The Indiana University School of Nursing Welcomes Patricia Benner, PhD, RN, as She Presents Results of the Carnegie National Nursing Education Study

Dr. Patricia Benner and her research team are calling for a radical change in the way nurses are educated.

After leading a multi-year study of nursing education initiated by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Benner and her colleagues published the book Educating Nurses: A Call for Radical Transformation. In it, they outline a clear vision of what nursing education can and should be and recommend changes in policy, curriculum and in the way nursing programs approach student learning.

Benner and Lisa Day, PhD, RN, part of Benner’s team, will present their findings on April 23, 2010 at the Diane Billings Lectureship in Teaching Excellence. Hosted by the Center for Research in Nursing Education (CRNE) at Indiana University School of Nursing, the event will take place at the Indiana Historical Society.

The Carnegie Foundation study began in 2005 and included site visits to eight schools of nursing and a national Web-based survey of nursing students and faculty. The book (Educating Nurses: A Call for Radical Transformation) followed in 2010 and in it the authors write, “We believe that the enormous pressures on today’s nursing profession—the chaotic U.S. health care system and the economic forces that drive it, shortage in the ranks of nurses, shortage of nursing educators, multiple pathways to the profession that discourage rather than encourage practicing nurses to complete post licensure degrees—threaten to compromise nurses’ ability to practice state-of-the-art nursing and enact the profession’s core values of care and responsibility.”

According to Pamela Ironside, PhD, FAAN, ANEF, the CRNE’s director, “This work challenges faculties, administrators, organizational and governmental leaders and policy makers to reinvest in research in nursing education. The continued development and testing of new pedagogies is sorely needed to assure that future nurses entering the health care system are ready and able to meet the challenges ahead.”

“The landmark findings of the Carnegie Study and Dr. Benner’s analysis will have a profound and long-lasting affect on the way we as a nursing community shape the future of nursing. I am excited about how many strategies mentioned in Dr. Benner’s report have already been put into place in the curriculum at Indiana University School of Nursing. We are fortunate to have the faculty talent to make that happen,“ said Indiana University School of Nursing Dean and Distinguished Professor Marion E. Broome, PhD, RN, FAAN.

The afternoon session of Dr. Benner’s day-long presentation is open for public attendance. Registration is required and the fee is $35. To register, please visit http://www.nursing.iupui.edu/continuing/educating_nurses/index.shtml

Patricia Benner directs The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s Study of Nursing Education and is professor emeriti at the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing. She is a nursing educator and author of From Novice to Expert: Excellence and Power in Nursing Practice and other notable books on nursing practice and education.

The Indiana University School of Nursing is one of the largest nursing schools in the nation. A full 40% of Indiana’s nurses are IU School of Nursing alumni. Programs range from three undergraduate options, eight majors in the master’s program, post-master’s options, a PhD in nursing science, a DNP and continuing education opportunities. IU School of Nursing has been twice recognized by the National League for Nursing as a Center of Excellence in Nursing Education based on the pedagogical expertise of faculty. For more information on the IU School of Nursing, please visit http://nursing.iupui.edu.

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