Using Nursing Theory to Improve the Teaching of Engineering Practice

Abstract

Engineering education includes both classroom training in sciences and professional skills as well as learning-through-doing to integrate practice and engineering design into the future licensed Professional Engineer

Improving Environmental Health Practice and Policy Through Convergence Research: A Case Study of Linked Food–Water Systems Enhancing Child Health

“…From 2006 to 2009, a pilot study-including partner organizations, namely: (1) Village Life Outreach Project, (2) Shirati Health and Education Development Foundation, (3) Okullo Family Trust, (4) Engineers Without Borders student chapter at the University of Cincinnati, and (5) Nurses Without Borders student chapter at Xavier University-worked alongside rural communities among the Luo-speaking tribe of Kenya and Tanzania (Pumphrey et al, 2006(Pumphrey et al, , 2007Pumphrey, 2008;Oerther, 2009). Altogether, health care providers and engineers were trained side by side through regular community visits in an early effort of IPE Oerther, 2013, 2015;Oerther, 2017). The short-term interventions by health care providers (i.e., week-long medical brigades) gained trust with the community, and the long-term interventions by the engineers (i.e., household access to improved drinking water) helped to reduce diarrhea burden among children.…”

“…Leveraging the ongoing pilot work conducted in east Africa-where we explored CBPR and IPE-an SEM was created using a new study site in Guatemala. From 2007 to 2009, a CBPR approach-including partner organizations, namely: (1) Hechos 2:8, (2) Mission Impact, (3) local representatives of the Government of Guatemala (GoG), (4) CAWST, and (5) the Centers for Disease Control-was used to construct the initial SEM for Guatemala by working alongside rural communities-including: (1) local political leaders, and (2) women's self-help groups-in the department of Quiche (Divelbiss and Oerther, 2010;Divelbiss, 2011;Oerther and Oerther, 2013;Oerther, 2016Oerther, , 2017. Incorporating both the priorities expressed by members of local households and an approach of sweat equity and sustainability strongly advocated by the local partner organization, research in Guatemala focused on ''learning by doing'' and included the establishment of a cottage industry to construct CAWST biosand water filters.…”

The Nurse‐Engineer: A New Role to Improve Nurse Technology Interface and Patient Care Device Innovations

“…The idea of creating formal education and professional connections between nursing and engineering has been around for nearly 25 years. Both nurses and engineers use science and technology and creatively solve practical problems; however, nurses focus on the “art of caring” and “practice of health promotion,” while engineers focus upon the “art of design” and the “practice of building” (Oerther, ). Hendrickson () advanced the idea that a new professional was needed, the nurse‐engineer, to specify, build, and educate practitioners and patients in the use of information systems.…”

“…One related course example was designed by Oerther (), who introduced Florence Nightingale's environmental theory as a framework to guide experiential learning of multidisciplinary engineering and nursing teams for student design experiences with Engineers without Boarders, United Nations Millennium Development Goals, and other global experience over a 10‐year period. As he noted, diverse disciplinary teams created innovative ideas, which were not produced by single disciplines working on the same problem.…”

Identifying opportunities for educators to pursue collaboration at the interface of nursing and engineering – and a word of caution

“…For example, McComb and Kirkpatrick (), in their article titled, ‘Impact of pedagogical approaches on cognitive complexity and motivation to learn: Comparing nursing and engineering undergraduate students’, evaluated cross‐sectional data collected from 1,167 first year through graduating baccalaureate students to identify differences among nursing and engineering majors in students’ cognitive complexity and motivation to learn. In a very different approach, Oerther (), in his paper titled, ‘Using nursing theory to improve the teaching of engineering practice’, summarized previously published case studies describing the use of Nightingale's Environmental Theory as the organizing principle for co‐teaching teams of nursing and engineering students practicing interprofessional community health under the supervision of an experienced team of nursing and engineering educators.…”