Chapter 8: Journeys Out of Place: Nursing Students and Spatiality

In this chapter, I discuss some of the ways in which nursing students in Scotland experience spatiality in the context of the placement, an aspect of the curriculum with special significance to nursing students. By spatiality, I mean simply the human relationship to spaces, such as lecture theatres, hospitals, or a “room of one’s own.” I will argue that, as embodied beings, we are inherently spatial and must experience space(s) in some way or another. This experience of space (s) can be enriching, frustrating, useful, or useless for any particular individual. Because spatiality is a global concept that encompasses a number of different topics, spatiality can be a useful way into the study of student experience. In order to analyse the complexity of spatial experience however, I will propose a structural model of that experience which points to it having three “dimensions”—proximity, mobility and possession. These are necessary features of being-in-the-world. Although these dimensions are common to all spatial experience, the nursing student experience of space is particularly rich. It is also of interest in relation to current concerns about nurse recruitment and retention. I will have more to say about the background of nurse education below.