Nursing faculty preparedness to teach diverse student populations: An integrative review

The aim of this integrative review was to summarize and synthesize existing quantitative and qualitative literature, exploring nursing faculty preparedness to teach diverse student populations.

The search was limited to the CINAHL database, as preliminary searches of other databases failed to identify nursing education literature not identified in the CINAHL search. Studies were included if conducted in the United States and published in English between from January 2011 to November 2025.

The integrative review was guided by Whittemore and Knafl's (2005) framework and utilized the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool to evaluate the included studies.

Twelve studies (3 qualitative and 9 quantitative) were included in the review. A paucity of findings specific to teaching diverse student populations shifted the focus to the broader concept of faculty preparedness to teach. Four themes related to faculty preparedness emerged: 1) an expressed need for specifically learning how to teach as nursing faculty; 2) expectations of education or employers in preparing nursing faculty to teach; 3) graduate education inconsistently and inadequately preparing nursing faculty to teach; and 4) the impact of nursing faculty being under-prepared to teach on students and faculty, and strategies to address gaps in teaching preparedness.

This integrative review offers the first steps in understanding nursing faculty preparedness to teach, a vital component in describing the current state of nursing education. The lack of literature related to teaching diverse student populations in the United States, highlights a need for additional research.