The Current State of Education on Burns and Trauma in Basic Nursing Curricula

Abstract

 In order to elucidate the current state of education on burns and trauma in basic nursing curricula, we conducted an online survey among educators at 265 institutions, covering topics including educator attributes, course content, and educational difficulties. We performed descriptive statistics on quantitative items and qualitative descriptive analysis of free-response items. Forty-nine educators responded (response rate 18.5%). Respondents averaged 15.7±8.7 years of experience teaching nursing, and 11.3±7.5 years of nursing experience. Of these, 31 (63.3%) had clinical burn and/or trauma nursing experience. Approximately 60% of institutions provided education on burns and trauma, but only for an average of approximately one class session. Less than 30% of institutions provided students with clinical training involving burn and/or trauma patients. Course content was focused on medical knowledge and physiological evaluation. Categories of educational difficulties included “difficulties in teaching multifaceted content covering complex pathophysiology,” “difficulties in student understanding,” and “difficulties developing courses conforming to clinical practice.” These results show that there are insufficient opportunities to learn about burns and trauma in basic nursing curricula, and that institutions do not provide sufficient coverage of the care process required for these patients to recover. We believe that continuing education programs should account for these insufficiencies.