DNP Final Report: IMPROVING FACULTY ATTITUDES AND KNOWLEDGE OF UNIVERSAL DESIGN INSTRUCTION: AN EVIDENCE-BASED QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROJECT

With an increasing number of nursing students with disabilities and persistently high student attrition rates, it is essential for faculty to adopt teaching strategies to meet the diverse needs of a growing student population. Faculty, however, often lack the necessary knowledge to implement such strategies. This quality improvement project explores the effectiveness of a multimodal faculty education workshop in improving the perceptions and knowledge of Universal Design Instruction (UDI) among Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) faculty in a Southern U.S. state university. The Inclusive Teaching Strategies Inventory (ITSI) (Lombardi et al., 2011) was utilized as a valid and reliable measurement tool of UDI and disabilities knowledge and attitudes. The findings of this project were positive, and supported the evidence, with a 15.96% increase in faculty perception and knowledge of UDI, which was above the expected outcome. Faculty participant feedback was collected which provided valuable insight as well. Continued development of faculty training programs support students with disabilities. This, in turn, could help reduce nursing student attrition rates, and address the nursing shortage by preparing faculty to deliver inclusive, effective education to diverse nursing cohorts.