Emancipatory Knowing: Empowering Nursing Students Toward Reflection and Action

Nursing students in the 21st century are entering highly complex health care systems that require advocates for social justice and human rights on behalf of patients. Nurses are well positioned as patient advocates. This article presents a brief overview of the historical and theoretical perspectives underpinning emancipatory knowing and proposes several methods nursing faculty can use to empower nursing students to provide care informed by this way of knowing. Nursing faculty are urged to adopt a curriculum that supports an emancipatory and caring praxis and to mentor students to provide care supportive of social justice, particularly for the vulnerable and marginalized members of society. Nursing students who learn to embrace and value emancipatory knowing during their educational program may likely continue this praxis after they graduate.