‘New professionalism’ – Shifting relationships between nursing education and nursing practice

It is argued that new professionalism is problematic and nursing education faces particular challenges and negotiating service-education partnerships which reflect service user involvement and enable the integration of wider notions of competence.

Abstract

New professionalism values egalitarian professional-client partnerships and considers competence integral. Within nursing competence has been accepted as the legitimate indicator of professional practice. There is a growing emphasis on instrumental competence and this has been accompanied by some erosion of relational care. In this paper I argue that new professionalism is problematic and nursing education faces particular challenges. These include negotiating service-education partnerships which reflect service user involvement and enable the integration of wider notions of competence.