International Journal of Nursing Research

Objective To investigate the effectiveness of the “Curriculum Ideological and Political + Narrative Teaching Method” in enhancing nursing students’ caring ability, addressing the challenges of fragmented ideological-political integration and the disconnect between humanistic and technical training in nursing education. Methods A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design was adopted. Fifty nursing students from a university in Yunnan Province were recruited. The four-step teaching approach (“narrative introduction - situational discussion - role-playing - reflection & summary”) was implemented across the Basic Nursing course. A trinity resource library integrating knowledge points, ideological-political objectives, and narrative carriers was constructed, incorporating materials on professional beliefs, ethical norms, and scientific spirit. Changes in caring ability across cognition, courage, and patience dimensions were evaluated using the Caring Ability Inventory (CAI). Results Post-intervention, the total CAI score and scores on all sub-dimensions (cognition, courage, patience) showed significant increases (P < 0.05). Conclusion This model represents the first systematic integration of professional beliefs, ethical norms, and clinical skills in nursing education. It achieves this by leveraging narrative-driven emotional triggering, deep systematic integration of ideological-political elements, and a “practice-reflection” closed loop. This approach provides a replicable solution to the “skills-over-humanities” dilemma, effectively cultivating nursing talents proficient in both technical skills and humanistic literacy.

Curriculum ideological and political education; Narrative teaching method; Nursing education; Caring ability