Abstract
M.Cur.
Contemporary problems in the nursing education and concern that the current
nursing curriculum apparently does not prepare the nursing student
for the task of unit management, prompted this investigation.
In an effort to evaluate the curriculum of unit management', the learning
opportunities available to nursing students to gain management skills
have been investigated.
Anon-experimental method of investigation has been used. In the first
place a questionnaire on unit managers to supervisors has been used to
determine the extent to which certain management tasks are being performed
by unit managers. Secondly, it was determined what learning opportunities
are available to nursing students to gain management skills in practice.
The investigation identified the following deficiencies in the curriculum:
- goal orientated and planned teaching strategies are not being implemented
for unit management and the management skills gained by the students
are merely to perform incidental and relevant tasks;
- there are no structural and planned evaluation techniques to measure
management skills or to evaluate to which extent supervision takes
place.
In view of these deficiencies certain recommendations are made for the
utilization of learning opportunities in the curriculum of unit management
for nursing students.