Background: Nurses are expected to support people to self-manage. Student nurses therefore need to master competencies that include the assessment of peoples' needs and preferences, and shared decision-making, whilst respecting and enhancing peoples' autonomy. Adapting nurse education programmes to meet this goal requires insight into the practice of teaching self-management support. In order to reveal this practice, one can distinguish between the intended, the taught, and the received curriculum.
Objectives: This study aimed to explore how Dutch Bachelor of Nursing students are educated to support peoples' self-management in clinical practice.
Design: Mixed methods.
Methods and Participants: Focus group meetings with 30 lecturers, and qualitative semi-structured interviews with four coordinators and four (associate) professors of four Dutch schools for Bachelor of Nursing. Syllabuses were screened for learning objectives related to self-management. A survey measuring self-efficacy and behaviour regarding self-management support was distributed among 444 final-year students of these schools, resulting in 238 valid responses (response rate 53.6%).
Results: Much attention is paid in the curriculum to assessment of people's preferences and healthcare education but less attention is given to teaching the arrangement of follow-up care. The study further reveals that students have problems transferring theory into practice, and that they experience conflicting values between their nurse education and internships.
Conclusions: Currently, students are taught to provide people with self-management support by learning about theoretical models, developing communication skills, and reflecting on their internships. This approach seems inadequate to prepare students for this task in daily practice. A shared view on self-management support based on authentic situations, having role models at university and on internships and empowering students may enable them to better support people to self-manage.

, , , , ,
doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2018.06.005, hdl.handle.net/1765/108979
Nurse Education Today
Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management (ESHPM)

van Hooft, S., Becqué, Y.N. (Yvonne N.), Dwarswaard, J., van Staa, A., & Bal, R. (2018). Teaching self-management support in Dutch Bachelor of Nursing education. Nurse Education Today, 68, 146–152. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2018.06.005