Social Justice in Health System; a Neglected Component of Academic Nursing Education: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Background : In recent decades, increasing social and health inequalities all over the world has highlighted the importance of social justice as a core nursing value. Therefore, proper education of nursing students is necessary for preparing them to comply with social justice in health systems. This study is aimed to identify the effective factors in teaching the concept of social justice in the nursing curriculum. Method : This is a qualitative study, in which the conventional content analysis approach was employed to analyze a sample of 13 participants selected using purposive sampling method. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect and analyze the data. Results : Analysis of the interviews indicated that insufficient education content, incompetency of educators, and inappropriate education approaches made social justice a neglected component in the academic nursing education. These factors were the main themes of the study and showed the negligence of social justice in academic nursing education. Conclusion : Research findings revealed the weaknesses in teaching the concept of social justice in the nursing education. Accordingly, it is necessary to modify the content of nursing curriculum and education approaches in order to convey this core value. Since nursing educators act as role models for students, especially in practical and ethical areas, more attention should be paid to competency of nursing educators.

The Effects of E-learning Using Educational Multimedia on the Ethical Decision-making and Professionalism of nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic: a quasi-experimental study

“…In their study, Khan et al also discussed how e-learning has emerged as a new method to bolster the learning process and that higher-quality electronic content leads to more e cient e-learning. In a study by Habibzadeh et al (2019), both the traditional method of education and e-learning increased learners' knowledge on cardiac dysrhythmia, but e-learning was more effective (31). On the contrary, some studies have shown that the traditional method of education is more effective than e-learning, including a study by Kazemnezhad et al (2016) (32), which is inconsistent with the present study.…”

Moving beyond the rhetoric of social justice in nursing education

“…These same authors noted that educators report high workload and a lack of resources, which contributed to their discomfort in teaching students about social justice. The issue is further compounded because educators often use ineffective teaching strategies (Habibzadeh et al, 2021). This aligns with Prendegast and colleagues' (2020) position that, "while nursing schools are educating students to work with racialized patients and staff, schools are providing little to no knowledge or understanding about systemic racism" (par 3).…”