One country, two education models: exploring the pedagogical approaches to training undergraduate nurses for mental health care in Canada

Abstract

The training and registration of psychiatric/mental health nurses has a contested past in Canada. One of the consequences of the professional jostling between psychiatry and nursing for control over this area is the unusual circumstances of Canada having two education systems for this specialty. To understand why the schism has taken place and the impact it has had on psychiatric/mental health nursing, the authors have undertaken a critical review of the ontological and epistemological assumptions of these two pedagogical approaches. This review reveals that while the approaches share much in common, groups from both the east and the west receive different levels of mental health-related curriculum within their training. While it could be argued that psychiatric/mental health nursing practice is different enough to warrant its own framework for the preparation of specialist practitioners, there is no clear answer as to whether one of the current models should be implemented over the other. In this context, this paper argues that it is important that psychiatric nurses advocate for a future for the speciality in Canada.