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Nursing Curriculum
Student name
Student affiliation (department + institute name)
Course name and number
Instructor name
Date
Nursing Curriculum
Selected Nursing Curriculum: https://www.nursing.upenn.edu/academics/bachelor-of-science-in-nursing-bsn/course-requirements/sample-plan-of-study/
1-Identify an appropriate nursing curriculum, the intended learner population, and why it is needed.
I have identified the undergraduate nursing curriculum taught in the nursing school of the University of Pennsylvania. This curriculum teaches through the four-year degree program and contains different subjects and practical courses with hours designated for theory and practical training simultaneously. The intended learner population for the selected nursing curriculum is the undergraduate nurses. Nurses consist of the largest group of health professionals across the globe. Nursing is a complex profession, requiring well-developed knowledge and practical training to fulfill the expected roles of nurses in the health delivery system.
A comprehensive, well-structured nursing curriculum is needed because a properly designed nursing curriculum can provide the basis for authentic learning. The healthcare industry needs nurses with professional qualifications to succeed and perform in the patient care setting. The nursing curriculum provides theoretical and practical literature with training to serve the purpose. The selected nursing curriculum sets the goals, health outcomes, continuum of care standards, and philosophies in nursing that each nurse student learn. A high-quality nursing curriculum plays an essential role in preparing nurses for the present and future needs of the health delivery system. The nursing curriculum is based on health care concepts. This conceptual training help nurses in their professional life while dealing with hospital patients. Nurses perform multiple tasks in the health care system, including monitoring patients’ vitals, understanding the prescriptions accurately, keeping a watch on the patient after medicine or invasive procedures, and assisting doctors during surgeries. These tasks require a high level of precision and accuracy gained with a strong learning basis and professional training. All these components are considered while designing the nursing curriculum so that nurses can play their role as a basic pillar of the healthcare system.
2-Provide the mission statement and course descriptions for all courses in a selected curriculum.
The mission of the selected curriculum is to make a significant impact on health through advancements in nursing science, promoting health equity, having excellence in clinical practice, and producing nurse leaders (Penn Nursing 2022).
The main courses in the curriculum include the nature of the nursing practice that teaches patient engagement, illness inquiry, clinical judgment, and patient examination. To understand health problems, integrated anatomy, physiology, and physical assessment explain human organ systems. Integrated pathophysiology, pharmacology, and therapeutics provide the concepts of acute and chronic illnesses, dosing implications, prototypic drugs, and therapeutic interventions (Baron et al., 2017. Nursing of women and infants emphasizes the childbearing cycle, maternal and infant morbidity, and mortality. Nursing of young and middle-aged and older adults considers the health of young and middle-aged and older adults having a severe illness or injury. Pediatric nursing explains pediatric illnesses from infancy to adolescence using a developmental and systematic approach. Psychiatric nursing provides the tools to enable the nursing students to administer treatments to patients having mental health problems. Scientific inquiry for evidence-based practice engages students in learning experiences to facilitate scientific inquiry, clinical reasoning, and evidence-based practice (Penn Nursing 2022).
3-Describe the established professional standards, guidelines, and competencies incorporated in the program.
Professional standards inculcate the competency in providing healthcare at each phase of the nursing process. Nursing standards are important because they provide and promote clinical skills. Nurses can review nursing standards of accredited organizations such as the American heart association, the American nurse’s association, the joint commission, and the American Association of clinical-care nurses. The nurses can also follow state and national regulatory agencies such as your own state’s board of nursing to understand the practicality of professional standards established by governing bodies.
Nursing guidelines are also designed to facilitate the nurses dealing with patients in professional life. These guidelines can be accessed utilizing the official sites for the concerned issue. For example, infection control guidelines can be accessed on CDC, national center for complementary and integrative health (NCCIH) provides clinical practice guidelines. Similarly, other accessible sources for guidelines include clinical practice guidelines and evidence-based reviews for neuroscience nurses, national comprehensive cancer network guidelines, veterans health administration guidelines, registered nurse Association of Ontario (RNAO), best practice guidelines program, and emergency nurses association clinical practice guidelines, etc.
Nursing competencies are core characteristics and required as a nursing responsibility. It is important to define nursing competencies to develop a nursing curriculum. The nursing competencies are important to improve the quality of the nursing profession and training methods (Hokka et al., 2020). The main nursing competencies are patient-centered care, teamwork, and collaboration, evidence-based care, nursing quality improvement, and informatics.
4-Describe the student learning outcomes of a selected nursing program.
The practical training programs equip the nursing students with the necessary clinical skills to administer at hospitals, clinics, and research centers. Students who work in a practical setting receive hands-on experience and become confident in their learned skills. Nurses develop team acre in education and practice, i.e., they collaborate with physicians and other healthcare professionals to deliver effective healthcare services. It improves nursing efficiencies, better allocation and consumption of resources, and patient satisfaction. Strong teams create better patient health outcomes. The Penn Nursing and Penn medicine school have worked on interprofessional practice education, i.e., nurses, physicians, and students should go on patient rounds together and consult with each other to discuss patient progress and discharge plans (Penn Nursing 2022). Nursing programs also teach skills using informatics systems in patient care technologies and communication devices. It promotes safe and effective nursing practice. Nurses learn they are accountable for personal and professional behaviors, which shows the nursing standards and competencies of moral, ethical, and legal conduct. Nurses implement holistic, evidence-based, safe, patient-centered care across the health care continuum and in all patient care settings. Nursing programs develop clinical judgment, leadership, and decision-making skills to provide high-quality nursing care (Penn Nursing 2022).
5-Recommend a process to update health care knowledge in a selected nursing curriculum.
If a change needs to be made in Penn’s nursing school curriculum, the policy and curriculum makers should do thorough literature research. In this way, informed decisions are made about curriculum revision. Secondly, it is important to research studies that guide curriculum-making decisions. If a nursing school wants to develop a concept-based nursing curriculum, search for already published literature. The curriculum development must not be separated from the clinical setting. The clinical scenarios happening there should guide our decisions and learning activities. As the nursing practice environment changes, so should the curriculum. The curriculum makers should take feedback from the in-service and already practicing nurses to know the gaps in the nursing profession. It will give important information about curriculum decisions. Thirdly sometimes needed change can be made through different teaching approaches. For instance, a pedagogical change could be done rather than a curriculum revision or change (Aul et al., 2021). The use of more active learning methods, assignments, and fewer lectures are planned in the courses to build students’ knowledge and learning competencies.
6-Explain how an organizing design and theoretical framework or model is demonstrated within a selected nursing curriculum.
Penn School of Nursing has a well-developed theoretical framework and organizing design. A theoretical nursing framework or model is a knowledge entity. It supports and aims to develop the nursing practice. Various research studies were constructed to form Penn School of Nursing’s theoretical framework. It sets the standards and provides competencies based on which all nursing schools organize their nursing programs. Their framework describes the specific courses required in the nursing program. A proper sequence in their nursing education ensures that each subject proves to be an important learning experience for the nurses. A theoretical nursing framework determines the sequence of the courses in the nursing curriculum. It lays the nursing practice foundation. It not only describes the current nursing practice but also shows how it should develop over time. This framework ensures that nurses follow the prescribed guidelines when administering patient care. It allows the nursing profession to be regulated (Alligood 2017).
The organizing design is derived from the nursing philosophies that provide the basis for the subjects and their sequence in nursing education. Besides theoretical and practical nursing training, the organizing design of the Penn School of Nursing focuses on the identification of patient care deficits, analysis, planning, implementation, and evaluation of the patient’s ability to meet self-care needs. The organizing design provides a structure for the nursing curriculum. It empowers the nurses to use critical thinking, communication skills, and therapeutic nursing interventions. So, the patient coping with illnesses will get optimum health.
7-Provide an overview of the history of a selected organizing design and theoretical framework or model.
The history of organizing design and theoretical framework or model of the Penn school of the nursing program is based on nursing theories. In 1860, the environmental theory given by Florence nightingale described nursing as the act of using the patients’ environment to assist them in their recovery. In 1950, nurses considered validating a scientifically tested body of nursing knowledge. In 1952 the theory of interpersonal relations emphasized the nurse-patient relationships as the foundation of nursing practice. In 1955, the nursing need theory given by VirginiaHenderson conceptualized the nurse’s job as assisting patients. The nursing consensus was changed from the disease-centered approach to a patient-centered approach after Fayeabdellah published her work typology of 21 nursing problems in 1960. In 1968, the behavioral system model had come which described behavioral functioning in the patient to prevent the disease. In 1971, a nurse scientist in her theory explained if a patient is unable to fulfill biological, developmental, psychological, or social needs, the nurses have to provide the nursing care (Alligood 2017). Stress reduction is the ultimate goal of the nursing models, as explained by Betty Neuman in her theory in 1972. The humanistic aspects of nursing combined with scientific knowledge and nursing practice were explained in the philosophy of caring by Jean Watson in 1979.
8-describe the major concepts of a selected organizing design and theoretical framework or model.
The four major concepts are used in selecting an organizing design and theoretical framework or model for the Penn School of Nursing. These are person, environment, health, and nursing, collectively referred to as meta paradigms in the nursing profession. The person receives nursing care. The person can be individual patients, groups, families, and communities. The environment is the internal and external surroundings that affect the patient. The surroundings or conditions can be positive or negative. The degree of wellness or well-being that the patient experiences is called health. The patient, clinical environment, and the health care provider could presume different meanings of the health. The nurse’s characteristics, attributes, and actions provide patient-centered care to the patient. The ultimate goal of the nursing profession is to improve patient care. This nursing meta paradigm is defined differently by different nursing theorists. Nursing, as defined by FlorenceNightingale, is to put the patient in the best condition for nature to act upon him (Nikfarid et al., 2018). On the other hand, Orem explained nursing as art through which the nursing professionals give specialized or more than ordinary assistance to the patient to meet the patient care needs.
References
Alligood, M. R. (2017). Nursing theorists and their work-e-book. Elsevier Health Sciences. ISBN: 9780323402194
Aul, K., Bagnall, L., Bumbach, M. D., Gannon, J., Shipman, S., McDaniel, A., & Keenan, G. (2021). A Key to Transforming a Nursing Curriculum: Integrating a Continuous Improvement Simulation Expansion Strategy. SAGE open nursing, 7, 2377960821998524. https://doi.org/10.1177/2377960821998524
Baron K. A. (2017). Changing to Concept-Based Curricula: The Process for Nurse Educators. The open nursing journal, 11, 277–287. https://doi.org/10.2174/1874434601711010277
Hokka, M., Martins Pereira, S., Polkki, T., Kyngas, H., & Hernandez-Marrero, P. (2020). Nursing competencies across different levels of palliative care provision: A systematic integrative review with thematic synthesis. Palliative medicine, 34(7), 851–870. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269216320918798
Nikfarid, L., Hekmat, N., Vedad, A., & Rajabi, A. (2018). Comparative study of the main nursing metaparadigm concepts in human caring theory and Persian mysticism. Journal of medical ethics and history of medicine, 11, 6.
Penn Nursing, U. of P. (2022). About Penn Nursing. Penn Nursing • Penn Nursing. Retrieved from https://www.nursing.upenn.edu/about/