Saga – Evolution of Curriculum – Part 3

This episode of the NLN Nursing EDge Unscripted Saga track is part three of four exploring the evolution of nursing curriculum. It delves into the development of nursing curriculum standards from the early 20th century, highlighting the contributions of early nurse leaders like Lillian Wald and S. Lillian Clayton, who advocated for the inclusion of community health and mental health training in nursing education. The discussion covers the establishment of national curriculum standards by the National League of Nursing Education (NLNE) and the shift towards more flexible curriculum guidelines in 1937. The transformative impact of these changes on nursing education and the importance of balancing theory and practice are emphasized.

Dedicated to excellence in nursing, the National League for Nursing is the leading organization for nurse faculty and leaders in nursing education. Find past episodes of the NLN Nursing EDge podcast online. Get instant updates by following the NLN on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and YouTube. For more information, visit NLN.org.

Transcript

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Welcome to this episode of Nursing EDge Unscripted Saga where we journey through  the history of nursing education using stories that connect the past to the  present and then our future as we reimagine our teaching, learning, and scholarship.  It is often said that the past teaches us about the present to study history is to study change,  This year Saga gives voice to nursing through the words of our early nurse leaders who organized a  discipline and carved out systems to formalize the education of nurses throughout the United States.  "In Their Own Words" illuminates the visionary work of NLN pathfinders who questioned traditional  curriculum paradigms and, in the process, co-created standards for nursing education  to build the discipline of nursing. Last month, we described accomplishments to reform nursing  education during the first decade of organized nursing from 1893 to 1900, with the origin  of the American Society of Superintendents of Training Schools for Nurses, termed the Society.  You might find it helpful to go back and listen to parts one and two of the Evolution of Nursing  Curriculum in our earlier Saga series this year. Part three now will focus on the establishment of  curriculum standards and nursing education's transformative move to higher education.  And like parts one and two, we will tell the story through the words of nursing education's  early leaders documented from the proceedings of NLN annual conventions from 1893 to 1952.  These publications are part of the NLN Archives Collection currently housed  at the Bates Center for the History of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania.  By the turn of the 20th century, new nursing specialties were emerging and leaders of the  Society daringly spoke out about the need to embrace a broader understanding of the  nurse's role. As early as 1900, at the sixth annual meeting of the Society in New York,  Lillian Wald introduced the idea that civic reform and community-based care were integral to the  nursing role. This was revolutionary as nursing at the time was confined to private duty care or  skill-based employment in hospitals. In 1920, at the 26th annual meeting of the National League of  Nursing Education or NLNE, the new name for the Society, S. Lillian Clayton was more specific  about the emerging role of the community health nurse as clinician, scientist, and educator:  A second specialty which garnered thought and  discussion at the annual meetings of the NLNE was the value of mental health training. There  was a continuing debate about whether mental work, as the term was used, should be relegated solely  to the state hospitals or if mental work belonged as part of the hospital-based nursing curriculum.  In 1916, at the 22nd annual meeting Effie Taylor from Johns Hopkins University provided a keynote  presentation that galvanized the superintendents to add mental work to the general curriculum. In  

her words: 5:42

From 1912 to 1917, M. Adelaide Nutting led the education committee of the Society and the NLNE to develop and disseminate a national atandard curriculum to include not only skills training and  general knowledge requirements, but to incorporate the specialty content of community and mental  health nursing. The 1917 standard curriculum succeeded in regulating national curricula;  it was a heroic effort by the NLNE to provide direction for balancing theory and practice.  It would be revised in 1927. By 1937, the NLNE decided to publish curriculum guidelines rather  than standards to encourage more flexibility for training schools. This was a turning point.  The NLNE determined that it was not the role of the organization to establish  a structured universal curriculum. Rather they would provide recommendations to offer schools  the opportunity to innovate and experiment with content delivery and teaching strategies.  Within a half a century, the Society, and now the National League of Nursing Education, had built a  curriculum framework to bring consistency and rigor to training schools, a monumental task.  This growth was remarkable and transformative and paved the way for the teachers in the  training schools to understand the breadth and depth of suggested content more fully  and to recognize the need to be informed by practice changes. In part four, we will explore  further expansion of nursing curricula as the National League of Nursing Education  endeavored to find a pathway to university education and blend training with science. And so the Saga continues, and may our Saga continue as we bring to a close this episode  of Nursing Edge Unscripted Saga. Thank you for joining us