Baccalaureate Nursing Curriculum: Its Adjustment with Burden of Diseases as “Disability Adjusted Life Years” in Iran

Introduction: Nursing education has to be planned considering the community’s health needs based on the most recent criteria introduced by World Health Organization. The purpose of this study was to determine whether nursing curriculum conform to the burden of diseases as Disability Adjusted Life Years in Iran in 2003. Methods: In this comparative study, the etiology of burden of diseases based on Disability Adjusted Life Years was extracted from the World Health Report (2003). Then the number of credit hours in the baccalaureate nursing curriculum assigned to these etiologies was determined and reported as frequency. Results: The proportion of credit hours in nursing curriculum assigned to psychiatric, cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal and sensory disorders as well as intentional and non-intentional accidents, nutritional deficiencies, and congenital anomalies was less than the proportion of burden of diseases as Disability Adjusted Life Years related to these diseases. This proportion was more than optimum level concerning infectious diseases, maternal and antenatal problems, endocrine, genitourinary and dermatologic diseases, and at an optimum level for musculoskeletal disorders and malignant neoplasms. Conclusion: A more precise revision of baccalaureate nursing curriculum considering the above mentioned diseases is recommended.