An Overview of the New Basic Curriculum

Abstract

WHILE the nursing curriculum of the University of Toronto had always been, and continues to be, under constant review, a thoroughgoing change in the Basic Course was introduced in 1968. This change was generated by a number of pressures from without and within the School.* From without, there was increasing reference to the values of interdisciplinary teaching and to the values of health science divisions within universities. There was emphasis on the need to delineate more clearly the roles of diploma and baccalaureate graduates, and the preparation of each. The demands on the use of available clinical facilities in the city were increasing as schools of nursing expanded their enrolment. From within the School the pressures included finding sufficient clinical locations for students of the first three years. These requests were particularly heavy for one period of the year, May, June, July, for specific areas, for large numbers of students. This required not only special arrangements by nursing service departments but also the employment by the School of many part-time members of staff, available and prepared to teach in those specific clinical areas for the three months only. Our staff had concerns about the proportion of part-time to full-time members, about the length of the teaching