Overview

Prepare a 5–7 page evaluation and theoretical framework analysis of a nursing curriculum of personal or professional interest.

Note: Each assessment in this course builds on the work you completed in the previous assessment. Therefore, you must complete the assessments in this course in the order in which they are presented.

The nurse educator role is a dynamic, challenging, yet rewarding career choice for which many nurses have developed a passion. This course provides you with an opportunity to assess, design, implement, evaluate, and revise nursing curricula. Because health care knowledge and technology are expanding, these elements must be considered when a curriculum is built for today’s learner.

In this assessment, you will select a nursing curriculum either from an academic setting, such as a school of nursing, or a clinical setting, such as a hospital staff development program. You will evaluate the selected nursing curriculum in detail and describe the organizing design or theoretical framework on which your selected curriculum is based. You will also need to examine how this design or framework is demonstrated in the curriculum. Possible organizing designs or frameworks include simple-to-complex, stages of illness, nursing conceptual framework, concept-based, outcomes based, competency-based, interdisciplinary, and others.

Assessment Instructions

• In Assessment 2, you will design a course to be included in the curriculum selected in this assessment.
• In Assessment 3, you will examine the evaluation process used to evaluate the curriculum selected for this assessment.

Preparation

As a practicing nurse, you have been asked to present an evaluation of a nursing curriculum to a nursing leadership team at your place of employment. They are seeking input on coursework recommendations for CEU fulfillment. The curriculum you select should be of interest to you either personally or professionally.

In this assessment, you will select a nursing curriculum either from an academic setting, such as a school of nursing, or a clinical setting, such as a hospital staff development program. If you are currently teaching, you may wish to use the curriculum from your school or workplace. If you are not currently teaching, you may want to consider using the curriculum from your undergraduate program. If neither is an option, you are encouraged to look for a nursing curriculum you can use as a model for your assessments. One choice might be an orientation curriculum for a clinical facility.

You will evaluate the selected nursing curriculum in detail and describe the organizing design or theoretical framework on which your selected curriculum is based. You will also examine how this design or framework is demonstrated in the curriculum. Possible organizing designs or frameworks include simple-to-complex, stages of illness, nursing conceptual framework, concept-based, outcomes based, competency-based, interdisciplinary, and others.

Requirements

Your overview and analysis of the curriculum should fulfill the following:

• Identify an appropriate nursing curriculum, the intended learner population, and why it is needed.
• Provide the mission statement and course descriptions for all courses in a selected curriculum.
• Describe the established professional standards, guidelines, and competencies incorporated in the program.
• Describe the student learning outcomes of a selected nursing program.
• Recommend a process to update health care knowledge in a selected nursing curriculum.
• Explain how an organizing design and theoretical framework or model is demonstrated within a selected nursing curriculum.
• Provide an overview of the history of a selected organizing design and theoretical framework or model.
• Describe the major concepts of a selected organizing design and theoretical framework or model.

You will use this assessment to complete Assessment 3. Be sure to incorporate the feedback you receive before adding this assessment to Assessment 3.

Additional Requirements

• References: Include references from at least three peer-reviewed journal articles, cited in proper APA format.
• Length of analysis: The analysis should be 5–7 pages in length, not including the title page and the reference page, and it must follow proper APA style and formatting.
• Appendix: You may use an appendix for appropriate material, such as individual course descriptions. The appendix will not be included in the page count for the analysis.
• Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.