Title : Implementing just culture into nursing education
Abstract:
Problem Statement: Just Culture is a framework designed to enhance accountability, safety, and transparency in nursing education by shifting away from punitive responses to errors and near misses (Barnsteiner & Disch, 2012; Boysen, 2013).
Purpose: The purpose of this Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Practice Project (SPP) was to evaluate the impact of a faculty development session on nursing faculty perceptions of Just Culture within an Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) program (Walker et al., 2019).
Methods: A one group pre-test, post-test, post-posttest was used, and it was guided by Lewin’s Change Theory and the Iowa Model of Evidence-Based Practice (Burnes, 2020; Buckwalter et al., 2017). There was a total of nineteen full-time ADN faculty who participated and completed the surveys including demographics, four PI-created seven-point Likert-scale items assessing comfort, readiness, confidence and competence and the Just Culture Assessment Tool–Nursing Education (JCAT-NE) which included six sub-scales. Inclusion Criteria: Participants were 18 years or older, full-time ADN nursing educators in one specific program and had the ability to read and understand English.
Analysis: Descriptive statistics, paired-sample t-tests, and repeated-measures ANOVA demonstrated significant improvements in fairness, error reporting, and behavioral expectations, though trust and continuous improvement scores showed no change.
Implications for Practice: Findings reinforce integrating Just Culture through faculty development to promote non-punitive learning environments, improve safety culture, and prepare future nurses for system-based accountability (Glarcher & Vaismoradi, 2025; Walker et al., 2024).
Keywords: Just Culture, Nursing Education, Faculty Development, Patient Safety, Accountability
