How should holism guide the setting of educational standards?

Abstract

What do the ideas about freedom implicit in holism indicate about the setting of standards in nursing, particularly nursing education? This is the question explored in this paper. In addition, the authors attempt to demonstrate that standards are a part of holism and that a more flexible view of standards is required, given the ideas inherent in the concept of holism. Finally, factors which might militate against a holistic approach and might contribute to an unduly arbitrary setting of standards are explored.

Scholarship

“…We began this type of evolutionary spiral in 1994. In Jacono and Jacono (1994b), we reported on what was being said in the nursing literature about significant changes being made to some educational standards in nursing. This study helped in our development because it led us to identify a power construction we had never before considered nurse authors might use, that construction being to mislead the readership of their work.…”