Recovery-Orientated Practice in Education

The majority of nursing students do not enter the profession to act as social policemen. They do not want to simply medicate away problems, and they do not want to be oppressors. Unfortunately, this has been a perception for some service users. That era is now passing, and we are at the dawn of recovery. Recovery is more than a reduction or eradication of symptoms. Recovery is a journey upon which service users and nurses are fellow travelers. As such, nurses have to consider ways in which they can aid the service user on their journey. It is not all about medication and evidence-informed interventions; it is all about the relationship (Bee et al, 2008). The relationship is fundamental and the rest is simply mechanics. The challenge in nurse education, then, is to establish these practices within nursing curricula. In order to meet the professional and personal challenges presented by this new dawn, nurse education needs to change. In some ways, this change will be a return to previously valued qualities such as social imagination and self-awareness. In other ways, this change will be to alter the dichotomy mind-set of 'them' and 'us', becoming 'we'.