National Clinical Graduate Nursing Faculty: Management of Multiple Chronic Conditions

The purpose of this project is to compare clinical graduate nursing faculty self-perceived knowledge with actual knowledge on the management of symptomatic multiple chronic conditions (MCCs) through a psychometrically reliable and valid 46-item objective examination. Methodology included three separate e-mail communications to more than 800 U.S.-based graduate nursing school or program chairs, deans, or directors encouraging faculty participation. One hundred and six respondents initiated the survey and over half of the participants withdrew from completing in its entirety, making it difficult to correlate self-perceived knowledge with actual knowledge. The results, however, show an overall mean score of below average pass rate. This study has been performed in undergraduate, graduate, and clinical graduate nursing faculty—suggesting a serious concern in clinical nursing education and clinical practice to meet the complex care needs of the largest, fastest-growing, and costliest U.S. patient population—those with MCCs.