Arts-based inquiry in nursing education

This paper is concerned with the methods, processes, and experiences of using arts-based inquiry within the context of an undergraduate nursing curriculum. Exploration of these phenomena was achieved through an ethnographic study that involved participatory research among twenty second year students as they engaged in a Nursing Humanities option module. The capacity of arts-based approaches in the nursing curriculum to foster inquiry and critical thinking; essential attributes in contemporary nursing, is explored through re-presentation and analysis of student artwork/artmaking processes, contextual discussions and researcher field notes. The challenges encountered in using arts-informed pedagogical approaches within current nursing curricula are made visible and possibilities for integrating aesthetic inquiry into nurse education programmes are discussed.