Recentering on the Essentials: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Survey of Academic Coordinators' Perspectives on Student Self-Care in Nursing Curricula.

INTRODUCTION

The increasing complexities and demands of modern nursing practice necessitate a shift in educational priorities toward a more holistic and integrated model. This approach promotes the concurrent development of students' theoretical knowledge, clinical skills, and self-nurturing abilities. As key stakeholders, academic coordinators play a central role in incorporating nursing student self-care into education; however, their perspectives have been underrepresented in the existing research.

AIM: Informed by Dossey's theory of integral nursing, this study aimed to explore academic coordinators' perspectives on how nursing student self-care has been taught and assessed in participating Indonesian nursing education institutions.

METHODS

A multicenter cross-sectional descriptive study incorporating quantitative and qualitative approaches was conducted. An online survey with both closed and open-ended questions was used to collect data across 13 institutions, with a total 25 academic coordinators invited to participate. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and summative content analysis. Responses were analyzed at the academic coordinator level.

RESULTS

The intention-action gap, which illustrates the divergence between what respondents rated as necessary to teach and their actual self-care teaching practice yielded positive values across all self-care dimensions. Three key themes were identified: navigating challenges, differences in teaching and assessment approaches, and envisioning future change.

CONCLUSION

The findings suggest that less emphasis was placed on teaching nursing student self-care across the participating institutions, with opportunities for improvement across all dimensions. Discrepancies between the two datasets also emerged, potentially reflecting a complex interplay between structural and cultural dimensions shaping self-care. Nursing student self-care integration into education should go beyond isolated initiatives to foster synergetic structural and cultural transformations to create a supportive learning environment that embodies and reinforces self-care. This will encourage students to recognize self-care as a foundation for personal well-being and professional practice, aligning with contemporary nursing education's core value of caring for others and oneself.