Advanced health assessment in nurse practitioner programs

The purpose of this study was to examine the content, teaching methodologies, depth, and placement of advanced health assessment courses within nurse practitioner programs. Survey research was conducted with 140 schools of nursing listed in the Public Health Service/National Health Service Corp Nurse Practitioner Faculty Network in the United States. The majority of the schools reported that health assessment was taught as a course over an entire semester or quarter in their respective programs. A statistically significant difference was found between private and public institutions in that public institutions used computer assisted instruction (CAI) more often than their private counterparts. Qualitative data revealed that many nursing faculty believe a graduate-level health assessment course should incorporate the concept of differential diagnosis and focus on abnormal findings. Faculty described a wide range of student preparedness and indicated a need to incorporate more CAI and independent learning strategies. A number of faculty mentioned scarce resources and limited time to develop and test new strategies including use of the Internet. Findings reveal commonalties of content, course placement, credit allocation, and teaching strategies, as well as the challenges of diverse student preparation and limited resources.