Other Titles
Faculty Attitudes Toward the Preparation of Baccalaureate Nursing Students for Practice in Hospital and Non-hospital Settings [Title Slide]
Abstract
The ongoing nursing shortage, worsened in recent years following the COVID-19 pandemic, has resulted in increasing concerns about future deficits in the nursing workforce. Changes in nursing education have been recommended to ensure the next generation of nurses are willing and prepared to meet the needs of an ageing population. Nursing faculty have important roles in the education and mentoring of students to prepare them to care for diverse populations in a variety of practice settings. Understanding faculty attitudes about these changes and whether there are long-held beliefs or ‘sacred cow’ practices that may be challenged is an essential first step.
A descriptive qualitative study was conducted to answer the following research question: What do nurse faculty perceive as priority areas for preparing students for practice, and does this affect their teaching? A sample of 13 participants comprised of nursing faculty from BSN programs across the United States participated in focus group interviews to explore their perceptions of priority areas for the educational preparation of the next generation of registered nurses. A total of three focus group interviews with 4-5 participants each were conducted virtually via Zoom between September and November of 2023. The researcher acted as moderator for all and asked a set of nine questions developed for the purposes of this study. Content analysis was conducted to sort narrative data collected from the interview transcripts into five categories and 16 subcategories. The data were further analyzed to identify a total of five themes of repeating ideas or concepts: Desire for Students to Succeed, Perceptions of Specific Roles/Settings, Comfort in What is Familiar, Acknowledgment of Changes in Nursing, and Faculty Influence on Students.
The findings of this study provide insight into faculty attitudes toward the preparation of students for practice in various settings. It was revealed that nursing faculty generally perceive some roles and practice settings to be more appropriate for new nurses as they enter professional practice, that they prioritize certain areas of content above others, and that their perceptions may affect their teaching in terms of how much focus is given to certain content compared to others. Although further research is recommended to explore this topic, this study provides a basis on which to build the knowledge of this aspect of nursing education.
Notes
Reference list attached as separate document file.
Sigma Membership
Pi Delta
Type
Presentation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Descriptive/Correlational
Research Approach
Qualitative Research
Keywords:
Curriculum Development, Teaching and Learning Strategies, Transition to Practice, Onboarding, Nursing Education, Advances in Education, Nursing Faculty, Baccalaureate Nursing Education
Recommended Citation
Radley, Lisa Victoria, "Faculty Attitudes Toward Preparing BSN Students for Practice in Hospital and Non-Hospital Settings" (2025). Biennial Convention (CONV). 89.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/convention/2025/presentations_2025/89
Conference Name
48th Biennial Convention
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Conference Year
2025
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record. All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository. All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2025-11-26
Faculty Attitudes Toward Preparing BSN Students for Practice in Hospital and Non-Hospital Settings
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
The ongoing nursing shortage, worsened in recent years following the COVID-19 pandemic, has resulted in increasing concerns about future deficits in the nursing workforce. Changes in nursing education have been recommended to ensure the next generation of nurses are willing and prepared to meet the needs of an ageing population. Nursing faculty have important roles in the education and mentoring of students to prepare them to care for diverse populations in a variety of practice settings. Understanding faculty attitudes about these changes and whether there are long-held beliefs or ‘sacred cow’ practices that may be challenged is an essential first step.
A descriptive qualitative study was conducted to answer the following research question: What do nurse faculty perceive as priority areas for preparing students for practice, and does this affect their teaching? A sample of 13 participants comprised of nursing faculty from BSN programs across the United States participated in focus group interviews to explore their perceptions of priority areas for the educational preparation of the next generation of registered nurses. A total of three focus group interviews with 4-5 participants each were conducted virtually via Zoom between September and November of 2023. The researcher acted as moderator for all and asked a set of nine questions developed for the purposes of this study. Content analysis was conducted to sort narrative data collected from the interview transcripts into five categories and 16 subcategories. The data were further analyzed to identify a total of five themes of repeating ideas or concepts: Desire for Students to Succeed, Perceptions of Specific Roles/Settings, Comfort in What is Familiar, Acknowledgment of Changes in Nursing, and Faculty Influence on Students.
The findings of this study provide insight into faculty attitudes toward the preparation of students for practice in various settings. It was revealed that nursing faculty generally perceive some roles and practice settings to be more appropriate for new nurses as they enter professional practice, that they prioritize certain areas of content above others, and that their perceptions may affect their teaching in terms of how much focus is given to certain content compared to others. Although further research is recommended to explore this topic, this study provides a basis on which to build the knowledge of this aspect of nursing education.
Description
Changes in nursing education have been recommended to ensure the next generation of nurses are prepared to meet the increasing demand for healthcare. The findings of this study indicate nursing faculty generally perceive some roles and practice settings as more appropriate for new nurses than others, that they prioritize certain areas of content above others, and that their perceptions may affect their teaching in terms of how much focus is given to certain content compared to others.