Blocked- and integrated-content baccalaureate nursing programs: a comparative study

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Curriculum Design
• Higher Education

Background:

• Baccalaureate nursing programs utilize diverse curriculum structures, including blocked- and integrated-content approaches.
• Evaluating the impact of these structural differences on key educational outcomes is crucial for program development.
• Faculty satisfaction and student performance metrics are vital indicators of program effectiveness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare blocked-content and integrated-content baccalaureate nursing programs.
• To assess differences in faculty satisfaction, senior students' critical thinking, and state board examination performance.

Main Methods:

• A comparative analysis using one-dimensional, nested multivariate and univariate analysis of variance designs.
• Data collected from 85 faculty members and 230 senior nursing students.
• Assessment of faculty satisfaction across 10 factors, critical thinking ability, and State Board Examination (SBE) scores.

Main Results:

• No significant differences were found in faculty satisfaction based on program content structure.
• No significant differences were observed in senior students' critical thinking abilities between the two program types.
• Students in blocked-content programs demonstrated significantly higher State Board Examination scores compared to those in integrated-content programs.

Conclusions:

• The structure of nursing program content (blocked vs. integrated) does not appear to influence faculty satisfaction or student critical thinking.
• Blocked-content curricula may be associated with improved performance on standardized nursing licensure examinations.
• Further research is recommended to explore the factors contributing to higher SBE scores in blocked-content programs.