Generic and professional outcomes of a general nursing education program--a national study of higher education

Nursing education today is primarily catered within the framework of higher education and combined with a health care sector that is rapidly changing, this has put the focus on educational outcome. The present study focuses on this outcome in terms of generic and professional skills and the professional preparedness of the students. 1,110 students in their final semester of a general nursing program at 24 universities in Sweden responded to questionnaires. The results revealed that the students perceived themselves to have especially developed their information-seeking abilities, critical and analytical thinking and professional knowledge and skills, whereas they did not perceive their education to have similarly developed their understanding of people from other cultures or their engagement in the development of society. Significant differences between men and women in relation to educational outcome were found in almost all areas of the study.