CRITICAL CARE COMPONENT OF UNDERGRADUATE NURSING EDUCATION: A STUDY OF PERCEPTIONS OF ASSOCIATE DEGREE AND BACCALAUREATE DEGREE NURSING FACULTY AND STUDENTS

This study compared the perceptions of Associate
(ADN) and Baccalaureate (BSN) nursing faculty and
students regarding undergraduate critical care
nursing education.
The purposes were to: 1) identify attitudes
and beliefs of ADN and BSN nursing faculty and
students regarding undergraduate critical care
nursing education; 2) explore the extent to which
faculty perceptions differ in relation to student
perceptions; 3) explore the extent to which faculty
perceptions differ in relation to the types of program
in which they are teaching; 4) explore the extent
to which faculty perceptions differ in relation to
their demographic and biographic characteristics; and
5) explore the extent to which student perceptions
differ in relation to students in the alternative
program of study. The Critical Care Nursing Education
Questionnaire, was developed for use in this study by
the investigator and administered to 50 Associate and
Baccalaureate nursing faculty and 211 Associate and
Baccalaureate nursing students. Descriptive and
inferential statistical procedures were used to
analyze the group responses. Significant differences
were identified by ANOVA testing of the eight null
hypotheses and led to rejection of four null
hypotheses at the .05 level of significance.
Perceptions of faculty regarding undergraduate
critical care nursing education include:
1> instruction should be offered at the baccalaureate
level of undergraduate nursing education; 2) students
should be permitted to perform critical care nursing
procedures under the guidance of a critical care nurse
or nursing instructor; 3) such instruction should be
general in nature, offered over one full semester with
between 48 and 96 hours of clinical experience;
4) instruction should be an elective available to all
senior students; 5) the intensive care unit is not
threatening for students, rather undergraduate
critical care nursing education helps students gain
confidence in their basic nursing skills; and 6) upon
graduation, students should not be expected to function as practitioners of critical care nursing.
Students were in stronger agreement with such
instruction being required in all undergraduate
nursing programs. Baccalaureate students were more
likely to believe that upon graduation the nurse
should have the knowledge and skill to function as a
beginning practitioner of critical care nursing.
All faculty and students indicated that
undergraduate exposure to critical care nursing is
important.