ABSTRACT
Chapter 7, Health as Holism, co-authored with Kristi Wilson, takes this argument into the world of nursing education. The dominant definition of health is constructed within socioeconomic, political, cultural, and ecological contexts that affect how personnel in the medical and nursing fields practice. For the most part, practicing nurses and nurse educators define health as the absence of illness; thus their practice is caught in a web of individualism and the neoliberal penchant for efficiencies, mechanization, and profit. In contrast to the dominant paradigm perspectives of health in nursing and medicine, Berry argues for a definition that emanates from an essential interdependence among all creatures with the earth. As examined in other chapters, Berry makes clear that one cannot be healthy unless one is whole. To be whole is to be aware of the connection of our bodies to other beings that make up existence on this planet (1996). This chapter offers a critique of the current healthcare education system by detailing a case study of seven nurse educator/scholars whose work exemplifies aspects of this broad ecological vision. Drawing from their contributions to an alternative vision of health and education, this chapter outlines several courses that would be a necessary start in reforming nursing education toward a more holistic and sustainable vision.
