Quality study on the demands of nursing education in the chronicity and disability era

Aim: Through a qualitative descriptive study, researchers explored whether higher nursing education can meet complex needs of nursing job in the Era of chronicity and disability in China. Then propose some innovation measures about nursing education. Design: a qualitative descriptive study method was designed for this study. Setting: This study was done in three hospitals, two community clinics and three medical universities of Shanxi province, China. Subject: A stratified purposive sample of 5 internists, 6 nurses and 6 patients suffering from chronic diseases from three hospitals, 4 doctors and 4 nurses from two community clinics, 6 student nurses and 6 senior nurse students from three medical universities was used. Method: The study used the research strategy of qualitative description. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted using a set of questions. The data collected in the interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis, and the themes were abstracted by analyzing, concluding interview material. Results: seven dominant themes were identified by analysis. They revealed an actuality knowledge and competence of clinical nurses, community nurses, and student nurses about chronicity and disability, and patients’ actual needs. As a result, it was expected that graduated nurses can service and care better for chronic diseases patients. Conclusion: The actual training objectives, educational philosophy and curriculum content of domestic nursing higher education, to some extent, are not suitable for capability and quality requirement of nurses in the chronicity era. Meanwhile, teaching and evaluating methods are not beneficial to the students to master the skills needed to care the chronicity and disability. Therefore, some items related with chronicity and disability should be added, such as prevention and health care, health promotion, health education and so on. The related philosophy and thinking should be integrated into nursing education goals. The teaching and evaluating methods should focus on hospital and community practice.