Cultural barriers and facilitators for transformative nursing curriculum transformation

Abstract

Successful transformative nursing curriculum implementation can be sustained when the contextual culture is considered. However, implementing a transformative curriculum is met with macro-level challenges with implications for the nursing profession and particularly nursing education. Macro-level challenges include the 4th industrial revolution, socio-political, economic, health trends, and cultural aspects. Inadvertently, culture seems to be an unexplored phenomenon regarding its influence on transformative nursing curriculum implementation. Therefore, the study was aimed at exploring congruency between Basotho culture and transformative nursing curriculum implementation. The intended objectives for this study were to identify the similarities between the Basotho culture and the student-centred approach, and also to establish the related stumbling blocks that impede CBC implementation.A qualitative explorative interpretative approach was used, and a Kawa model was adopted and adapted from clinical use to a data collection tool. The Kawa model uses a river metaphor to explore individuals’ socio-cultural interaction with society and the environmental factors which influence their life flow, therefore likened to educational flow. The adopted Kawa constructs are the ‘river flow’, ‘riverbanks’, ‘rocks, ‘driftwoods’ and ‘spaces’. The sample comprised 14 purposively selected nurse educators. Aligned with Kawa constructs, findings showed multiple subcategories and two themes, namely: ‘power’ and ‘cultural vitality’. The identified cultural barriers and facilitative aspects could be applied during transformative nursing curriculum implementation. Further research is recommended to co-construct a culturally conducive continuous professional development framework to support nurse educators to sustain a transformative nursing curriculum.