Recent UK health policies have identified nurses as key contributors to public health strategies to reduce health inequalities, on the assumption that all nurses understand and wish to contribute to the public health agenda. Following the policy shift, public health content within pre-registration nursing curricula increased. Public health nurse educators come from varying backgrounds, and some had limited formal public health training or involvement in or understanding of policy required to contribute effectively to it. However, their knowledge of this subject, their understanding and interpretation of how it could be taught, was not fully understood. This research aimed to understand how public health nurse educators' (PHNEs) professional knowledge could be conceptualised and to develop a substantive theory of their knowledge of teaching public health, using a qualitative data analysis approach. Semi-structured interviews (n=26) were conducted with higher education institution-based PHNEs. The research concluded that PHNEs are embodying knowledge in teaching through critical pedagogy, which involves them engaging in transformative, interpretive and integrative processes to refashion public health concepts; this requires PHNEs who possess a vision of what to teach, know how to teach, and are able to learn from experience. Their vision of public health is influenced by social justice principles in that health inequalities, socioeconomic determinants of health, epidemiology, and policy and politics are seen as essential areas of the public health curriculum. They have developed appropriate critical pedagogical practices to make these concepts intelligible to students, and teaching strategies which put greater emphasis on students' engagement with them, allowing students to recognise the connectedness of public health with their lives. They believe in forms of teaching that achieve social transformation at individual, behavioural and societal levels, while also enabling learners to recognise their capacity to effect change and to reflect upon their own and others' experiences in their teaching practice.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:590002 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Mabhala, Mzwandile A. |
| Publisher | University of Brighton |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/5113a6b4-3b6a-4230-bff9-56516d7e0885 |
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