Curriculum mapping for AACN Essentials 2021 Adoption: Experiences of a faculty domain team in evolving understanding of person-centered care

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) periodically updates its Essentials guidelines to evolve nursing curriculum to meet global healthcare demands. The AACN 2021 Essentials outline core competencies that address diverse patient needs and promote safe and effective nursing care. Curriculum mapping is used to align nursing programs with the AACN Essentials. The purpose of this qualitative focus group was to engage faculty in identifying and describing the competencies and sub-competencies of AACN 2021 Essentials Domain Two, Person-Centered Care (PCC), through the application of an interactive activity within a domain team. The interactive activity involved faculty members reflecting on their perspectives by writing down their interpretation of PCC on flower petals. These petals were arranged onto a unified flower display representing the department's view on Person-Centered Care. This exploration occurred during a one-day curriculum mapping at Kennesaw State University Wellstar School of Nursing in North-Central Georgia. Data was obtained using the flower petal activity with a sample size of 24. A thematic analysis revealed that (n = 13) of faculty responded with an action term, 33% (n = 8) of faculty responded with an attitude term, and 13% (n = 3) of faculty responded with both action and attitude terms when describing their perception of the PCC domain. The results indicated that most faculty view the PCC domain in terms of attitudes more than demonstrable action. These findings may be used to encourage faculty to incorporate more attitude-based learning strategies into their courses while adopting the AACN 2021 Essentials.