ORIGINAL ARTICLE Preparing Baccalaureate Nursing Students for Community/Public Health Nursing: Perceptions of Nurse Educators and Administrators

Background: Educational preparation of baccalaureate nurses remains entrenched in yesterday’s health care, hospital-centric environment. A culture change among nurse educators and in nursing education is needed to prepare competent practitioners capable of practicing from a health promotion / disease prevention, community/ population focused construct. Objective: This study utilized a qualitative phenomenological research design to determine the belief systems and values of baccalaureate nurse educators and administrators in preparing bacca-laureate nursing students for community/public health nursing. Population: Thirteen nurse educators and six nurse administrators from two urban baccalaureate university schools of nursing participated in the study. Methods: An in-depth semi-structured interview based on Kotter’s 8-Step Change model was conducted. Results: Six distinct belief systems and five personal and professional values emerged from analysis of the data. The six belief systems were: health care is really changing, nursing curriculum needs to change, nursing care be-gins in the community, nursing continues to be a growing and emerging profession, the baccalaureate nursing degree needs to be the entry level degree for nursing practice, and the motivation for being a nurse is to help others. The five values were: professionalism, compassionate care, collaborative practice, community service, and honesty, integrity, and credibility. Change, conflict, and challenge emerged as the major themes. Interpreta-tion: A need for re-envisioning nursing education and practice to improve patient care and promote patien