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Redressing the balance in mental health nursing education: Arguments for a values‐based approach
Author(s) -
Hewitt Jeanette
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
international journal of mental health nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.911
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1447-0349
pISSN - 1445-8330
DOI - 10.1111/j.1447-0349.2009.00633.x
Subject(s) - praxis , personhood , mental health , psychology , nursing , obligation , construct (python library) , identity (music) , nurse education , mental health nursing , curriculum , pedagogy , medicine , psychotherapist , epistemology , philosophy , physics , political science , computer science , acoustics , law , programming language
Evidence‐based practice (EBP) has become a dominant epistemology in nursing education, and has devalued the complex interpersonal components of mental health nursing. A curriculum for mental health nursing, which values the personhood of service users, should focus on those processes that promote recovery within a therapeutic relationship committed to collaboration and respect for diversity. These relationships become possible where the preparation of mental health nurses for practice includes an examination of self in terms of beliefs and values and their consequences on others. The combination of action and reflection in praxis provides a means by which self‐examination and professional obligation can be examined in order to construct a moral identity, which is responsive to the needs of people with mental health problems. Praxis is more than a means of reflecting on practice: it draws together skill, practice knowledge, attitudinal style, and moral reasoning. For this reason, ethical values have a vital role to play in the development of contemporary nursing praxis.