Creating meaningful patchways between professional and entrepreneurial education in Nursing

Questions we care about:
This paper takes it outspring in the following questions: How can we as educators offer
entrepreneurship teaching in ways that make sense at a nursing education? Is it possible to
think entrepreneurship and the core of nursing together? Can there be values, ways of being or
educational ideals in common between entrepreneurship and nursing? Is it possible that some
ways of entrepreneurship teaching could actually promote caring practices in nursing?

Approach:
The empirical basis is a two year phenomenological action research project named
‘Innovative and entrepreneurial formation (bildung) in professional bachelor education’ where
three teachers at three different nursing schools in VIA University College designed, tried out
and inquired into three different teaching experiments. All experiments were designed as
teaching through two educational ideals: Sensitivity and imagination. The aim of the study
was to describe and discuss ways of being arising among the students while participating in
the teaching experiments.
The theoretical approach to entrepreneurship teaching is broad, focusing on how to learn
openness towards new opportunities. The approach to nursing is inspired by a the care
philosophy of Kari Martinsen.

Results:
A preliminary analysis shows two ways of being among the students during the teaching
experiments. First, the preliminary analysis shows, that the students are brought to attention,
described as being there. At the same time, the preliminary analysis shows, that the students
also are a bit on guard, as the teaching experiments contains unpredictability.
Implications, value and originality:
In the paper we discuss whether being attentive and being on guard hold valuable potentials
when it comes to nursing as well as entrepreneurship. Although both ways of being could
hold potentials and possible value in nursing as well as in entrepreneurship, it becomes
visible, that the students experiences of being during the teaching experiments needs to be
very directly reflected. Otherwise, it is doubtful, whether the students will see how their
experiences of being can be connected to nursing as well as entrepreneurship. Such reflection
is missing in the present project. We find that it is a major limitation.
In spite of that, we see a potential when it comes to the combination of teaching nursing and
teaching entrepreneurship, by teaching through educational ideals important for both.