Chloe Allen Maycock and Dr. Cynthia O’Neill Conger, Nursing
My ORCA grant resulted in a 50 page thesis that I submitted for graduation with University Honors. The thesis was completed between April 1997 and August 1998. The focus of my thesis was change in nursing curricula. The convergence of change and nursing curricula are inevitable. In order to understand the underlying forces of change relating to nursing curricula, change, curricula, and the cumulative implications for nursing practice and education were reported. These concepts provided the foundation and significance for research questions aimed at determining why and how nursing curricula are changing. Research questions included: (a) are nursing curricula changing to accommodate shifts in health care delivery nationwide; (b) are nursing curricula changing by increasing community-focused nursing content; (c) does a review of literature substantiate responses from survey participants; and (d) are there additional areas of concern for nursing schools not already acknowledged by the researcher?
I looked at schools both changing and not changing in conjunction with changes that are taking place in the health care delivery system. The thesis utilized two questions contained in a research survey conducted by Professors Abegglen, Conger and Baldwin of the College of Nursing. The research instruments included a demographic questionnaire and accompanying survey. Requested demographic information included baccalaureate program, regional and population distribution, hospitals in community, access to technology, and community health nursing faculty. The portion of the survey pertinent to the above research questions included the following questions:
1. Has the curriculum in the college/school of nursing changed or is a change being planned?
2. If yes to #1, please describe the changes made or planned.
3. If yes to #1, for what reasons have changes been made or planned in the curriculum?
4. If no to #1, why are changes not planned?
A cover letter describing the study accompanied each survey and invited participation. Completion of the instrument indicated implied consent to participate in the study. Confidentiality was assured by removing identifying names of respondents or their respective colleges or schools of nursing from any instruments used. Instruments were coded with a number and a list of code numbers was formulated that matched colleges/schools of nursing.
Data was managed using ETHNOGRAPH v.4.0 (Seidel, 1995). Each survey question and its correlating research question were entered into separate fields and examined for qualitative and quantitative content. Demographic data was analyzed using SPSS/PC+4.0 for Windows (Norusis, 1990).
The data indicated that nursing schools (88% of total sample) are indeed changing to accommodate shifts in health care delivery. Some variation based on geographic locality and community classification was evident. Analysis of reported change versus geographic location indicated coastal areas as the largest concentrated areas of changing nursing programs. Although more schools in the northeast are not changing than incorporating change, many reporting no change may have already incorporated change in their baccalaureate program. No significant variation was evident based on number of managed care hospitals in the area.
The reasons reported for change coincided with those discussed in the literature. Most survey participants (85%) responded that change in the nursing curricula was based on changes in health care delivery and expounded no further. The changes in health care that were included in survey responses directly coincided with those reported in research literature. This change includes a shift away from the medical model of healing towards a more holistic approach to care. Both the literature and survey respondents reported that this holistic approach to health care includes population-focused care.
References
- Norusis, M. J. (1990). SPSS Statistical Data Analysis. Chicago: SPSS, Inc.
- Seidel, J., Friese, S., & Leonard, D. C. (1995). The ethnograph v.4.0: A user’s guide. Amherst, MA: Qualis Research Associates.