ABSTRACT

Background: The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) recently developed new essentials for nursing programs to use as a framework to prepare students to work in healthcare. “These Essentials introduce 10 domains that represent the essence of professional nursing practice and the expected competencies for each domain” (AACN, 2021 , pg 1). “In addition to domains, there are featured concepts associated with professional nursing practice that are integrated within the Essentials. A concept is an organizing idea or a mental abstraction that represents important areas of knowledge” (AACN, 2021, pg 11).
Purpose/Objective: The purpose was to create a way to teach the 4Ps of master’s curriculum while incorporating the 8 concepts associated with the domains in the AACN essentials.
Methods: Development of a master’s level course to include the 4 Ps (pathophysiology, pharmacology, physical assessment, health promotion). The course created included the 4Ps and 8 concepts. The course addresses the 8 concepts by providing assignments related to each concept that are tied together by a culminating case study presentation written by the students incorporating the 4Ps and 8 concepts.
Results: The students were able to complete the case study assignment and successfully address the 4Ps and 8 concepts listed in the AACN.  The course allowed the students to learn about the 4Ps without having to take a different course for each topic.
Conclusions: : One course can teach the 4Ps and the 8 concepts associated with the AACN domains is an achievable goal while not overloading students with content.