Follow-up of Generic Master's Graduates: Viability of a Model of Nursing in Practice

Abstract

In the early 1970's, on the initiative of Dr. F. Moyra Allen, the School of Nursing at McGill University launched a new educational program at the master's level. It was intended to prepare nurses to assume leadership roles in a rapidly changing health care system. This "generic master's" program is specifically tailored to meet the needs of a particular group of students and to capitalize on their individual competencies and past achievements. The students admitted to this program are non-nursing university graduates of high academic standing with general arts or science degrees, and undergraduate courses in both the physical and social sciences. This innovative venture in nursing education, unique in Canada, is one of a relatively small group in North America that offer entry to the nursing profession through a non-traditional route (Diers, 1987). The very idea of allowing non-nurses to enter the profession at the master's level has alternately sparked interest and controversy from nurse educators in both Canada and the United States. However, there is no doubt that such programs represent an ingenious attempt to advance the practice of the profession. At McGill, the decision to mount the generic master's program was based on the belief that mature students, with solid academic preparation in the biological or social sciences, would have the potential to contribute to the development of nursing in a unique way. The existing programs vary widely in terms of prerequisites for entry, duration of studies, curriculum design and degree offered (Slavinsky, Diers & Dixon, 1983) and each represents a "special case" in the mainstream of nursing education. Thus, descriptions of individual programs and follow-up research have important implications not only in terms of "in-house" evaluation, but also for guiding the proliferation and development of similar programs in the future. It is with these ideas in mind that the following study was conducted.