Advance Discipline and Liberal Values In Nursing The field of nursing continues to evolve as it faces new challenges and opportunities in healthcare. A comprehensive education in nursing is essential for preparing practitioners not only to meet clinical demands but also to engage in ethical decision-making, leadership, and advocacy. This article explores the advancement of nursing as a discipline, the value of a liberal education in nursing, and the growing emphasis on competency-based education.

Advancing the Discipline of Nursing

Nursing, as a unique and essential discipline, requires continuous development to address the complexities of healthcare. According to Jairath et al. (2018), further advancement in nursing must directly impact the patient’s health experience, which may call for a new social order where scientists, theorists, and practitioners collaborate. These collaborations would explore the intersection of big data and nursing theory, driving innovation in patient care.

For nursing graduates, particularly those at the advanced practice level, the ability to think ethically, conceptually, and theoretically is crucial. They must learn to approach patient care with a holistic view, seeing patients not as isolated cases but as individuals deeply connected to their families, communities, and environments. This perspective is essential for understanding how social, political, and economic factors influence health and for developing caring, healing relationships that honor personal dignity, choice, and meaning (Smith & McCarthy, 2010).

To prepare future nurses adequately, nursing education must emphasize the discipline’s unique body of knowledge, ensuring that students not only understand nursing theory but also practice from a disciplinary perspective. Graduate education plays a critical role in this development, as students apply and generate nursing knowledge in advanced roles, whether as practitioners or researchers developing and testing theories.

Incorporating disciplinary knowledge into nursing education ensures that nursing continues to evolve as a profession while maintaining its distinctiveness within the broader healthcare landscape. Nursing must remain nursing-centric while collaborating with other disciplines to ensure comprehensive patient care.

The Value of a Liberal Education in Nursing

Liberal education, with its emphasis on the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, is fundamental in developing well-rounded nursing professionals. Every discipline in higher education is grounded in a unique body of knowledge, and for nursing, this includes the integration of a liberal education to broaden nurses’ worldviews and enhance their ability to engage in civic leadership.

A liberal education exposes nursing students to various ways of knowing and critical thinking, enriching their understanding of the world and enhancing their nursing practice. Courses in history, critical race theory, climate science, public policy, fine arts, literature, languages, and behavioral sciences provide students with the tools to understand human cultures and the natural world, forming a foundation for clinical reasoning and judgment.

Integrating liberal education with nursing curricula creates a framework where nurses are not only skilled in patient care but also equipped to advocate for social justice, health equity, and policy reform. Hermann (2004) emphasized that successful nursing education must weave liberal values into its curriculum, allowing students to understand bias, structural racism, and how social determinants affect healthcare outcomes.

The hallmark of liberal education is its focus on the development of personal values and ethical behavior, encouraging students to act with integrity, equity, and social responsibility. Nursing graduates with a liberal education are better prepared to navigate the complexities of modern healthcare, integrating knowledge from multiple fields to provide high-quality, compassionate care. They are also empowered to engage in advocacy and leadership at both local and global levels, promoting change and addressing healthcare inequities.

Competency-Based Education in Nursing

As nursing education evolves, competency-based education (CBE) is becoming the dominant model for ensuring that students are equipped with the skills and knowledge needed for professional practice. Unlike traditional models that emphasize the inputs of education (such as time spent in class), competency-based education focuses on the outputs—the actual skills and competencies students demonstrate upon graduation.

In CBE, students are at the center of their learning experiences, with clearly defined performance expectations and regular assessments to track their progress. This model emphasizes self-assessment, allowing students to reflect on their development and make adjustments as needed to achieve the competencies required for nursing practice.

The shift to competency-based education in nursing is driven by several factors:

• Advances in technology that allow for personalized and flexible learning experiences.
• Evolving learning styles of students who prefer active, hands-on learning over passive lecture-based education.
• The move towards outcome-driven education that ensures all students meet clearly defined performance standards.

Competency-based education is linked to observable behaviors, with frequent assessments using diverse methods. This model encourages students to connect knowledge with action, helping them understand the practical application of theoretical concepts in real-world healthcare settings. By putting knowledge into action, students internalize their learning, making it a part of their professional identity.

CBE emphasizes active learning, where students engage in activities such as reflection, analysis, judgment, and problem-solving. This approach encourages students to take responsibility for their learning and apply it in practice, creating lifelong learners who continuously assess their own competencies and strive for improvement.

The Benefits of Competency-Based Education in Nursing

1. Personalized Learning: Students progress at their own pace, mastering competencies as they go rather than being confined to a set schedule.
2. Real-World Application: Competencies are designed to be transferable across healthcare settings, ensuring that students are prepared for diverse clinical environments.
3. Continuous Assessment: Frequent feedback helps students understand their strengths and areas for improvement, fostering a growth mindset.
4. Preparation for Professional Practice: Competency-based education ensures that students are ready to enter the workforce with the skills needed to provide safe, effective care.

Challenges in Competency-Based Education

While CBE offers many benefits, it also presents challenges, particularly in ensuring consistency across programs. There is often variability in how competencies are defined and assessed, leading to differences in graduate capabilities. To address this, nursing education is moving towards standardized competency frameworks that define clear expectations for all students.

The adoption of competency-based education in nursing requires a significant shift in both curriculum design and assessment methods. However, this approach ensures that nursing graduates are not only knowledgeable but also capable of applying that knowledge in real-world healthcare settings, ultimately leading to better patient outcomes.

Conclusion

Advancing nursing as a discipline requires a multifaceted approach, including the integration of liberal values and the adoption of competency-based education. By providing a holistic education that combines theoretical knowledge, ethical thinking, and practical skills, nursing programs can produce well-rounded graduates prepared to meet the demands of modern healthcare.

Nursing education must continue to evolve, ensuring that graduates are equipped not only with the technical skills needed for patient care but also with the critical thinking, ethical judgment, and advocacy skills necessary to drive change in healthcare systems and promote health equity. Competency-based education is a key part of this evolution, offering a model that emphasizes outcomes, flexibility, and continuous improvement.