title: Postmodern pedagogy and the nursing curriculum: collaborating for excellence.
abstract: Nursing in developed and developing countries alike has made, or is making, the move from apprenticeship and service-driven models of nurse education to those situated in and determined by the higher education sector. In Australia this move was made some twenty years ago. In this paper I present the epistemological and operational contours of a highly successful collaboration between the Tasmanian School of Nursing & Midwifery and St Vincent's Private Hospital, Sydney. In educational terms this collaborative curriculum is forged from a postmodern pedagogy. This means both student and teacher become reciprocal agents in the making of (new) knowledge arising out of a praxis-oriented curriculum whereby theory informs practice and practice mutually informs theory. Both the university and the hospital are significant beneficiaries of this professional/business partnership and as a result, the oft discussed 'theory/practice divide' is thwarted in its conceptualisation and articulation through the ways the university (theory) and the hospital (practice) amalgamate through their combined responsibility for the students' success.
authors.affiliation: St Vincent's Private Hospital, Darlinghurst. kwalker@stvincents.com.au
authors.forename: Kim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Walker
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D002321:Career Choice; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003479:Curriculum; D004506:Education, Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005181:Faculty, Nursing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D008297:Male; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D009742:Nursing Theory; D013338:Students, Nursing; D017749:Total Quality Management