CAREERS STUDENT LIFE
not emerge from their programmes as politically aware staff nurses. This led me to devise a project to increase students’ political knowledge and awareness, with the aim of stimulating their political interest.
Political relevance
Siobhan McCullough with her constituency MP Alasdair McDonnell on a recent visit to parliament
Making politics matter Nurse lecturer Siobhan McCullough developed a project to help her students become more politically aware ‘What has politics got to do with nursing?’ This is a question I hear often as a lecturer in nursing with a specialist interest in politics, as is the comment: ‘I did not come into nursing to learn about politics.’ There also appears to be a perception that nurse lecturers
lack the knowledge and skills to teach health policy. Given that there is no political content specified in the nursing curriculum, it is little wonder that nursing students perceive politics as difficult, abstract and irrelevant to their everyday practice. It also means that nursing students do
Survey of nursing students involved in political project Interested in Not very interested politics 55% 38% (compared to 50 per cent in same age group in Northern Ireland (NI)) Knowledge of politics Fair amount 31% Political participation Registered to vote Believe in duty to vote
88% 75% Important to be politically active Agree 55%
Disagree 4%
Not at all interested 7%
Very little 69% Voted in NI Assembly election 2011 48%
Second-year nursing students attended lectures about politics and visited the Northern Ireland Assembly, where there was a short tour and a lecture about the history, function and role of the assembly. They then met members of the legislative assembly from each of the parties, who explained their policies and answered questions. To determine if this strategy was having the intended effect, I carried out a short web-based survey, using a convenience sample of one cohort of second-year adult nursing students involved in the project; 42 per cent responded (see table). Most interesting were the responses to two particular questions. The first asked whether nursing programmes should contain a unit about politics; 49 per cent of students said they should and only 18 per cent said no. Asked whether programmes should include a unit on health policy, 92 per cent of students agreed and only 3 per cent disagreed. At the end of year two of the programme, students appeared to be making the important links between the political context of care and how it related to their practice. The survey certainly had limitations, but for me this project is a starting point and I am now adapting the survey for use with other student groups. Siobhan McCullough is lecturer in nursing at Queen’s University Belfast With thanks to staff at the Northern Ireland Assembly Education Service
66 november :: vol 29 no 13by::${individualUser.displayName} 2014 STANDARD Downloaded26 from RCNi.com on Nov 14, 2015. For personal use only. NoNURSING other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
not emerge from their programmes as politically aware staff nurses. This led me to devise a project to increase students’ political knowledge and awareness, with the aim of stimulating their political interest.
Political relevance
Siobhan McCullough with her constituency MP Alasdair McDonnell on a recent visit to parliament
Making politics matter Nurse lecturer Siobhan McCullough developed a project to help her students become more politically aware ‘What has politics got to do with nursing?’ This is a question I hear often as a lecturer in nursing with a specialist interest in politics, as is the comment: ‘I did not come into nursing to learn about politics.’ There also appears to be a perception that nurse lecturers
lack the knowledge and skills to teach health policy. Given that there is no political content specified in the nursing curriculum, it is little wonder that nursing students perceive politics as difficult, abstract and irrelevant to their everyday practice. It also means that nursing students do
Survey of nursing students involved in political project Interested in Not very interested politics 55% 38% (compared to 50 per cent in same age group in Northern Ireland (NI)) Knowledge of politics Fair amount 31% Political participation Registered to vote Believe in duty to vote
88% 75% Important to be politically active Agree 55%
Disagree 4%
Not at all interested 7%
Very little 69% Voted in NI Assembly election 2011 48%
Second-year nursing students attended lectures about politics and visited the Northern Ireland Assembly, where there was a short tour and a lecture about the history, function and role of the assembly. They then met members of the legislative assembly from each of the parties, who explained their policies and answered questions. To determine if this strategy was having the intended effect, I carried out a short web-based survey, using a convenience sample of one cohort of second-year adult nursing students involved in the project; 42 per cent responded (see table). Most interesting were the responses to two particular questions. The first asked whether nursing programmes should contain a unit about politics; 49 per cent of students said they should and only 18 per cent said no. Asked whether programmes should include a unit on health policy, 92 per cent of students agreed and only 3 per cent disagreed. At the end of year two of the programme, students appeared to be making the important links between the political context of care and how it related to their practice. The survey certainly had limitations, but for me this project is a starting point and I am now adapting the survey for use with other student groups. Siobhan McCullough is lecturer in nursing at Queen’s University Belfast With thanks to staff at the Northern Ireland Assembly Education Service
66 november :: vol 29 no 13by::${individualUser.displayName} 2014 STANDARD Downloaded26 from RCNi.com on Nov 14, 2015. For personal use only. NoNURSING other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
