Health education in baccalaureate nursing curriculum: myth or reality?

This survey of baccalaureate nursing curricula was conducted to identify content and methods being used to help students develop beginning competence in health education. Catalogs from 200 schools revealed only minimal explicit attention to the teaching role of nurses. The 36 schools which gave evidence of health education and sent course materials showed little agreement on what health education encompassed or what reasonable expectations were for the baccalaureate nursing student. While there can be no generalization of these findings to baccalaureate nursing education, serious questions are raised concerning the thoroughness with which nursing educators are treating the health education component of the baccalaureate curriculum. Given the centrality of health education to prevention, health promotion, greater client control over his own health, reduced anxiety and more appropriate utilization, it would appear that health education is scarcely an area to be dealt with superficially in baccalaureate nursing education.