Health Equity in Undergraduate Prelicensure Nursing Education: Curricular Document Analysis

Background: A nursing workforce who can provide effective and excellent care by addressing complex factors influencing health equity is needed. Education plays an important role in preparing nurses to take up this challenge; however, whether key health equity topics are included in nursing curriculum is largely unknown. Method: Directed content analysis and descriptive statistics were conducted to describe if and to what extent health equity topics related to governance and policy, history and historic context, and cultural and social values were explicitly presented in curricular documents across three nursing programs. Results: Health equity content was identified in many of the 197 course documents; however, the amount of content varied widely, and important areas to be strengthened were identified. Conclusion: There remains opportunity to center health equity as a focus in nursing curricula. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing Essentials is a timely framework for assessing and enhancing equity content.