Competency-based construction of a comprehensive curriculum system for undergraduate nursing majors in China: an in-depth interview and modified Delphi study

Ann Palliat Med. 2022 May;11(5):1786-1798. doi: 10.21037/apm-22-471.

Abstract

Background: The traditional nursing undergraduate curriculum is deeply influenced by the medical curriculum, and there are problems such as uneven distribution of theoretical and practical class hours, and a high proportion of subject-related knowledge points. The lack of nursing characteristics is not conducive to improving the competency of nursing students. After two rounds of Delphi consultation, the opinions of the expert group tended to be concentrated, and finally a comprehensive curriculum system for undergraduate nursing was constructed according to the future development trend of nursing in China.

Methods: The research is carried out in three stages: (I) the literature on comprehensive nursing undergraduate comprehensive curriculum construction at home and abroad in the past 5 years is reviewed to understand the current situation of domestic and foreign nursing undergraduate comprehensive curriculum construction; (II) conduct semi-structured interviews with nursing education experts and nursing professional teachers to preliminarily determine the indicators of the comprehensive curriculum system for nursing undergraduate majors based on competency; (III) experts who are proficient in nursing undergraduate education knowledge are invited to conduct two rounds of modified Delphi surveys, and finally complete the construction of the curriculum system of this research.

Results: On the basis of interviews with experts and teachers, 5 course groups (first-level indicators) and 16 professional comprehensive courses (second-level indicators) were finally constructed after two rounds of expert consultation. The coefficient of variation of index was 0.000-0.112. The effective recovery rate of the two rounds of expert consultation questionnaires was 100%, the expert authority coefficients was 0.940 and 0.961, the expert opinion coordination coefficient was 0.263 and 0.275, P<0.001. The highest weight of the first-level indicators in this study is the professional core course group (0.333). Among the secondary indicators, nursing humanistic cultivation and professionalism (0.750) and nursing education theory and practice (0.528) accounted for a relatively high proportion.

Conclusions: Correspondence experts in this study are highly motivated, coordinated, and authoritative, and the indicators constructed are scientific and reliable. This study is expected to provide a curriculum framework for the construction of a comprehensive curriculum system for undergraduate nursing in China.

Keywords: Nursing; baccalaureate; competency-based theory; curriculum; education.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • China
  • Curriculum
  • Delphi Technique
  • Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate*
  • Humans
  • Students, Nursing*