Nursing for Social Justice: A Model for Curriculum

Dr. Kathleen Kalb, Associate Professor of Nursing, was awarded $5,000 to develop a curriculum related resources about Catholic social teaching and social justice that promotes faculty development and ensures that faculty have access to resources that will facilitate their ability to integrate the principles of Catholic social teachings and social justice. Although nursing is for social justice, published literature has not described how to teach nursing students about the principles of Catholic social teaching and social justice in nursing. To facilitate the design of the curriculum, nursing faculty at St. Catherine University will be invited to complete an online research-designed survey. The survey will be designed to yield data about how faculty are currently teaching Catholic social teaching and social justice in their respective courses and nursing programs. Social justice is expressed in Catholic social teaching and is integral to liberal arts and professional education, including nursing education. Although the profession of nursing asserts is commitment to social justice, recent reviews of the literature failed to identify publications in nursing that describe how the faculty education students about social justice consistent with the principles of Catholic social teaching. This project seeks to address that gap by designing a curriculum that promotes faculty development and their ability to integrate the principles of Catholic social teaching and social justice in the context, content, and conduct of their practice as nurse educators