Tuning Nursing Educational in an Italian academic context.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Higher Education Reform
• Competence-Based Education

Background:

• The European Union's Bologna Process promotes a common European competence-based educational framework.
• Nursing education globally is transitioning to higher education, presenting diverse systems.
• The Tuning Educational Structures project offers a framework to implement Bologna Process principles.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the relevance of 40 competences for Italian nursing Bachelor's and Master's Degrees, as defined by the Tuning Methodology.
• To understand Italian nursing university lecturers' perceptions of these competences.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional survey was conducted in four Italian universities offering nursing degrees.
• 164 nursing lecturers evaluated 40 competences using a four-point scale for Bachelor's and Master's education relevance.
• Frequency analysis was performed on the collected data.

Main Results:

• Italian lecturers rated the Tuning competences as highly significant, with partial overlap with the original European study.
• For Bachelor's degrees, skills in nursing interventions, practice, and clinical decision-making were most relevant.
• For Master's degrees, leadership, management, and team competences were prioritized.

Conclusions:

• Italian nursing lecturers widely accepted the Tuning Nursing Project.
• The competence-based approach aids reflection on current Italian nursing education.
• It fosters shared visions and common approaches between Italian and European nursing educators.