A study of baccalaureate nursing students' linking of liberal education with their professional nursing education

The education of nursing students has moved into institutions of higher learning from hospital based schools of nursing. This move has emphasized the integration of the liberal arts within the professional curriculum. It is within this context that professional nursing education is to prepare a liberally educated professional nurse. Nursing educators have been challenged to foster the integration of the liberal arts into the professional curriculum.;This descriptive qualitative study investigates the baccalaureate nursing students' perspective of the contribution of liberal education within professional educations.;A purposeful random sample of 21 senior nursing students enrolled in a nursing course focusing on chronic illness at a single-purpose baccalaureate college of nursing was used. The students were required, as an assignment for the course, to submit a weekly journal addressing the topic of which liberal education course supported their nursing practice and how that support occurred. These journals were the primary data source.;The methodological approach was based on Bogdan and Biklen (1992), Lincoln and Guba (1985) and Patton (1990). The journals were analyzed with respect to which liberal education courses and which tenets of liberal education emerged as relevant. In addition, a schema and coding system was used to address how the linkage of liberal and professional educations occurred. Member-check interviews and peer debriefers were also used to increase trustworthiness of the data. The results of this study were that students linked liberal and professional educations in a variety of ways. The courses most commonly identified were behavorial and social sciences courses. The tenets most frequently identified were communication, critical thinking, and whole person. The students frequently described how their liberal education provided them insight about their clients. These courses/tenets also provided the students with the tools and understanding to examine themselves and their clients in broad comprehensive ways. This researcher concluded that if the tenets of liberal education are made explicit and fostered by faculty linking of liberal and professional education occurs.