Benefits of a concept-based curriculum in nursing education

Today’s nursing students are expected to master an ever-growing body of knowledge in a shorter timeframe. This content overload can feel overwhelming for both students and faculty. Traditional curricula often include repetitive material while leaving critical gaps. At the same time, nurses must be prepared as generalists — able to transfer knowledge across diverse patient scenarios.

Leading organizations — including the Institute of Medicine, National League for Nursing, American Association of Colleges of Nursing, and the Carnegie Foundation — have called for transformative changes in nursing education to meet the demands of today’s health care.

A concept-based curriculum offers an effective solution. It equips students with essential knowledge while fostering critical thinking, clinical judgment, and collaboration skills — key competencies for delivering high-quality patient care.

What is a concept-based curriculum in nursing?

Concept-based learning focuses on big ideas and teaches students to organize and apply information rather than simply memorize isolated facts. Instead of emphasizing rote recall, this approach centers on understanding broad principles (concepts) that can be applied to multiple clinical situations.

At its core, concept-based learning challenges students to think critically and use prior knowledge to navigate new scenarios. Nursing leaders increasingly recognize its benefits for:

• Addressing diverse learning styles
• Managing growing volumes of content efficiently
• Developing essential critical thinking and problem-solving skills

Nursing leaders are recognizing the merits of a concept-based curriculum to provide a structured framework for learning outcomes, instructional delivery, lesson objectives, and assessments. Students explore concepts tied to patient care and examine interconnected examples. This helps them identify patterns and apply knowledge across varied conditions.

Key benefits of concept-based learning for nursing students

We've found that a concept-based curriculum:

• Helps students take a more active role in their learning using the “flipped classroom” model of instruction
• Streamlines content and eliminates content redundancies across courses
• Helps students apply concepts from one situation to another — and make connections between those concepts
• Encourages students to see patterns across concepts and use those patterns to deliver care and anticipate risks
• Supports systematic observations about events or conditions that influence a problem
• Encourages students to think at more elevated levels
• Leads to higher levels of retention

Advantages for nursing faculty and educators

And students aren’t the only ones who benefit from a concept-based curriculum in nursing. For faculty, we've found that a concept-based curriculum:

• Reduces content overload
• Mitigates concerns with trying to "cover everything”
• Enables faculty to teach clinical reasoning skills more easily
• Meets the needs of diverse learners more effectively
• Allows faculty to concentrate on preparing learners for professional success

But don’t take our word for it. We asked some of our nursing educators with expertise in concept-based curriculum design to tell us about how they’ve seen improved outcomes using a concepts-based approach:

Implementing concept-based learning with Lippincott® CoursePoint

Lippincott CoursePoint for Nursing Concepts is a comprehensive solution designed to make concept-based learning simple and effective. It combines the best evidence-based nursing education resources with advanced tools for adaptive learning, formative assessment, and student progress monitoring. And we don’t stop there — our solution includes a dedicated support system to ensure seamless implementation and ongoing technology assistance.

Our Lippincott nurse educator experts organize trusted content by concept and exemplar — covering 66 commonly taught concepts and nearly 640 supporting exemplars. With more than 10,900 digital textbook readings drawn from our trusted resources, all content is structured to help students succeed.

View a list of our textbooks, concepts, and exemplars for LPN and RN.

To ensure effective evidence-based teaching that meets the needs of diverse teaching styles and learning preferences, CoursePoint for Nursing Concepts goes far beyond textbook readings. We provide a rich variety of resources, including:

• 2000+ journal articles from respected nursing journals
• 340+ videos
• 50+ animations
• 160+ interactive case studies
• 6 interactive tutorials
• Dosage calculation quizzes
• Curated web links covering 60+ topics
• Spanish-English glossary
• Sample heart and breath sounds
• Movie viewing guides
• Nursing interview guides
• Physical assessment guides
• Procedure checklists

The content you trust for the concepts you teach

Comprehensive

With Lippincott CoursePoint for Nursing Concepts, all concepts and exemplars are covered through nursing education resources including the latest, evidence-based content from journals and Lippincott® Advisor for Education.

Customizable

Customizable to meet your curriculum’s specific needs, our flexible platform enables you to tailor the content you trust for the concepts you teach.

Adaptive, measurable

Adaptive quizzing, powered by PrepU, helps students master course concepts while giving you powerful data to measure your students’ progress at every step.

Training services and personalized support

To ensure your success, our dedicated educational consultants and training coaches will provide expert guidance all along the way.

Want to learn more about how to implement Lippincott’s CoursePoint for Nursing Concepts for your concept-based nursing curriculum?

Complete the form or get in touch directly with your local Wolters Kluwer sales rep today. They can walk you through your options and opportunities for the very best in concept-based nursing instruction.