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Nursing Education and the Curriculum Revolution

Explore the problem of content saturation in nursing education and the potential solution of concept-based curriculum. Discover the causes and contributing factors, as well as the benefits and challenges of implementing this approach.

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Nursing Education and the Curriculum Revolution

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  1. Nursing Education and the Curriculum Revolution

  2. Overview • The Problem: Content Saturation in Nursing Education • Themes from the literature • Causes and Contributing Factors • The Solution: A Conceptual Approach • Concept-based Curriculum and • Conceptual Learning

  3. What is the Problem? • Health sciences education is experiencing content saturation; there is more content than can possibly be taught in any given curriculum.

  4. Themes from the Literature • AACN (1998) “…is it possible to “prepare beginning level professional nurses for the future in a four-year time frame” (p.19). • Tanner (1998) questioned if the expectations set forth in Essentials was a “blueprint for 21-year curriculum” p. 383

  5. Themes from the Literature • Diekelmann (2002) “….textbooks are thicker and course content more complex. Students complain of ‘too much content’ as they appear to have reached their limits with memorization.” • IOM (2003) specifically cites “overly crowded curricula” as one of many challenges in health education reform (p. 38).

  6. Themes from the Literature • NLN (2003) “…..reform efforts in nursing rarely change the substance of the curriculum itself but merely ‘switch, swap, and slide content around’….” • Ironside (2004) “The dilemma nurse educators are increasingly facing is not what to include in a course, but what to leave out”

  7. Themes from the Literature • Faculty with expertise in nursing education should “take the lead in promoting innovation and moving away from a focus on content coverage” (NLN 2005) • “Generalist education at the baccalaureate level is foundational to specialty practice” (AACN 2006)

  8. Causes of Content Saturation • Information Age • Changes in Health Care Delivery • Teacher-centered Pedagogy • Academic-Practice gap

  9. How much information is there? • The National Library of Medicine’s Medline archives 31,000 new citations per month. It is estimated that a clinician would need to read 17 articles a day every day of the year simply to remain current in their field of practice (Hall & Walton, 2004).

  10. Changes in Health Care Delivery • Shift in focus from inpatient/acute care to community focused care. • Problem not in change in focus, but the failure of nursing education to eliminate content.

  11. Conventional Pedagogy “Filling the Pot” • Ongoing “love affair” with teacher centered learning (makes us look and feel really smart!) • Teacher is responsible to ensure all content is delivered (passive learning experience). • Focus is on content. • “If I don’t cover the content, students won’t learn it”

  12. Academia – Practice Gap • Nursing practice wants graduates who are prepared to enter specialized settings. • “Core Competencies” for undergraduate nursing education have been recommended from many nursing practice specialty groups. • Some faculty groups feel these should be added to curricula.

  13. More is Not Better! • When focus is on content, the volume of content covered is high, but the retention of information is low……… Why? Because of a failure to accomplish deep learning/deep understanding.

  14. Covering too much content tends to cover the concept! CONCEPT

  15. Solutions: Conceptual Approach • Concept-based Curriculum • Conceptual Learning

  16. What is a Concept? • A concept is an organizing principle or a unifying classification of information. CONCEPT

  17. Concept-Based Curriculum: What is it? • Concepts provide organizational structure for curriculum and are the focus within courses. • Concepts drive content. • Important that concepts are not too vague to be useful.

  18. A Recycled Idea? • Concept curriculums of the past • Concepts vague and not useful • Lack of specific exemplars • Failure to show inter-relationship of concepts • Concepts did not bridge into clinical courses

  19. Benefits of Concept-based Curriculum • Focus on concepts as opposed to content • Emphasis on recognition of concepts across populations and multiple situations • Emphasis on interrelationships of concepts • Fosters conceptual learning* • Stimulates critical thinking • Meets needs of diverse learners

  20. Challenges of Concept-based Curriculum • It is different • Faculty lack understanding • Faculty resistance to change • Requires different level of coordination • Lack of literature detailing steps • What about NCLEX?

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