaning to this unique teaching/learning approach for students and faculty. Data were transcribed, read and categories of meaning were identified. Relational themes included: Focusing on the Discipline of Nursing, Moving Away from the Way we Were Taught, and Trusting the Process. A constitutive pattern titled “Learning to Dance” emerged. The following narrative excerpt portrays the meaning of the constitutive pattern: “Taking the risk to move away from the podium and engage in teaching the discipline from shared stories of caring, faculty and students take turns in a rhythmic pattern of leading and following. What emerges is the heart of nursing, the knowledge of caring, and a rediscovered love of nursing."
Strategies for analyzing nursing situations in ways that brings to life the simple and complex practice of nursing grounded in caring are presented. Through the study of nursing situations, students come to understand the impact of health conditions on individuals and families and the value of caring practice in clinical experiences. Teaching from nursing situations is an exciting model for the study of complex nursing concepts.