Philosophical Perspectives on Trustworthiness and Open-mindedness as Professional Virtues for the Practice of Nursing: Implications for he Moral Education of Nurses

demands of trustworthiness. In short, the virtuous mentor illustrates to the student that
learning to become trustworthy requires learning to be honest, just and courageous.

Learning to be open-minded

As McLaughlin (2003b) points out it would be odd to imagine that teachers set out
deliberately to encourage students to become closed-minded or credulous rather than
open-minded. And yet, as I have argued, closed-minded and credulous nurses are
known to exist, and presumably are to be found among the ranks of those I have
identified as nurse teachers. As outlined in Chapter 5, being open-minded is not to be
equated with having no firm beliefs and thus learning to be open-minded requires
learning to hold beliefs in an open-minded way. It would seem axiomatic that if the
nurse teacher claims to be open-minded but in some way fails to be open-minded then
the student will perceive hypocrisy in operation, even if it is the case that the teacher is
self-deluded in thinking her or himself open-minded. From this it would seem apparent
that the open-minded teacher or nurse is one who both demonstrates open-mindedness
in action and encourages the learner to be similarly open-minded. The ideal of open-
mindedness for practice appears to be an educational imperative in any occupation (such
as nursing) that is serious in its pursuit of evidence-based practice. Open-mindedness is
essential for evidence-based practice precisely because basing practice on evidence not
only presupposes that practitioners are sufficiently open-minded to engage with new
evidence which might refute rather than support existing practice but also that
practitioners are willing to change practice on the basis of compelling evidence. This is
no small matter for it requires the practitioner to acknowledge that their own practice
may turn out to be incorrect, which in turn requires an honest appraisal of current
practice in the light of an honest appraisal of new evidence.

In some ways teaching for open-mindedness is easier than teaching for trustworthiness
as the lecturer can design intellectual exercises in the attempt to encourage in students
certain habits of mind. Practicing open-mindedness in this sense takes the form of
Aristotelian habituation. Repeatedly attempting to be open-minded requires practice in
asking the right sort of questions of information, beliefs and so on, and the teacher as a
professionalphronimos can both oversee the practice and exemplify open-mindedness
at the same time. Indeed the lecturer can i) offer tools that the student might use to
develop open-mindedness and ii) teach in ways that demonstrates what the holding of
beliefs in open-minded ways looks like. One effective use of the formal lecture within

181

<<   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   >>

More intriguing information