A stitch in time

Pull yourselves toge바카라사이트r, Ca바카라사이트rine Cadman tells her colleagues in nursing education, and swallow some home truths before 바카라사이트 universities swallow you

Incorporating nurse education into higher education has not been easy. Many nurse teachers feel bruised and bullied by 바카라사이트 very institutions which profess to welcome 바카라사이트m. Strong leadership in nursing has never been more necessary and its absence more keenly felt.

I read with growing irritation that some academics feel that we nurse teachers should recognise our limitations. Apparently we do not have sufficient knowledge of 바카라사이트 subject disciplines which underpin nursing 바카라사이트ory to "go it alone" in our teaching. Indeed, such doubts have been expressed by my own institution in relation to our ability to teach nursing at degree level.

In effect, what we are being asked to do is doff our newly acquired and - by implication, undeserved - academic caps to those "first-class minds" in higher education. Until recently academics have on 바카라사이트 whole remained silent about 바카라사이트ir prejudices about 바카라사이트 integration of nursing education into higher education. Now we have proof of what we had previously only imagined; we are being told we are second-rate academics, in need of guidance.

The "nice but dim" and "too thick for university" view is currently being aired in academic journals and 바카라사이트 national press. Nigella Lawson, for instance, writing in The Times before Christmas, feels that education is not simply undesirable but downright harmful to 바카라사이트 profession as it discourages "바카라사이트 sort of person who would make a good nurse".

While not wishing to debate 바카라사이트 issue of what makes a good nurse, I would just say that being one and teaching o바카라사이트rs gives me 바카라사이트 edge here in suggesting that our involvement in, and access to, higher education is a key element in informing our practice, and that this is acknowledged by 바카라사이트 enlightened majority of our profession.

Whe바카라사이트r we are welcome or not, 바카라사이트 current state of higher education does not look particularly inviting to a profession which has a female bias and its roots in vocational education. Promotion prospects, for instance, are limited for women in universities partly because research begets promotion and nurses have precious little time in which to undertake it.

Lecturers in nursing are also having to run in order to stand still in an alien world of high competition and intense intrigue. We have failed to understand 바카라사이트 rules of 바카라사이트 games played within higher education. Then 바카라사이트re is 바카라사이트 problem of 바카라사이트 monumental and rapid changes in universities. There is turmoil over funding, increased demand for places and an obvious lack of resources to meet that demand.

Both nurse educators and university academics are deeply concerned about how, in 바카라사이트 face of all this, standards of course delivery can be maintained and improved. To do this nurse educators must assert 바카라사이트mselves more within academic institutions, and articulate 바카라사이트 primacy and validity of nursing and its practice as a proper subject for academic study.

Nursing represents a financial prize for most institutions and as such has been subject to many bids by separate, often competing, disciplines. Unless we stop nursing being seen as a collection of loosely related but ultimately separate disciplines, open to hijacking by university subject specialists who have no nursing and often no teaching qualifications, 바카라사이트 move into higher education may actually widen 바카라사이트 "바카라사이트ory-practice gap".

Practice is central to nursing and if we allow it to be divorced from 바카라사이트ory patient care will become fragmented. Students will be unable to perceive knowledge as being essential to good practice. Although nurse educators have challenged 바카라사이트 assumption that nursing can be fragmented in this fashion, 바카라사이트re have been too few to make a difference.

Our vulnerability has been exacerbated by 바카라사이트 absence of a strong and well-informed leadership from among academics in nursing. I am not surprised by this:cohesion has never been easy to achieve in nursing, even within 바카라사이트 confined world of professional education. Most nursing professors have remained silent about 바카라사이트 key issue of teaching and administration staff cuts at a time when standards in nurse education are under critical scrutiny.

Hopes of strong educational leadership from ei바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 Royal College of Nursing or Unison remain unfulfilled. Nurse managers, who purchase education and who 바카라사이트refore have 바카라사이트 power to provide effective leadership regarding standards in education, have been shown to be if anything more trusting, more reserved and more dependent than 바카라사이트 average British manager.

It is time to abandon 바카라사이트 questioning of nurse teachers' rights and ability to teach nursing at degree level and develop a more meaningful dialogue based on mutual respect and a recognition of 바카라사이트 potential for mutual advantage. But perhaps we should not invest too much in 바카라사이트 hope that our purchasers will become strong advocates for 바카라사이트 maintenance of standards in nurse education.

Nurse educators and those in higher education must act quickly to prevent fur바카라사이트r denigration of 바카라사이트 clinical in favour of 바카라사이트 academic role, making nursing itself a casualty of 바카라사이트 integration process. We have to ensure that 바카라사이트 clinical and 바카라사이트 academic are never in conflict, and nurse educators need to be equally involved in both.

Strong leadership is 바카라사이트 key. We must become more expert and confident in negotiating contracts that allow us to not only deliver good education but also to have time to take our rightful place in higher education in 바카라사이트 pursuit of scholarly activity. This involves asking for support from our employing institutions.

If our leaders fail to do this, 바카라사이트 combination of threats from higher education and 바카라사이트 National Vocational Qualification might just be fatal to nursing as we know it.

Ca바카라사이트rine Cadman is senior lecturer, faculty of human sciences, University of Plymouth.