Curriculum Evaluation
Curriculum Overview, Framework, and Analysis
The healthcare delivery system has been expanding recently because of the inclusion of modern technology and various demographic factors. These changes have led to a significant move in the line of innovation that aims to respond to the changes (Krugman & Goode, 2018). For example, new evidence-based programs have surfaced to respond to various healthcare issues. Various curriculum programs have been developed to equip healthcare professionals with the correct skills and competencies that can aid in solving problems within the healthcare system. The basic nursing curriculum that has been in place for the longest time is the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN). This program is a fundament unit in nursing practice. Therefore, the purpose of this assignment is to evaluate the BSN curriculum and analyze its features and how it helps nursing focus on its current and future goals.
Population of Leaners
BSN is a degree program that equips students with the skills to practice nursing and to advance to registered nurses (RNs). This curriculum provides fundamental and practical nursing skills that allow its graduates to practice nursing effectively. Completing this course is an initial certification toward becoming a registered nurse (Krugman & Goode, 2018). The population of learners in this program includes interested international and local students with the minimum GAP merits from any degree in a related field. The population also includes students or candidates who have earned RN status through an associate degree program and are looking for advancement in their careers.
The Need for BSN Course
The dynamics in the current healthcare system have increased the demand for healthcare professionals. However, the increased demand has been for highly qualified nurses with the correct certifications and qualifications in advanced nursing practice (Parolisi, 2020). The demand has also caused an increase in the population of students and innovation in the nursing delivery system. For example, the current nursing practices have been shifting from general care delivery to client-oriented care, such as home-based care (Krugman & Goode, 2018). These unique nursing delivery models are unavailable in the general population, causing a high demand for qualified nursing practitioners. Therefore, more registered nurses are needed in the healthcare industry for the currently qualified nurses to meet the current healthcare needs. Again, the role of registered nurses has expanded as they are required to undertake complex duties that used to be assigned to doctors. As such, there is an urgent need to obtain a BSN program to satisfy the roles needed in the market. Therefore, the BSN program will enable more healthcare professionals to join the nursing practice.
Mission Statement
The mission statement is a significant aspect of developing a successful nursing program. The mission statement should focus on achieving educational goals for students and equipping them with a holistic view of nursing. This perception trains nurses to commit to achieving the patient-care goal and improving quality of life (Krugman & Goode, 2018). The mission statement for an institution offering a BSN program is to equip the bachelor nurses with skills of undertaking holistic, competent, evidence-based practices and applying ethics in healthcare. These goals are accomplished by equipping the nurses with advanced nursing practice skills. The mission of all institutions offering BSN programs is to transform the narrative in healthcare by allowing nurses to learn additional skills that are significant in solving the current issues affecting healthcare.
Philosophy
The universities offering BSN programs are committed to advancing healthcare quality by offering baccalaureate education programs to nurses. The faculty supporting bachelor’s education in nursing is aligned towards providing a foundational system that equips learners with preparedness skills in their career mores in the current dynamic healthcare environment (Krugman & Goode, 2018). The philosophy of the BSN program matches the mission statement to ensure that they communicate similar culture to the students. For instance, the philosophy represents the core beliefs of patients, higher education, health, and nursing.
In the nursing platform, biological and social components impact healthcare delivery. The healthcare environment that affects the patient wellbeing includes the family, community, cultural background, and socioeconomic status. Most of the current healthcare issues have remained an eyesore because of the inadequate approach to the issues affecting the surrounding healthcare (Iheduru-Anderson, 2021). The BSN program comes with adequate measures that train nurses to look at the complexities in healthcare through the lens of the environment. Approaching the environmental issues and addressing them protects and promote health within the community. Each patient requires a complex holistic approach that would give better patient outcomes. However, solving the complex holistic approach in healthcare requires highly skilled nurse practitioners developed through the BSN program.
Organizing Design and Theoretical Framework or Model
The theoretical framework in the curriculum is based on the formulation of the conceptualization of nursing. This curriculum consists of various concepts derived from behavioral and nursing theories. BSN nursing encourages students to advance from technical rationality to reflective practice. In the current nursing profession, reflective nursing is essential in nursing because it ensures enhanced nursing care (Naicker, & Van Rensburg, 2018). Nurses adopting reflective practice comprehensively understand their actions, which would always improve professional skills. This curriculum focuses on critical thinking in care. Therefore, the framework is based on the integration of theory into practice.
The reflective practice relies on the thinking of early researchers like John Dewey, Jean Piaget, and Kurt Lewin. John Dewey’s theory recommended that an interdisciplinary curriculum focus on connecting more than one subject where students are free to walk in and walk out of the classroom (Naicker, & Van Rensburg, 2018). On the other hand, Piaget’s theory focuses on developing the emotional and cognitive ability of the student, as Kurt Luwin addresses the need for implementing a change. The BSN course would use these theories to design change in nursing.
History of Organizing Design and Theoretical Framework
Early researchers such as Kurt Luwin, Jean Piaget, and John Dewey discuss reflective practice concepts. Donald Schon later introduced concepts of reflection on action and reflection-in-action (Naicker, & Van Rensburg, 2018). In the development of the framework, Schon found that schools fail to teach what practitioners need to solve complexities in healthcare. These inabilities were a major concern of Schon, thus leading to developing a reflective practitioner framework. This system emphasizes what professionals need to learn from their experience. Therefore, nursing students needs to reflect in practice and reflect on practice.
Concepts of Organizing Design and Theoretical Framework
Concepts such as reflection in action and reflection on action are the main concepts of the reflective practitioner framework considered in BSN. These concepts explain how professionals can mitigate various challenges in healthcare and improve practice through improvisation (Naicker, & Van Rensburg, 2018). In nursing, reflection is essential as it offers nurses a unique opportunity to think about their actions and self-evaluation. This concept is vital for a nurse’s transition from RN to BSN program. These concepts apply in the BSN curriculum as they address teamwork and interprofessional collaboration issues.
Goals
The nursing faculty has five main goals: patient safety, competency, and holistic and effective patient-centered care. These goals align with the philosophy and framework of the BSN nursing program (Parolisi, 2020). The goals of the BSN program address all the aspects of nursing and focus on meeting quality and safety outcomes in healthcare.
One of the goals of the student undertaking a BSN program is that students can think critically on issues of nursing and the nursing process to assess and analyze healthcare issues in a given clinical setting (Parolisi, 2020). This goal is important because it allows the students to approach the clinical setting with a broad and wide level of thinking. The changing healthcare systems need students who are aware of the changes and can apply their knowledge from the BSN program to counter the new healthcare concerns.
The second goal of this program is that it would equip students with the skills of advocating for patients. The need to provide better care to all patients, irrespective of their condition, is a culture based on cultural values (Parolisi, 2020). The nurses would adopt effective communication platforms to ensure that patients receive approaches to care and a better outcome. These nurses would also apply various patient measures to improve the overall care process.
The student would also seek educational opportunities to advance their professional growth and acquire more skills in healthcare. The BSN program opens up students’ thinking, allowing them to grab opportunities and equip their professionalism with additional short-term courses that make them skills in healthcare-related issues (Parolisi, 2020). This comes from a nurse with the urge to climb the career ladder in healthcare.
Student Learning Outcomes
Once students have accomplished the program, they will be expected to undertake assignments in contemporary clinic environments. BSN students will be able to integrate clinical thinking and engage in intellectual engagement and use of evidence practice as the foundation of clinical reasoning and the decision-making process (Iheduru-Anderson, 2021). Furthermore, upon completing the program, students will demonstrate cultural sensitivity that will allow them to offer holistic care. The students would also be able to coordinate care and facilitate access to healthcare resources across healthcare. These learning outcomes relate to the AACN essentials of baccalaureate nursing education as they demonstrate students’ ability to deal with a wide range of patients.
Continuous Quality Improvement of BSN
The changing dynamics in nursing would also change this course to meet the new emerging nursing needs. To meet this objective, the nursing committee will force an evaluation team to assess the course every two years and come up with a proposal on topics that should be deleted and added to the course. The stakeholders included in the change include deans of Nursing, student leaders, and the faculty committee. The review team will compare BSN courses with the recent trend and include courses that would equip nurses with the necessary skills in modern nursing.
Evaluation Process
Evaluating nursing programs is important in ensuring that the program’s goals are met. The student’s ability after the program would be evaluated by the number of new approaches and measures designed to counter some of the recent healthcare issues (Krugman & Goode, 2018). The increased development of evidence-based practices by the students would be a sign that the BSN course has heightened their understanding of nursing. These nurses would also be at the forefront in forming nursing and patient policies meant to change their healthcare units’ operations.
The skills of BSN nurses would also be evaluated on their support of preventive care. These would be seen in how they organize health promotions and approach the community healthcare problems (Krugman & Goode, 2018). The success of such holistic approaches would ascertain the value of BSN nurses in modern healthcare.
Course Development and Influencing Factors
Nurse educators teach nurse students in the current curriculum of higher education. They also bear the responsibilities of evaluating, developing, and restructuring the curriculum that meets the needs of these students. The accomplishment of the nurse education tasks involves a strong collaborative framework on the part of faculty members and other outside stakeholders (Iwasiw et al., 2020). The internal and external factors affecting nurse curriculum development are interrelated. They are based on philosophies and individual missions aligned to an institution. In the changing dynamics in healthcare, sometimes it becomes necessary for nursing schools to redesign or add a course to the curriculum that would reflect the noted changes in healthcare. Besides, addressing these changes also ensures that nurses receive the best education that can prepare them to be competent nurses and gain the ability to provide quality care. Therefore, the purpose of this assignment is to examine influencing factors affecting the development of the BNS course.
Course to Include in the BSN Curriculum
Capella University’s curriculum would benefit from including or adding NUR 350 Culture in BSN nursing. This would be a 3-credit hour nursing course added to the current curriculum. This course would help nursing students develop cultural awareness, better communication skills, and effective assessment techniques and skills. The course would also train nurses to develop intervention techniques for approaching various cultures and ethnic communities. The course would benefit nurses when it appears as a first course in the curriculum. The current first course within the university is nurse informatics. However, changing this culture would give students the necessary skills and knowledge to offer culturally competent care. These skills would also positively influence their attitude and thoughts on approaching the remaining courses within the program.
The Rationale for Adding the Course
The current issue affecting the world healthcare system is the integration of cultural evolution in meeting patient outcomes. The recent cultural evolution is bound to challenge all healthcare professionals to embark on a journey to develop culturally congruent nurses who can offer competent cultural care (Iwasiw et al., 2020). The changes in demographic patterns, globalization, increased number of multiracial people, and technological integration are part of the current cultural evolution. These changes would increase the need for nurses to be culturally competent in offering care. The intense political changes across the world have increased the number of documented immigrants in the US, leading to an increase in the population of the minority. These changes have increased multicultural and multiethnic groups, resulting in nurse educators’ need to lead the current change.
Designing the BSN course to meet the current cultural evolution would reflect diverse patient and student populations supporting learning outcomes on cultural competence. The influx of patients and students from different parts of the world would bring a new set of cultures and beliefs that will change the ways of providing care (Chen et al., 2020). The healthcare professionals will be challenged to meet the needs of diverse patients. Therefore, cultural competence is an essential part of the nursing curriculum, and implementing courses like culture in the curriculum would aid future nurses in mitigating the challenge of cultural evolution.
Topical Outline for the Course
NUR 350 Culture in Nursing will include various topics related to culture and diversity. The course outline (Appendix A) would consist of seven major topics that cover various aspects of multiculturism in nursing. The courses will be spread over a seven-week period, allowing students to cover one topic weekly. Exploration and examination of relevant case studies and scenarios would be studied each week to allow students to put what they learn into practice. The course’s final week will require all students to demonstrate their assessment skills in a simulation lab experience. Some of the current courses in the university curriculum will align with the Culture in Nursing course, making it an appropriate choice to add to the education curriculum. For instance, the Health Assessment and Promotion course teaches nurses a holistic approach to nursing. This current course will correspond to the topic in Culture in Nursing called ‘strategies to reduce bias during assessment”. Both courses address health assessment but from diverse perspectives. Therefore, NUR 350 Culture in Nursing would augment the current courses in nursing to equip them with the recent nursing skills.
Collaboration
In the attempt to add a new course to an existing curriculum, collaboration among the interdisciplinary group is essential. Working groups and committees are formed to meet and review the current curriculum and the addition of a new course. The collaboration between deans, school management, students, and staff will define a successful curriculum change. Again, the team composition that will lead the work of developing the curriculum is important as they aid in meeting the desired success (Iwasiw et al., 2020). The collaboration, in this case, would be between groups composed of tenured and untenured faculty with diverse backgrounds and skills, nursing students, and faculty with current experience in practice (Iwasiw et al., 2020). The school support and external stakeholders will also form part of the collaboration, and they can be approached individually to capture their opinion on restructuring the curriculum.
The decision to introduce a new curriculum in the BSN program will be affected by the knowledge of the faculty members, interpersonal dynamics within the school, and the credibility of those supporting the change of the curriculum (Bokonjic et al., 2019). The collaboration between the heads of the faculty and nursing committees would be significant in developing an effective process of changing the curriculum. The said collaboration between the noted stakeholders can be undertaken through zoom meetings, video conferencing, emails, WhatsApp groups, and personal meetings among the institution’s members.
Internal Factors Affecting the Proposed Curriculum Design
Various internal factors affect the curriculum design. These factors include organizational processes, curriculum committees, and internal review bodies. The organization process defines what steps must be taken to approve a change in the curriculum. While some private universities require single approval from nursing faculty, other institutions may need a comprehensive, multilevel approval process involving different committees’ opinions and decisions (Chen et al., 2020). The process developed by the institution complicates or eases the changes in the curriculum. For example, the process, like the annual work cycle, influences the plan for beginning and completing the curriculum development process (Chen et al., 2020).
The curriculum committee is another factor affecting the change of any curriculum. The committees must approve and change the study hours to incorporate the new course. The committees must assess the institution in terms of readiness by determining its current approval process and the channels that will be followed to approve the new course. The approval of changes and curriculum proposals must go through the local level, which is the nursing curriculum committee (Iwasiw et al., 2020). The next level would be the dean and the college committee. Finally, the course would be approved by the all-college curriculum committee, and their recommendation would lead the proposed course to the faculty for final approval.
The internal review process also affects curriculum development. The internal process would include the opinions of the faculty and students. In the event of proposing a new educational program or revising an existing curriculum, thoughts need to be directed to the existing features of faculty and student organization, forming part of the internal review process (Iwasiw et al., 2020). The faculty will decide to participate in the education program because a high student ratio supports the curriculum change. The skills and expertise of the faculty will need to be taken into account because there is a need to have enough faculty teaching the proposed program at the university. For instance, if the program is designed for new nurses, the older nurses looking to obtain BSN would not benefit from the new curriculum.
External Factors Affecting the Proposed Curriculum Design
Funding is an important factor that will affect the curriculum design. Analyzing the proposed program’s finances would provide its developers with important information on the economic aspect of the new program (Bokonjic et al., 2019). Funding affects any potential change, and in this change, funding is a key factor defining its success or failure. A financial assessment and business plan will be done to assess the program would need additional sources of funds to support its implementation.
The stakeholders would as well affect the curriculum development. Involving stakeholders in the early and preceding stages of implementation aids in strengthening their collaboration with the school of nursing (Bokonjic et al., 2019). The stakeholders could as well be institutions that fund the institution and must be included in the considered changes to the curriculum. Failure to consider the stakeholders would affect their approval of the program.
Another external factor affecting curriculum development is the regulatory and accrediting agencies. The accrediting bodies of the institution have set policies and standards that the curriculum must meet. Any proposed change must be submitted to the accreditation bodies for approval. A new or any program under revision must meet state regulations to ensure compliance with the agency guidelines. For instance, the Capella University nursing program is accredited by Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. Therefore, the new course must also meet these standards to be implemented in the curriculum.
Mission, Philosophy, and Parent Institution Impact
A mission statement exists in all organizations and defines the institutions distinguishing character. The mission statement relays more information on some of the values that an organization stand for or seem to be championing (Chen et al., 2020). Most students and stakeholders use the mission statements if they want to be affiliated with a particular school. The parent institution’s mission, philosophy, purpose, and goals communicate more on a nursing program. The nursing school must evaluate itself based on the quality of nursing education, service, and scholarship programs (Iwasiw et al., 2020). The changes in the curriculum program need to support the current mission and values of the nursing school. The curriculum must hold true to the school’s mission and philosophy of the parent institution. For instance, if the current aims to prepare its student for public service, then the nursing school must ensure its current outcomes are consistent with its philosophy. Besides, the nursing graduates need to have a strong foundation in service and patient care.
External and Internal Collaboration
The internal and external stakeholders aim to use the new program to produce nurse graduates who are competent and skilled in every aspect of nursing. These stakeholders present an array of entities within and outside the institutions that aid in creating an effective interprofessional collaboration (Bokonjic et al., 2019). Important goals like curriculum development rely on communication excellence, interprofessional collaboration, and a team-based model to pass through its implementation stage. Therefore, external and internal groups represent interests from different groups that play a significant role in curriculum development.
Importance of Ongoing Evaluation
Curriculum evaluation should be a routine practice throughout the course as it aids in countercheck the impact that the course has on the quality of the course in meeting the desired outcome. Upon the completion of the evaluation, the stakeholders need to examine its benefit to the educators, nursing faculty, and students (Ozen et al., 2019). The aim of changing or introducing a new course in the nursing curriculum is to improve the quality of education and equip the students with the necessary nursing skills that can be important in countering the recent problems in healthcare. Any nursing program that strives for excellence in the desired outcome and teaching will have the ability to produce prudent nurses in the healthcare setting.
The evaluation process can identify merits and demerits within the selected curriculum, which would then trigger reforms that would streamline a course to student success. The evaluation process gives students additional power to give their opinions on a course. Therefore, the expected levels of achievement in any course outcome should be attainable and realistic, geared towards making or training better healthcare professionals (Ozen et al., 2019). Again, student satisfaction is another significant factor to consider when revising or adding a course in the nursing program. The evaluation process benefits students to use self-reflection as part of their formative evaluation process in supporting a particular curriculum change. The increased benefits of a course derived from the evaluation process would imply that adding a course or revising a curriculum would significantly improve the nursing program.
Modifying the curriculum should enhance the achievement of a better outcome in healthcare. These outcomes can include better nursing skills in handling complex nursing issues and reducing medication errors. While interventions such as changing a curriculum should look forward to increasing student retention, stakeholders should evaluate student performance outcomes from the intended learning outcome (Ozen et al., 2019). The results from the student evaluation platform could guide the nursing faculty on how to include or add the course without affecting the learning calendar of students. Besides, the evaluation results could also be used to revise instructions on the new course or change various content on the new syllabus.
List of Criteria for Curriculum Evaluation
The regulating bodies in curriculum development committees have accreditation standards and regulations that guide curriculum change. The summative evaluation is essential in assessing and judging the final outcome of a curriculum change. The content, context, and guidelines of the curriculum could be evaluated using various approved methods (Billings & Halstead, 2019). The Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN) has six standards and criteria that have been used for many years in curriculum evaluation. These standards would be used to assess and evaluate the nursing program’s final outcome.
Mission and Administrating Capacity
The role of the nursing curriculum is to reflect the core role of the learning institution and correspond to the goals and missions of the institution. The nursing program and the entire institution have the mandate and resources to meet the desired outcome if they are committed to seeing the new course thrive in the faculty (Billings & Halstead, 2019). This implies that the implementation of the new course starts with the heads of the institution, who would rally the importance of the new program.
Faculty and Staff
The support from the faculty and staff would also lead to a positive course outcome. Qualified and credentialed educators would effectively support the student’s success and program outcome (Billings & Halstead, 2019). Well-equipped faculty settings should include professionals for teaching and evaluating students in laboratory, clinical and didactic settings.
Students
The policies and support services within the school should provide the student with ample time to interact with the course and project its impact on their nursing career. These policies should support students in meeting the desired outcome of the nursing program.
Curriculum
The curriculum should support the success of the student learning outcomes. The goals and objectives should correspond with the quality and safety of patients in the current nursing setting (Billings & Halstead, 2019). The program outcome should also result in a positive outcome in the healthcare setting.
Resources
The resources within the institution’s settings should be geared towards meeting the desired outcome of the course. Economic, learning, and physical resource often change over time, and they should be aligned to meet the success of the student learning outcome (Billings & Halstead, 2019). Structuring these resources to meet the student and learning goals would allow the faculty to derive more significance from the course and appreciate its value in heightening healthcare quality.
Outcomes
The curriculum evaluation validates that students have achieved the desired outcome and that the program has met its objectives. The levels of achieving these desired outcomes are always measurable and specific with are done with effective student assessment (Billings & Halstead, 2019). The data, documentation, and analysis of the assessment data always affect stakeholders’ decisions towards maintaining or stopping the proposed changes. A positive student and program outcome would convince the committees and the faculty to accept the proposed curriculum change.
Pilot Testing
A pilot testing is a process of staging the change using the section of students to determine its effect on the institution. A pilot test is always implemented in such cases to ensure the success of the proposed course. In this case, a focus group will be formed to audit and give results on issues that are crucial to the success of the implementation of the proposed changes in the curriculum. The focus group should include various stakeholders within the institution (Botelho & Lima, 2020). These should include instructors, the dean of nursing, and stakeholders in the nursing faculty. The feedback from the pilot study will provide the measure of the ability to implement the course or the curriculum. Again, they would support quality improvement for the effectiveness of the program and the expected outcome. The evidence-based results will also enrich the instructor’s preparation to undertake and teach the course to students (Baccalaureate, n.d). The results from the focus groups would dictate the decision to accept or undertake the course on further revisions before accepting g its implementation in the system.
A successful pilot test on a program to educate nurses on the effect of culture in nursing should on three or more campuses would reveal the main effect of the course on students’ nursing skills (Botelho & Lima, 2020). The pilot test would reveal the potential to influence students and the school of nursing to accept the instructions of the new course about the culture on the students. The results from the pilot would show the need to incorporate the new program in nursing and support its implementation.
Short-Term and Long-Term Evaluations for Improvement
The long-term and long-term evaluations are significant in evaluating the curriculum. With the goal of the evaluation meant for improvement, its success and continuation will rely mostly on the analyzed data to be used for implementation. The evaluation of these goals will allow the stakeholders to learn the importance of the program and how it could be expanded to improve other courses (Baccalaureate, n.d). The evaluation will use alternate forms that will give all-inclusive feedback on the course. This evaluation will show weaknesses and areas that need to be adjusted to ensure students gain more skills from the course. Besides, these evaluations will provide data used in deciding if the course should continue or should be expanded to improve the in-depth understanding of nursing.
Short-term evaluations will also be significant in determining measures for improving the course. These would include surveys done at the end of the course. The surveys can be important in gathering large amounts of data at ease. The data collected from the survey are essential in the evaluation process as they provide students’ opinions on the course (Billings & Halstead, 2019). The surveys should be administered by teachers after the lesson to limit instances of students responding to the surveys in a hurry to move to other classes. The student responses collected by the survey should be monitored, explained, and answered within a set timeframe to ensure a 100% response rate. The outcome of this survey would measure the course achievement, sustainability and importance.
NCLEX rates would determine the long-term evaluations. All institutions of learning have a scale for measuring the pass or fail rates of the NCLEX tool. This tool is significant in determining measures of retaining and sustaining accreditation (Baccalaureate, n.d.). The students’ success using the NCLEX scale would effectively measure the student learning outcome and program effectiveness.
Another program that can be used to measure the course’s effectiveness is the Kirkland evaluation model. This model has four different outcomes levels: learning, reaction, results, and behavior. The first level measures students’ satisfaction, engagement, and significance. The second level measures skills, attitudes, knowledge, confidence, and student commitment (Billings & Halstead, 2019). The third level is used to assess what was learned and the change in student behavior. Finally, the last level indicates the achievements of the outcome and indicators of progress towards the program outcome. This model would work closely with results from the survey and NCLEX scores.
Evidence-based Nursing Concepts, Theories, and Best Practices Improving Curriculum Development
More empirical studies have been supported in nursing education to provide more evidence-based strategies effective in meeting the desired patient outcome. Evidence-based nursing needs evidence-generated research with sufficient data supporting a practice’s approval. In the same view, the study supporting the curriculum change must be accompanied by sufficient data to meet student satisfaction. The baccalaureate nursing programs need to engage learners by providing questions and answers supported by a literature review.
Interactive strategies and learning activities would be significant in improving this program. Activities such as group work, sharing information, problem-based learning, simulation, and flipped classrooms will effectively enhance evidence-based teaching and learning (Pennbrant & Svensson, 2018). The role-playing would recreate a realistic picture for students to apply the theories and knowledge in a safe healthcare setting. The students would have the ability to experience their characters gradually and become emotionally involved in the course. The simulations will be based on clinical experience to allow students to develop competency and promote teamwork in offering healthcare services. The role-playing would teach students effective communication and solving conflicts within the healthcare setting. These interactive strategies and learning activities would enable students to integrate skills, critical thinking, knowledge, and reasoning.
Accreditation Evaluation
All universities offering nursing courses have their distinct accreditation platform approved by Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN. After the successful and continuous evaluations, the results obtained from the accreditation process would aid in identifying areas that require revision to improve the learning outcome of the course (Pennbrant & Svensson, 2018). Besides, the evaluations provide enough data and sufficient evidence of its effectiveness in transforming nursing programs.
Moreover, external organizations set various standards to ensure that the nursing program meets the desired outcome. All the ANA standards are expected for the nursing student to implement and plan care in diverse settings. Organizations such as Joint Communication and the National League for Nursing are also significant in meeting the desired course outcome (Pennbrant & Svensson, 2018). While Joint Communication is focused on heightening patient-centered communication, the National League for Nursing has core competencies for nurse educators to apply better evaluation and assessment strategies. On the other hand, American Nurses Credentialing Center is also significant in utilizing the Magnet Recognition Program Model to develop an effective structure in nursing.
Conclusion
The overall goal of the BSN curriculum is to ensure that nurses with RN qualifications join the BSN program to advance their skills in delivering healthcare. Such nurses are aware of the changes in the healthcare environment and their role in mitigating the current healthcare problems. Designing and developing a new course is a procedural system that requires approval from various departments. The needed approvals imply that the curriculum’s proposed design or development must be well thought out to convince internal and external stakeholders. Besides, internal and external factors play a major role in the curriculum development process. Therefore, developing a better collaboration between the factors would affect the successful implementation of a new program. A better nurse program would produce skilled nurses. The future of healthcare depends on safe, ethical, and competent students. The curriculum relies on evidence-based practices in the classroom to equip the students with the clinical experience that augment their theory and practice. On the other hand, the nurse educator should have the necessary skills to promote change. The educators should be skilled in the implementation plan that would be significant in meeting student outcomes regarding patient safety and satisfaction. A poorly developed plan would result in poor communication and unsuccessful change.
References
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Appendix A
Course Outline: NUR 350 Culture in Nursing
Concepts of Multicultural Nursing Stereotypes and Self-Awareness
Exploration of diverse cultural groups.
Cultural and Social Structure Dimensions
Impact of Globalization of Multicultural Nursing/ Cultural Competency
Communication Styles and Standards/ Interventions techniques on different cultures
Strategies to Reduce Bias during assessment
Evidence-Based Research and Multicultural nursing/ Lab Experience.
