Nursing faculty perceptions of soft skills teaching in undergraduate nursing education: a qualitative study

Soft skills correspond to intrapersonal and interpersonal abilities related to how individuals interact, make decisions, and manage their activities. In the context of undergraduate nursing education, their development is fundamental to the preparation of professionals capable of acting in an ethical, critical, and relational manner, making it relevant to understand how these competencies are incorporated into the teaching and learning process. In this context, the objective of this study is to understand how faculty members in undergraduate nursing programs incorporate soft skills into their pedagogical approaches and practices, identifying the competencies considered essential and the challenges to their implementation.

A qualitative study was conducted with 26 nursing faculty members from four federal public universities in southern Brazil. Data were collected between June and September 2025 through semi-structured interviews, following the criteria of the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research checklist. The interviews were processed using IRaMuTeQ software and analyzed in light of Discursive Textual Analysis.

Three analytical categories emerged: faculty understanding of soft skills in nursing education; pedagogical approaches and strategies for the development of these competencies; and perceived difficulties in their promotion within teaching. The faculty members recognize the relevance of soft skills and report the use of active methodologies and reflective strategies for their development. However, most had not received specific training, and the teaching of these competencies occurs predominantly in an implicit manner.

The findings demonstrate that, although soft skills are widely valued in nursing education, their promotion still lacks pedagogical systematization and institutional support. Challenges such as the subjectivity of these competencies, the prioritization of technical skills by students, and distractions associated with the use of technologies limit their intentional development. These results contribute to the international literature in nursing education by highlighting the need for structured institutional strategies for faculty development and for the explicit integration of soft skills into nursing curricula.