Transforming our vision: emancipatory career planning for nurses.

Abstract

Canadian nurses are experiencing profound and often disturbing changes in the health care sector. Not only have the number of jobs decreased but the nature and expectations of those jobs are changing dramatically. While these changes have raised nurses' anxiety, the changes simultaneously have presented nurses with an opportunity to transform their vision of nursing and their role in health care. This article describes a career planning pilot project for nurses which employed Freire's model of emancipatory learning. Based on the theoretical foundations of narrative psychology and critical social theory a series of four workshops were offered. Comments from the evaluation results indicate that the workshop was a transformative experience for the participants. Future implications for career planning for nurses are discussed.