Evaluating the efficacy of an integrated curriculum on adolescent health and development for pre-service nursing education in Hong Kong

Background: An integrated adolescent curriculum on health and development (ADH) was implemented in a pre-service nursing programme in a university. Aim: This study examined the efficacy of an ADH curricular framework in improving the competency variables of student nurses in delivering ADH services. Method: The design of the study was quasi-experimental with the systematically designed ADH training curriculum as an intervention. Pre- and post-tests incorporating an experimental group and a control group for a sample of 101 student nurses were used. Findings: Reports from 50 student nurses in the experimental group indicated that there was a significant increase from the pre-test to the post-test phase in the total score for the variables in the ADH Competency Checklist (Z = -5.71, p < 0.001) and its four subscales: the professional development subscale (Z = -5.37, p < 0.001), the psychosocial and physical well-being subscale (Z = -5.66, p < 0.001), the health behaviours and lifestyles subscale (Z = -5.07, p < 0.001), and the identity and reproductive health subscale (Z = -4.86, p < 0.001). Significant changes were detected in the ADH competency variables for the control group in the post-test phase. Conclusion: The findings reveal that the systematic integration of ADH in the nursing curriculum had the positive impact of increasing the competency of student nurses for the examined variables. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.