Education and Professional Development

Chapter 4: Education and Professional Development 

Overview:

• Gives a brief but thorough overview of healing practices
• Explains differing perspectives of nursing and midwifery
• Discusses the development of introducing complementary therapies into nursing
• Outlines new and innovative subjects and courses in education through describing various directions the education system is taking

Description:

This chapter is an expansive look at the history of healing and the way the woman’s role and education have been defined through the centuries. A number of issues and problems for nurses in the contemporary era regarding education in contemporary therapies are also highlighted. New directions in CT education are demonstrated using various examples of innovative subjects and courses becoming available in undergraduate and postgraduate education.

Topics:

• Introduction
• History of healing: brief overview
• Nursing snd midwifery: new visions
• Professional development
• Education: new visions
• Undergraduate education
• Postgraduate education
• Multidiscipline education
• Conclusion
• Appendix 4.1 Choosing a complementary therapies course: what should you consider?
• References

Speaker / Author:

Elaine Duffy

RN, Midwife, Tropical Diseases Dip (London), Dip App Science (Community Health Nursing), Maternal & Child Health Cert, B App Sci (Advanced Nursing) (Lincoln Institute, Melbourne), Master of Nursing (Education major) (PIT, Melbourne), Therapeutic Touch Level 1 Certificate, FRCNA. Associate Professor and Associate Director at the Monash University Centre for Rural Health, Latrobe Regional Hospital, Traralgon, Victoria.

Elaine has been teaching for 13 years, 11 of which have been in the higher education sector. She was a founding member of the Caroline Chisholm School of Nursing at Frankston where nursing programs commenced in 1987. In her current position at the Centre for Rural Health, Elaine is involved in research, teaching, supervision and projects. She teaches several subjects by distance education in the Graduate Diploma/Master of Rural Health course, including Aboriginal health and complementary health care. She is a beginning practitioner in therapeutic touch.

Elaine emigrated to Australia from England in 1976. She went to Darwin where she worked in Aboriginal health in remote Northern Territory and learned a great deal about herself and about indigenous culture. In 1982, Elaine settled in Melbourne and worked in community health, moving into the higher education sector in 1986. Elaine completed a Masters Degree in Nursing in 1991, and is currently undertaking a PhD at Monash University. She lives on a 10-acre property in rural Glengarry, surrounded by natural bush and native flora and fauna.

Professional Reviews: