Phenomenology of Affective Domain, Neglected Element of the Nursing Curriculum

One of the principles that should always be considered in designing curriculum, pursuing the goals and content of the curriculum in three dimensions: cognitive, affective and psycho-motor. If one of these dimensions be neglected in the curriculum, the curriculum will lose its balance and will not lead to sustainable learning. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the attention to the emotional domain in the nursing curriculum.
This research method is qualitative and phenomenological which was conducted in 2014. The research population included a fourth-year nursing students at the Urmia University of Medical Sciences. 14 students were interviewed using purposive sampling. The recorded interviews were transcribed and were analyzed by Diekelmann approach. To ensure the validity of the findings the validity of respondent and member check were used.
After collecting data using Diekelmann’s seven steps approach, information was analyzed. After analyzing the data, five obtained main themes are: Lack of student’s interest in their field of study, Lack of motivation to learn new things, Lack of sufficient attention to the interests and preferences of students by Professors, Negative attitude towards the content of some courses, Negative attitudes about education in clinical situations.
The findings showed that the nursing curriculum designers and implementers have failed to pay attention to the affective domain in their curriculum and focus more on achieving cognitive and psycho - motor goals.