Professional Values Competency Evaluation for Students Enrolled in a Concept-Based Curriculum

Outcomes of Concept-Based Curricula: An Integrative Review

BACKGROUND

Complexity and change in health care environments, the rapid pace of knowledge generation, and changing education policy have led to national calls for change in nursing education. Many nursing programs have adopted a concept-based curriculum (CBC) to address these challenges. Yet, much is still uncertain about the outcomes and effectiveness of CBC, which requires large scale, time-consuming, and resource-intensive change.

METHOD

This integrative review assesses the outcomes of CBC in nursing higher education with a focus on the comparison of CBC to traditional curricula.

RESULTS

The four relevant themes that emerged after an extensive literature review were critical thinking/clinical judgment, NCLEX-RN© (National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses) pass rates, graduation rates, and student satisfaction scores. Overall, the evidence base is not robust. A valid and reliable tool to measure clinical judgment is needed. The review specifically addresses CBC effects on student critical thinking and clinical judgment, traditional outcome metrics, (NCLEX-RN success, graduation rates, and student satisfaction), and other perceived benefits.

CONCLUSION

The authors found promising results on the effect CBC may have on critical thinking and clinical judgment and other perceived benefits. Findings were inconclusive on traditional outcome metrics. [J Nurs Educ. 2024;63(11):725-729.].

The correlates of social determinants to ethico-moral values on professional development of Saudi nursing students

Objectives

This study determined the perceived professional values of nursing students, which are potentially correlated to their individual profiles.

Methods

This study utilized a cross-sectional design using the Nurse Professional Values Scale-Revised (NPVS-R) to determine nursing students' innate professional values. This study recruited 201 nursing students using a total enumeration sampling from Ha'il region, KSA.

Results

In the 26-item NPVS-R scale, item 1 was correlated to academic status at 0.01; item 3 was significantly correlated to gender at 0.01 and fluency in English at 0.01; item 4 was positively correlated to year level and fluency in English language at 0.00 and 0.0, respectively. Additionally, item 5 was found to be correlated to gender at 0.01; item 12 was correlated to gender at 0.01, year level (0.00), and fluency in English (0.01) and item 21 was correlated to gender and year level at 0.00 and 0.01, respectively. Finally, items 7, 22, 23, 24, 25, and 26 were significantly correlated with year level. The items with the highest correlations to the social determinants of the participants belonged to the values, justice and caring. Since nursing is a caring profession, these findings acknowledge that the values embodied by nursing students are critical. This reaffirms that nurses provide care with responsibility and accountability for its outcomes.

Conclusion

In this study, the participants recognized the protection and safety of public health as the most significant professional value. Similarly, patient confidentiality and the active involvement of nurses in professional organizations was highly valued.

Professional Values Competency Evaluation: Comparing Student Written Assignments to Literature Findings

Nurse educators have had no clear evidence-based method to evaluate student competency related to professional values. This article describes a comparative analysis in which the list of professional values identified in a research study of undergraduate prelicensure nursing student assignments was compared with a list identified in an integrative review of nursing literature. Comparative analysis allowed for a categorization of professional values that were either congruent between student assignments and literature, exclusively evident in literature, or exclusively evident in student assignments. Findings may contribute to curricular process improvements promoting professional values development in undergraduate nursing students.