Promoting patient-centered care in nursing education and the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. Results of a survey of nursing school principals in Germany
Authors: Messer Melanie , Murau Tatjana , Dadaczynski Kevin , Okan Orkan 
Published: January 2024

Background: Patient-centered care is largely determined by the manner in which patients and health care professionals such as nurses interact and communicate. To enable nurses to become familiar with the concept of patient-centered care and to learn concrete approaches to action, the training and qualification phase plays a central role. Although aspects of patient- and person-centered care can be found in the curricula of nursing training, it is unclear to what extent the associated competencies are being taught in nursing schools. Therefore, the aim of the study was to assess the educational goals and expected competencies acquired in nursing training regarding patient-centered care. In addition, it was investigated whether the acquisition of competencies changed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Methods: An online survey was conducted from March to April 2022 among members of the management team of German nursing schools. The questionnaires of N=347 respondents could be included in the analysis. Educational goals were assessed by a self-developed scale with nine items that could be rated on a 4-point Likert scale. The expected acquisition of competencies for patient-centered care were assessed on three subscales rated on a 5-point Likert scale. These focused on I) patient-centered decision making, II) patient-centered communication and interaction an III) patient-centered attitude. Information on sociodemographics, characteristics of the nursing school and digital health literacy was also obtained.

Results: Members of the management team of nursing schools rated education goals regarding to patient centered care as important, with an general mean score of 3.6 (SD .34). Significant age or regional differences could not be found. However, there was a significant difference in gender: Female members of the school management team rated the educational goals as significantly more important overall than male members. The overall mean score in expected acquisition of competencies ranged in the subscales between 3.2 (SD 6.1) and 3.6 (SD .63). No significant sex, age or regional differences could be identified. Regarding the Covid-19 pandemic, about one third of the respondents stated that the acquisition of competences among nursing students has declined in the following aspects: involvement of patients in decision making, participation of patients in care situations as well as needs-based information, counselling, advice and education of patients.

Conclusion: The results indicate that members of the management team of nursing schools highly value patient-centered care as an educational goal. However, they rated the nursing students' acquisition of competency on this issue as mid-level. The Covid-19 pandemic also contributed to a decline in patient-centred care competencies in a significant proportion. These findings should be further researched in future studies and there is as well the need for improving training and qualification programmes in nursing education regarding patient-centred care.