title: Biogeography as critical nursing pedagogy: Breathing life into nurse education.
abstract: Insights from the social sciences, including geography, sociology, and anthropology, have long been incorporated into pre-registration nursing programmes. However, scholars have suggested that their inclusion has been sporadic and lacks clear theoretical rationale. In this paper we argue anew that the social sciences - and particularly, human geography - could be central to nurse education. Specifically, we recast the concept of 'biogeography' drawn from human geography that emphasises the interplay between life (bio) and place (geo) to propose pedagogy that theoretically justifies and practically enables the inclusion of the social sciences in nurse education. Biogeography can breathe new life into nursing curricula by animating our students through the cultivation of three 'spirits of nursing'. First, a 'spirit of empathy' that can shatter patient-professional dualisms by facilitating person-centred and place-sensitive care. Second, a 'spirit of engagement' that situates practice in social structures awakening a desire to effect change by fomenting an acute sense of social justice. Third, a 'spirit of enquiry' that holds in critical tension the theory-practice gap by fostering continual questioning and pursuit of evidence. In so doing, biogeographical pedagogy releases the latent potential of the social sciences to revitalise nurse education, reinvigorate our students, and renew ourselves as nurse educators.
authors: School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Care, Edinburgh Napier University, Sighthill Campus, Edinburgh, EH11 4BN, United Kingdom. Electronic address: r.kyle@napier.ac.uk.
authors: Richard G
authors: RG
authors: Kyle
authors: School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Care, Edinburgh Napier University, Sighthill Campus, Edinburgh, EH11 4BN, United Kingdom.
authors: Iain M
authors: IM
authors: Atherton
mesh_terms: D003479:Curriculum; D004506:Education, Nursing; D004645:Empathy; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D018802:Patient-Centered Care; D012942:Social Sciences; D013338:Students, Nursing
keywords: Biography; Geography; Pedagogy; Social science