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.