Nursing education is once again at a curriculum impasse due to rapidly changing roles within the nursing profession. Nursing curricula are vital to adequately prepare nursing students for current and future challenges in healthcare. Nursing faculty have struggled with saturation of content for many years and face multiple contributing factors which validate the need for educational reform. As nursing faculty serve as change agents, it is vital to explore their perspectives of curriculum transition to a concept-based model, and further discovery of covert processes impacting the change process are equally essential. Concept-based curriculum (CBC) emphasizes concepts across environmental settings, the life span, and the health-illness continuum. Concepts provide the organizational framework and structure for the curriculum and are the foci within courses. Numerous research studies support the need for a transition to CBC, but minimal research addresses the faculty experiences and perspectives through the curriculum transition. This qualitative research study explored faculty perspectives and experiences of full-time associate degree nursing faculty transitioning to a concept-based curriculum. Semi-structured focus groups were conducted and an inductive content approach to text analysis of transcripts was utilized. The study findings added to the existing body of knowledge on faculty and curriculum change processes, collaborative efforts, shift to conceptual teaching, and the influence on faculty, both personally and professionally. The study revealed that although curriculum transition was initially perceived as exhausting and challenging, the need to overcome current nursing education issues of content-laden and additive curricula superseded participants’ fear, anxiety, and resistance to change associated with the transition. The study further revealed practical preparation and a framework to further guide faculty application of concepts in the curriculum was an essential need, and early engagement or inclusion of faculty in the transition would promote faculty empowerment, relieve anxieties, and increase personal and professional self-confidence.
Keywords: nurse educators, nursing education, concept-based curriculum, ADN faculty,
faculty perspectives, faculty experiences, and curriculum transition or change