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Educare

Educare

FEBRERO 2004 N° 2 Volumen 2

Influence of the paradigm of simplicity and the theory of complexity un higher Nursing education

Section: LEARNING TO TEACH

Authors

Esperanza Marbella Palencia

Position

Docente del Departamento de Enfermería de la Universidad Lisandro Alvarado de Venezuela. Estudiante del Doctorado en Enfermería de la Universidad de Alicante.

Contact address

Departamento de Enfermería, Universidad de Alicante, Apartado de Correos 99. 03080 Alicante.

Contact email: Esperanzamar163@hotmail.com

Abstract

The political, social, cultural and historical changes that are taking place in today´s society at an international level make it necessary for the nursing professional to be aware of why and for what reason they do things. These changes make the nursing professional see the need to find elements of improvement in a joint collective way and to have a wide dialectic view between theory and practice. This does, however, imply a separation from certain educational trends that are still linked to the paradigm of simplicity, which are not justified in today’s time, such as individual education, rigor in the teaching/learning processes, the lack of reflection on the actions implemented as part of the teaching of nursing, among others. These elements have contributed to the existing divorce between theory and practice. The changing process, according to the theory of complexity, must start with the teachers, so that they start to adopt and apply different theories to those currently in use; clearly this does not mean that they need to totally void or cancel those that are already in practice. This will diminish a head on collision with reality that students face with other students, teachers, nursing professionals, within the scope where the practical classes are conducted. This approach enables students to adopt a reflective and critical position, thus diminishing any unbalance or entropy, in a metaphorical sense, that the tripod of higher education might be experiencing (text-context-reflection- and interpretation of the action of self-knowledge).

Keywords:

higher education; positivist paradigm; nursingTheory of complexity

Versión en Español

Título:

Influencia del paradigma de la simplicidad y la teoría de la complejidad en la educación superior en Enfermería