Caring curriculum: a new paradigm in nursing education

Recently, the current behavioral approach in nursing education has been critiqued by many nurse authors and leaders. One of the important reasons for this critique is that while caring is the core and the nature of nursing, teaching caring in nursing education has been overlooked. This article aims to propose an approach to integrating caring in nursing education curriculum through a comprehensive review of the related literature and exploration of the historical background of nursing education. A comprehensive review of literature was performed in databases of IranMedex, Irandoc, PubMed, ScienceDirect, ERIC, ProQuest and Ovid by keywords of clinical scholar model, critical- explanatory model and ethical care in education during 1950- 2011. The review indicated that the traditional and behavioral nature of nursing education has not been able to create caring behaviors in nursing students. The curriculum proposed by nursing scholars incorporates ethics of care in nursing education and changes the relationship between student and teacher while it improves innovation and caring elements. It also teaches students to see from other's perspective as a requirement for nurse-client relationship. Caring curriculum by challenging the behavioral approach to nursing education emphasizes on caring concept and its integration into nursing education, nursing service and nursing administration.