NURS FPX 6108 Assessment 2 Curriculum Overview

NURS FPX 6108 Assessment 2 Curriculum Overview

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Capella University

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Curriculum Overview

The impact of the quality of nursing curriculum has been determined to impact clinical outcomes and the safety of patients in health care systems. The entire Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree program from the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing will be introduced as an example in this paper. Established in 1939, the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing is one of the country’s oldest baccalaureate nursing programs. The following are the significant parts of this Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program that will be reviewed: Mission, Standards, Outcomes, and a more up-to-date process for reviewing:

Curriculum Identification, Organization, and Learner Population

In order to determine if the nursing program offered by the University of Pittsburgh is a good fit for your needs, you will first need to consider what type of nursing program is being taught (institutional context), as well as which groups of people will be served by the program (target population). The University of Pittsburgh has a Bachelor of Science – Nursing (BSN) program that prepares high school graduates for entry-level, generalist nurse positions. This four-year, full-time, on-campus program culminates in having the student prepared to take the NCLEX-RN exam at the University of Pittsburgh’s Pittsburgh campus.

To be successful in a rapidly changing and complex healthcare world, a diverse and appropriately prepared population of learners is needed to help support the nursing workforce. The target population of learners (TN) for the University of Pittsburgh’s nursing programs consists of students who are directly admitted into the nursing program from high school as well as students who transfer into the nursing program from other schools (internal transfers). The nursing program will include over 1200 hours of hospital, clinic, and community-based clinical experiences to offer a theoretical approach and also offer abundant hands-on professional preparation for the students enrolled in the program (University of Pittsburgh, 2024). This enables the nursing program to draw upon a wide range of learners and offers theoretical underpinning and rich professional preparation for today’s generalist nurse.

Mission Statement Linkage to Curriculum

An organization’s purpose is to provide the foundation for the philosophy that the Nursing Curriculum is developed from within the Mission Statement of the University of Pittsburgh, which has a Mission “To prepare the highest quality nurse to provide holistic care for patients/individuals, families, and communities across all populations”. Part of this mission is to foster diversity/inclusivity and equity across all ethnicities, races, cultures, ages, disabilities, and gender identities. Also, the values of missions are reflected in the nursing curriculum through cultural competence and diversity in clinical placement.

Linking our nursing educational program to our mission statement is one way that we can support institutional value and purpose; all curricular development is aimed at supporting our larger institutional (organizational) mission statement. The program is based on the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics, which is used to encourage practices that include all people in their scope of practice, are caring and respectful, and honor the dignity of every person. Exemplars of how mission-based academic standards are created can be seen in the curriculum’s focus on evidence-based practice and scholarly participation. This moral responsibility takes place within the context of interprofessional education courses, health equity modules, and clinical settings within the community-based environment.

Course List, Sequencing, and Organization

A progression of courses can be developed to assist in understanding the development of the curriculum from simple (the foundation of the curriculum) to complex (advanced nursing knowledge). The Pitt BSN has a four-year curriculum with the first two years focused on taking some basic sciences, as well as liberal arts, and then introducing the clinical nursing courses throughout the remaining two years. The third and 4th year of clinical nursing courses build on minimal skills training (evaluating the patient) and advance to more complex skills (maintenance of a patient with multiple organ systems). This will facilitate support of the AACN (2021) recommendation to build learning from the simplest to the more complex.

This way, the students will have a continuous learning process, and they will also be able to apply their learning from previous clinical situations to the next one. Students will be able to integrate all three disciplines together in learning about the care of patients when concurrently taking nursing courses, clinical nursing courses, and basic science and/or liberal arts courses (from the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences). Students will receive a variety of practice tests and activities throughout the entire nursing program to practice for the NCLEX, and will take a final comprehensive NCLEX diagnostic predictor exam / 3 day NCLEX review at the end of the program to further prepare for the NCLEX. All courses, including course description and sequence/curriculum guide, are in the appendix of this paper.

Professional Standards, Guidelines, Competencies, and Technology

The curriculum of the nursing programs reflects standards developed outside the school by the regulatory/oversight agencies of the nursing profession and/or accrediting/third party agencies. The Commission for Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) has accredited the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program at Pitt. The renowned quality of baccalaureate degree programs is established by the requirements set by CCNE. Courses in this program are based on the core competencies that have been developed by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) (2021) in the publication The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education. Person-centred care, partnerships, use of scientific theories and research to inform practice, partnerships with the patient, family, and community to improve the quality of healthcare, and the use of information technology/informatics are core competencies.

Nursing education is now in an era when technology use is expected. Digital health technology plays an important role in nursing education and is an important part of the provision of quality, safe healthcare in the modern context. Within the Pitt Nursing Program, technology is integrated into the program in the following areas: patient care technologies, clinical information systems, and simulation skill/lab experiences in the development of clinical skills. However, several studies have shown that using simulation to learn can improve students’ acquisition of clinical reasoning skills and lower the rate of patient safety incidents that can be attributed to nursing graduates. Therefore, by ensuring Pitt nursing graduates have technology-related competencies needed to successfully transition into practice, they will meet State Board of Nursing requirements for licensure as well as employer needs upon entering the workforce in today’s health care delivery systems.

Learning Outcomes and Meeting Needs of Diverse Learners

Student Learning Outcomes provide a statement of the knowledge, skills, and practices that students should demonstrate upon completion of their program. Outcomes for the Pitt BSN Program are drawn from the AACN (Association of American Colleges of Nursing) Essentials (2021) and call for the use of theory in all current practice settings to support the nurse’s clinical judgement. The expected outcomes are designed as a four-tiered series of outcomes culminating with one expected outcome in each of the clinical and academic areas that build on each other as they scale up in achievement. All four levels are grounded in evidence-based principles of educational design, which are effective for all students, including those with poor academic performance, in terms of mastery learning.

The ability to teach the educational diversity of the many different students in the program is an important indicator of the quality of an academic nursing program. The program requires students to meet an educational requirement for a course in cultural competency, as well as include all clinical experiences in both a community-based and acute-care setting, to facilitate a culturally competent professional nurse. Mashwama said that “Inclusive design (multiple instructional methods and equitable assessment strategies) leads to positive academic results for all students. The Pitt BSN Program has provided continuity and successfully mapped its learning outcomes to the AACN (2021) standards, ensuring the program’s graduates are competent professional nurses who can care for a patient population that is diverse.

Process Timeframe and Stakeholders for Curriculum Currency

The nursing curriculum has to be reviewed periodically and on a formal basis as part of a multi-departmental review process in order to stay current with advances in healthcare. The next Pitt DNP accreditation cycle (2029 – 2034) and the next Pitt BSN accreditation iteration (2029 – ongoing) mandate that there be a systematic and ongoing curriculum evaluation process. Those involved in maintaining the currency of the program are: the faculty, students, clinical partners, hospital administrators, and the State Board of Nursing for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Input from all of these different people impacts the curriculum’s development, as their input helps update the curriculum based upon changes to health care practices as well as ensure that the curriculum in its current state meets the needs of today’s available workforce.

A curriculum that is carefully reviewed will ensure that nurses graduating from our program are knowledgeable in cutting-edge skills and content related to nursing practice as prescribed by the competencies required for nursing as a profession. University of Pittsburgh faculty-led committees formulate and periodically assess the curriculum of the nursing program by reviewing the content of the program, the required clinical experience, and learning outcomes.

As per Obafemi, the curriculum of a nursing program should be assessed on an annual (or bi-annual) basis, based on the indicators that include: student performance data, satisfaction of employers, class participation, and student satisfaction, as well as many others. Thus, the BSN program of Pitt is relevant to and in line with the most recent advancements of the nursing profession as it reflects the expected standards of nursing practice, current evidence-based principles in health care.

Conclusion

The overview of the curriculum offers evidence of the preparation of graduates of the nursing program for safe, effective, and equitable professional practices. The Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program at the University of Pittsburgh has well-defined connections between both its institution’s mission and goals related to the Competency Standards established by the AACN, as well as to the CCNE accreditation requirements. Moreover, the sequence of courses across this program is tightly linked such that students have many varied clinical experiences during the program at the University of Pittsburgh. All of the learning objectives are well organized, structured, and demonstrate good contemporary design of the nursing education programme. In addition, this program takes an active stance to ensure that there is evidence-based nursing education and that the curriculum is reviewed regularly, allowing it to stay viable in today’s fast-changing, dynamic health care environment.