Learning to Nurse Families: Monitoring Content and Process

Abstract

The notion of valuing lies at the heart of the process of monitoring. Monitoring involves being deliberately engaged in a set of interrelated actions and processes, the intention of which is twofold. Given that the curriculum provides the conditions sufficient to promote learning to nurse families, the first is to observe the extent to which the essential components of learning to nurse families is actually being learned. The second is to provide feedback for adjusting curriculum structure and process so that learning of the valued components can be promoted. In other words, monitoring learning can be viewed as a process of formative evaluation culminating in summative evaluation at specific points in the program (Bloom et al, 1977; Tyler, ed., 1974), whereby both student progress in learning to nurse families and the conditions deemed necessary for that kind of learning are monitored. Being an integrated curriculum, McGill's B.Sc.(N) program is characterized by some overlap in traditional content areas. In addition to that, concepts of family and health run as threads throughout the three-year program. With such a curriculum design, it is difficult to monitor learning without establishing mechanisms to increase the probability that (a) unnecessary repetitions as well as omissions in content are avoided, (b) learning conditions are set and sustained so that the above concepts continue to be developed as the student moves through the program, (c) expectations in terms of scope and depth in student's attitudes, knowledge and skills continue to expand towards achieving critical goals of the program and that (d) there are some means of eliciting, identifying and promoting students' behaviours which indicate progress in learning to nurse families. Two kinds of monitoring provide us with the above mechanisms. Since the curriculum can be perceived as the structural apparatus and the medium through which learning to nurse families is provided, the first kind of monitoring has to occur at the curriculum level. Therefore, monitoring curriculum content and processes becomes a necessary activity. The second essential activity is monitoring the day-today operationalization of the curriculum at the courses level. This is the level where it is critical to (a) specify those behaviours which best reflect students' progress in learning to nurse families, and (b) identifying strategies which are best suited for eliciting and evaluating those behaviours which reflect students' progress in nursing families.