Nurse Faculty Experiences Teaching Chronic Illness Self-Management Concepts: An Exploratory Study

The aim of the study was to explore how nurse faculty prepare students to teach chronic disease self-management.

Self-management addresses patient activities in response to a change in baseline health. Evidence suggests nurses may not be educated on how to engage patients in chronic disease self-management.

This qualitative study used semistructured interviews to explore experiences of 13 nurse faculty across three universities in preparing nursing students to address self-management concepts for adults living with chronic disease.

Three themes emerged from 104 identified significant statements: conceptualizing and valuing chronic disease self-management in nursing education, making chronic disease self-management fit, and sharing the impact of health care reform on chronic disease care.

Self-management is regarded as highly complex and evolving. As such, nursing education curricula must also evolve to emphasize successful approaches to preventing chronic disease and incorporating chronic disease self-management and behavior modification in the curriculum.