Should "Nursing" Be Included In The STEM/STEAM Field?

[JudgeJoeGorilla]

I think so because Nursing AKA most fields in healthcare require BOTH Science and Math.

How do you feel about it?

As a simple acronym, STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. As a movement, STEM, especially as it relates to education and workforce development, has gotten a lot of attention in the last decade. The term was first coined in 2001 by the National Science Foundation. An educational research team originally labeled the curriculum they were developing to enhance education in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology as SMET but re-arranged the letters to form the arguably better sounding acronym, STEM. Since then, it’s become something of a rallying cry to improve the United States’ competitiveness in the global market for scientific and technological innovation, development, and research.

The acronym began to be used in discussions about the lack of candidates within the United States qualified to fill the growing number of positions in scientific and technical fields. STEM then grew into an educational concept that sought to integrate the teaching of science, technology, engineering, and math in schools instead of teaching each in a vacuum as was the norm in decades past. More importantly, a key tenant of STEM education is the application of these subjects to real-world challenges, encouraging critical and solutions-based thinking.

When we think of STEM fields, the first ones that come to mind are probably the traditionally high-tech disciplines like bio technology, software development, or mechanical engineering. But what about nursing? While nursing is rooted in the fundamentals of science and math, like medicine it is not typically included as a STEM field despite nurses needing to apply math, biology, and technology every day. Nursing also adheres to the guiding principles of STEM in that it applies these disciplines to find solutions to very real problems.

What fields are or are not considered STEM is constantly up for debate. It doesn’t help that beyond the acronym, there is no single agreed-upon definition for what constitutes a STEM profession and even official government agencies disagree. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics lists “Health occupations” as STEM while the Immigration and Customs Enforcement doesn’t include nursing on its list of STEM fields that make non-citizens eligible for a visa extension. Higher education, however, has been quicker to accept nursing under the umbrella of STEM with several universities including the program within their science department—a designation which seems fitting given the average nursing curriculum includes a heavy focus on Microbiology, Science, and Statistics.

So why has nursing struggled for STEM acceptance? One factor is most certainly gender-based prejudice. The profession as a whole has long been discounted as a job for mainly women that’s focused on comfort and caring rather than the “hard” sciences. Another stumbling block are the capitalist undertones at the heart of the movement that frames the innovation and creativity inherent to STEM pursuits as vehicles for economic growth. While this isn’t strictly bad, the relentless promotion of job creation, industry “disruption,” and product development comes at the expense of fields that at their core are about more human outcomes.

Is Nursing STEM?

Nursing also adheres to the guiding principles of STEM in that it applies these disciplines to find solutions to very real problems.

www.excelsior.edu

 

[JudgeJoeGorilla]

Discuss...

 

[JudgeJoeGorilla]

@Basra @Johnathan Smith @JohnCena

 

[seldiboy]

Nursing isn’t a field where there is advancement. More of an occupation.The STEM portion of medicine is just microbiology and biochemistry. Medicine itself isn’t really STEM. I feel as though to be “STEM” you need to have pioneers who are actively discovering new things and progressing the field

 

[JudgeJoeGorilla]

Nursing isn’t a field where there is advancement. More of an occupation.The STEM portion of medicine is just microbiology and biochemistry. Medicine itself isn’t really STEM. I feel as though to be “STEM” you need to have pioneers who are actively discovering new things and progressing the field

Medicine is a Science and don't forget that the two aren't mutually exclusive. You can advance in Nursing and become a Doctor of Nursing.

 

[seldiboy]

Medicine is a Science and don't forget that the two aren't mutually exclusive. You can advance in Nursing and become a Doctor of Nursing.

Medicine is like Engineering. It’s not a science in itself but applies science from other fields. Pharmacology, Microbiology and Biochemistry and Bioinformatics are where all the progressions and new information are found. They are then applied and incorporated within medicine.

And by advancement I didn’t mean career progression. A doctor of nursing is just a very good nurse but they still work within the constraints of Nursing. They don’t find new ways to treat patients or engineer new drugs. Same can be said for Doctors unless they go into research roles

 

[Ragnimo]

Would you also consider a 'labourer' to be a builder?

 

[JudgeJoeGorilla]

Would you also consider a 'labourer' to be a builder?

Not a good analogy.

 

[Yaraye]

Nursing isn’t a field where there is advancement. More of an occupation.The STEM portion of medicine is just microbiology and biochemistry. Medicine itself isn’t really STEM. I feel as though to be “STEM” you need to have pioneers who are actively discovering new things and progressing the field

if you only knew that amount of research we gotta do each year to keep up with new evidenced based treatments, procedures, medications, get rid of procedures that were discovered to not work for all these types of fields like infection control, fall risks, pain management, medication errors, HA-VTE.....and many others (these are the only ones I can think of immediately.)

 

[JudgeJoeGorilla]

if you only knew that amount of research we gotta do each year to keep up with new evidenced based treatments, procedures, medications, get rid of procedures that were discovered to not work for all these types of fields like infection control, fall risks, pain management, medication errors, HA-VTE.....and many others (these are the only ones I can think of immediately.)

Word.

 

[JudgeJoeGorilla]

Bump

 

[Osama-bin Al-ballin]

No

 

[JudgeJoeGorilla]

No

Why?

 

[JudgeJoeGorilla]

Let's keep this discussion going.

 

[JohnCena]

@Basra @Johnathan Smith @JohnCena

yeah Nursing is a science field so by definition it's apart of STEM

 

[JudgeJoeGorilla]

yeah Nursing is a science field so by definition it's apart of STEM

Agreed and that's common sense.

 

[JohnCena]

Agreed and that's common sense.

No joke, Nursing is one of those fields that'll always be in demand and the money is incredible.
Unfortunately it's also one of the toughest careers as well and you have to be very strong willed.

I was actually thinking of being one, but I can't handle gore that well and I'm a pretty big empath so couldn't handle seeing people die regularly.

 

[JudgeJoeGorilla]

No joke, Nursing is one of those fields that'll always be in demand and the money is incredible.
Unfortunately it's also one of the toughest careers as well and you have to be very strong willed.

I was actually thinking of being one, but I can't handle gore that well and I'm a pretty big empath so couldn't handle seeing people die regularly.

You do know that you can be a nurse and not be bedside right? Especially, as an RN. They have a plethora of options.

 

[JohnCena]

You do know that you can be a nurse and not be bedside right? Especially, as an RN. They have a plethora of options.

Oh yeah for sure, but for most roles here(Toronto) , you have to work at a hospital first before you can move up to a different role because they require you to have worked a certain number of hours in that environment.

 

[iskufilann]

I personally believe it does not fall under STEM because nurses learn how to treat patients with medications but they do not focus on the science behind the specific illness they are treating. In order for nurses to be under the STEM category, I'd say they need to do research or prolong their studies to a Doctorate Level so that they can research the disease or that particular illness.