DIFE: A new model in undergraduate nursing education.
This article presents a new model of nursing created in 2003 for use in an undergraduate nursing program. It reviews the drivers for the development of an innovative approach to nursing education in a New Zealand educational institution, Whitireia Community Polytechnic. After referring to the literature informing this development, the article briefly outlines the philosophy underpinning a revised curriculum for the program. The article then describes the nursing model created to realize the intention of the revised curriculum, the DIFE framework, consisting of four interrelated phases: Discovery, Interpretation, Facilitation, and Evaluation. It highlights the distinctive educational practices that use of the model in teaching the curriculum produces. In this approach, educational practice embodies a model for clinical practice. Finally, this article reflects on the value of this new model of nursing after 5 years of use.
Faculty of Health, Whitireia Community Polytechnic, Private Bag 50 910, Porirua City 5240, New Zealand. Kathryn.Holloway@whitireia.ac.nz
Kathy
K
Holloway
Nick
N
Polaschek
Leanne
L
Pool
D003479:Curriculum; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate; D006801:Humans; D017145:Models, Educational; D009520:New Zealand; D015402:Nursing Education Research