Strategies for Reducing Theory Practice Gap in Nursing Education: An Integrative Review

According to the nature of the nursing profession, the education process is based on two parts of theory and practice. To educate nurses who can provide proper care by health standards, attention to both sectors is essential. However, the gap between the theories of practice is one of the challenges posed in nursing education. So that the approaches of studies in the field of nursing education are also focused on the pathology of this challenge and provide a suitable strategy. This study aimed to provide a solution to close the gap between theory and practice in nursing education. This integrative review uses the key words of nursing education, theory, and practice, a wide search of resources at the WOS, Pub med, Science Direct, Scopus, Iranmadex, Magiran, SID and Google scholar from 2003 to 2018, in English and Persian. Ultimately, 7 articles were included. Data were analyzed based on whitehorse and Knafl (2005) strategy. Based on the results of the studies, reviewing of curriculum, Motivation, cultural competence, appropriate communication between instructors and students, increasing the critical thinking skills of faculty members and students, enhancing the clinical skills of faculty members and using various educational methods, among the effective factors in reducing the gap between theory and practice in nursing education. According to the results of the study, reviewing of curriculum, increasing the critical thinking skills of students and faculty members, enhancing the clinical skills of faculty members and using various education methods in nursing recommended.