The Curriculum Revolution in Action: Nursing and Crisis Intervention for Victims of Family Violence

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Abstract
The curriculum revolution might have been born at the University of Detroit in their RN-to-BSN program. Situated in an urban environment where violence is an ever-present problem, the faculty developed an innovative clinical course for senior students, entitled Nursing and Crises Intervention for Victims of Family Violence. The curriculum was designed to respond to a social problem that affects individuals, families, and groups at both physical and psychological levels. It was hoped that creative use of the educational process would promote nursing intervention with a population whose needs have traditionally been unrecognized and unmet by the profession. The response to the course has been very positive and students have applied the content in nontraditional clinical agencies such as shelters for battered women and children, sexual abuse centers, and phone crisis centers. More importantly, these RN students report not only a change in personal attitudes, but an integration and application of their knowledge in their own professional practice. They act as educators to their peers and colleagues while reshaping their own practice in light of their newly acquired sensitivity. By creatively using the nursing curriculum, educators can prepare nurses to deal with many of the social ills affecting individuals, families, and groups. In so doing, they encourage nurses to step into the forefront of health care. They invite nursing practitioners to become proactive rather than reactive. Ultimately, such curriculum creativity will ensure that clients currently ignored or unrecognized by the health care system are identified and treated in a caring fashion by the profession that prides itself on its ability to care.

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