Conceptual Issues in Nursing

This is a 10 CAT module which contributes to a Philosophy for Nursing. It complements Reflecting on Nursing Practice.

It examines some key issues about the target of nursing care. The aim is to give students a greater understanding of the concepts of illness and disorder in general to complement their knowledge of specific illnesses and disorders. The topics reflect a bias towards mental healthcare. But that is because mental healthcare presents, particularly vividly, some issues and ideas that are of general importance for good nursing care across the board.

• 1. Deep issues need a different kind of thinking

  2. Case study: Is mental illness a myth?

  3. Is illness a biological fact?

     1. 1. Is illness value-laden?

  4. Whose values?

  5. Competing models of illness and healthcare

  6. Could there be a recovery model for nursing?

  7. Values, autonomy and capacity

  8. Can coercion be justified?

  9. Balancing facts and values: the future of nursing care?

Whilst the list of topics covered is ambitious, they are overlapping elements of an ongoing debate about the nature of illness and its interplay of facts and values.

The module is research-based, reflecting the research interests of the course tutor.