Content in nurse practitioner education - A scoping review

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Advanced Practice Nursing
• Healthcare Workforce Development

Background:

• The global role of nurse practitioners (NPs) is expanding to meet rising healthcare demands.
• Variations in international NP educational programs present a barrier to role development.
• Understanding NP curriculum content is crucial for standardizing education and practice.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically identify and synthesize the existing research on the content of nurse practitioner educational programs globally.
• To establish a clear understanding of the core components within NP curricula.

Main Methods:

• A comprehensive literature scoping review was conducted, adhering to a six-stage methodological framework.
• Searches were performed across CINAHL, PubMed, and ERIC databases, supplemented by manual reference list searches.
• Deductive content analysis was employed to analyze the curricula content of the 16 selected studies.

Main Results:

• Two primary categories of curriculum content emerged: professional NP role development and preparation for autonomous practice.
• Content related to the professional role included nursing theories, leadership, collaboration, and organizational/political/economic/regulatory/legislative issues.
• Content for autonomous practice encompassed health promotion, disease prevention, and medically oriented clinical topics.

Conclusions:

• The identified curriculum content aligns with internationally recognized core competencies for graduating nurse practitioners.
• This research addresses a gap in recent literature on NP education, advancing knowledge in the field.
• Findings offer practical insights for the development and enhancement of future nurse practitioner educational programs.