Bioscience in the pre-registration curriculum: finding the right teaching strategy

With the transition of pre-registration nursing programmes into higher education, a disproportionate number of problems have arisen in relation to the bioscience component of the curriculum. Therefore, a survey was undertaken to obtain the views of students (n = 294) and staff (n = 57) to identify effective teaching strategies to facilitate students' learning and understanding of this difficult area of the curriculum. In contrast to the staff, the majority of students found all three teaching strategies (lectures, tutorials and laboratory sessions) of approximately equal value to their learning and practice. Our findings suggest that students' problems with the biosciences could be ameliorated by adjustments in curriculum apportionment. Our data would support the continuation of lead lectures and laboratory work in bioscience. However, a tutorial system, specifically designed to overcome the particular difficulties experienced by nursing students in this area, is needed. This should augment, not replace, lectures and teaching laboratories. There was little indication that such a redistribution of resources would be favoured by the majority of the staff.