NUR 648 Week 1 Discussion Nursing Education Seminar
NUR 648 Week 1 Discussion Nursing Education Seminar
NUR 648 Week 1 Discussion Nursing Education Seminar
DQ1 What is curriculum development? How does nursing program curriculum remain relevant to broad societal changes, issues, or health care reform?
DQ2 Summarize the National League for Nursing Nurse Educator Competencies and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Competencies and Curricular Expectations. How can you utilize these competencies to inform your decisions in curriculum development? What challenges might you encounter with incorporating these into your teaching practice?
In today’s world there are multiple factors affecting and challenging institutions of higher education, such as shifting resources; internal influences, including changing faculty and student demographics and institutional mission and governance; and external forces, such as health care reform, change of focus from national health to global health, changing societal demographics, market and employment, discipline and professional associations, and accrediting bodies. One major external force affecting curriculum, the Institute of Medicine (IOM, 2003), established competencies for health professions education that were adapted to nursing education, including patient-centered care, informatics, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, and safety. Redesign of the work environment of nurses began in 2003 with Transforming Care at the Bedside (TCAB), funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, with four main components: safe and reliable care, vitality and teamwork, patient-centered care, and value-added care processes. Finkelman and Kenner (2009) discussed the relevance and integration of the competencies to nursing education with development of competencies in knowledge, skills, and attitudes.
Creative, innovative methods of curriculum delivery are being used in an effort to provide cost-effective, quality programming to an increasingly diverse population of students. Flexible curricula are being developed that allow universities to provide programs that quickly respond to the needs of the local, regional, and national constituencies to which they are accountable, including the doctorate in nursing practice (DNP) and clinical nurse leader (CNL). Benefits and risks of changing nursing roles are being discussed and debated (Bargagliotti, 2006; Benner, Sutphen, Leonard, & Day, 2010; Chase & Pruitt, 2006; Cronenwett et al., 2007; Hathaway, Jacob, Stegbauer, Thompson, & Graff, 2006; IOM, 2003; Ironside, 2006; Lancaster, 2006; Lattuca & Stark, 2009; Long, 2004; McCabe, 2006; Porter-Wenzlaff & Froman, 2008; TCAB, 2008). Some authors have asserted that the quickest way to contain university costs and alleviate financial strain is to maintain quality courses yet limit the number of electives offered or to eliminate selected programs of study. At risk is the costly clinical nursing education with a 1:10 faculty-to-student ratio (Fitzpatrick, 2006; IMPAC, 2001).
As institutions of higher education reevaluate how to best achieve their stated missions and position themselves for the future, it is apparent that sweeping changes in higher education are affecting the development and delivery of curricula. Nurse educators in academia also need to be actively involved in exploring cost-effective, comprehensive curricula (American Association of Colleges of Nursing [AACN], 2006; Diefenbeck, Plowfield, & Herrman, 2006; Diekelmann, Ironside, & Gunn, 2005; Fitzpatrick, 2006; Tanner, 2006a, 2006b).
Traditionally, faculty autonomy has been closely tied to curriculum; in fact, faculty are considered to “own” the curriculum. This means faculty are accountable for assessing, implementing, evaluating, and changing the curriculum to assure quality in programs. Monitoring of the “processes and outcomes” to verify currency of the content is a responsibility of the faculty, who must identify problems and offer ideas to resolve the problems. Expert faculty are responsible for mentoring new faculty in the process of teaching curriculum; new faculty are responsible for recognizing whether the program and teaching philosophies are a cultural fit for them. Faculty roles are changing and increasing as curriculum involves more than content, including development of collegiality and integrity among students, establishing clinical partnerships, and advancing with technological changes. A strong knowledge of health care systems is necessary as faculty plan clinicals, provide student supervision, and plan preceptorships in acute care and community-based agencies.
To enhance the success of what has unfortunately become a content-laden curriculum, faculty are becoming more engaged with nurse colleagues in creating evidence-based scenarios and practice opportunities for students to learn the processes of collaboration, inquiry, and “knowing” that are needed to provide safe patient care. Faculty are assuming new teaching roles as high-fidelity simulators, mobile devices, online distance education, and virtual environments accelerate the pace with which students make more sophisticated decisions about complex care. Some faculty are undoubtedly uncomfortable with using these new technologies, not having had previous experience with integrating technology into their teaching practices. Due to rapidly changing societal forces and limited economic resources, faculty will continue to play an important role in curriculum redesign in order to keep curricula contemporary and relevant to practice (Allen & Seaman, 2010; AACN, 2009; Belleck, 2006; Benner et al., 2010; Courey, Benson-Soros, Deemer, & Zeller, 2006; Diekelmann et al., 2005; Frank, Adams, Edelstein, Speakman, & Shelton, 2005; Giddens & Brady, 2007; Jones & Wolf, 2010; Keating, 2006; Larson, 2006; Morris & Hancock, 2008; Nelson et al., 2006; Phillips, Shaw, Sullivan, & Johnson, 2010; Ruth-Sahd & Tisdell, 2007; Skiba, 2006a; Tanner, 2007).
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