Curriculum for Nurse Educator
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Curriculum for Nurse Educator
Introduction
Certified nurse educators play a critical role in mentoring, teaching, and developing student nurses. The curriculum is closely linked to either the success or the failure of students. Nurse educators need to develop an appropriate and innovative teaching curriculum. The approach should promote active participation, critical thinking, and creativity in students. Curriculum evaluation is the process of determining the specific course outline and objectives accomplished. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the curricula for nurse educators.
Importance of Curriculum Evaluation
Continuous curriculum evaluation provides essential information and guidance to the nurse educator, student, government, or other relevant stakeholders. The process ensures students receive the highest and most updated training (Mukhaiyar, Muskhir and Dolly 2019). Curriculum evaluation seeks to establish the impact of the implemented curriculum on student learning outcomes. Nurse educators use information obtained from evaluation to determine the weakness of each student. The information enables the educators to identify the most suitable methods to help each student based on their strengths and weaknesses. Besides, the evaluation enables nurse educators to test their efficiency in providing learning instructions and effectiveness to nursing students. The evaluation also helps the educators to rank their students according to their examination performance.
Students also benefit from curriculum development. The curriculum evaluation helps students to familiarize themselves with the course objectives and goals. The evaluation seeks to determine the efficiency and effectiveness of transforming government education plan into educational practice to the policymakers. This assessment ensures that students receive the expected and required government course objectives (Mukhaiyar, Muskhir and Dolly 2019). The ongoing curriculum evaluation helps identify and compare curriculum contents and practices with the local, national and regional practices.
Important Criteria in Curriculum Evaluation
Curriculum evaluation encompasses several standards. The various criteria determine different levels of expertise and accepted behavior or outcomes. Goals and objectives are the most fundamental criteria in curriculum evaluation (Hande, Williams, Robbins, Kennedy and Christenbery 2017). A defined set of goals and objectives enables the educator to focus on the instructions and procedures to engage their students. The items also help meet the standards specified in the nursing curriculum’s principles and policies and standards. Students should achieve their goals and objectives set at the beginning of the course.
The course structure is another important criterion in the evaluation of the nursing curriculum. The course structure should incorporate the contents of the areas to be covered by the students. The four main components that the course should cover are disease prevention, health promotion, health restoration, and risk reduction (Mukhaiyar, Muskhir and Dolly 2019). The curriculum evaluation assesses the extent to which the course is covered and the organization of each unit. The course content is also analyzed to determine whether it will equip the students with the right skills and knowledge.
A well-designed classroom environment encourages active learning and participation of students. A suitable and efficient learning environment fosters essential skills such as critical thinking, creativity, and reflection (Mukhaiyar, Muskhir and Dolly 2019). Classroom evaluation assesses whether the students have access to well-equipped with the required tools. The types of equipment also are scrutinized to determine whether they meet the required standards.
Student assessment provides facilitators and other relevant stakeholders insight into the students’ level of comprehension. The curriculum evaluation criteria measure students’ competence and performance through examination tests and assignments (Hande, Williams, Robbins, Kennedy and Christenbery 2017). The assessment help identifies weak areas that require improvement. Student progress encourages students to be more responsible for their learning progress and performance.
Pilot Testing
There is the need to carry out pilot testing to a proposed and documented curriculum. Pilot testing is a small-scale preliminary study conducted to evaluate the viability, cost, extent, and performance (Quek 2017). Pilot testing comes right after the curriculum has been developed but not yet implemented. The process determines whether the curriculum is relevant, useful, reliable, and valid. If the curriculum meets all the required standards and procedures, it is after that approved for implementation.
Pilot testing involves a series of procedures. The first step involves developing objectives and deadlines for the procedure; this saves on time and cost. The next step involves selecting a group of both students and nurse educators familiar with the curriculum (Mukhaiyar, Muskhir and Dolly 2019). The sample should be of a large number to provide accurate information. After that, the appointed committee tabulates the results. The committee then interprets and analyzes the findings from the sample. Depending on the number of challenges, recommendations on ways to improve the curriculum are developed and adopted.
The curriculum is characterized by revision and continuous modification. Educators use pilot testing to approve a specific curriculum (Quek 2017). The assessment tool allows the nurse educator to consider how best to achieve the learning objectives. Pilot testing, besides, proves the efficacy of the curriculum.
Long and Short Term Evaluation Processes Improvement
The evaluation improvement process can either be long-term or short-term. Short-term evaluation process improvement determines whether the curriculum evaluation creates changes in the short-term outcomes (Quek 2017). For the evaluation to be more effective, the educator needs to collaborate with the students and other stakeholders. For instance, the facilitator could develop curriculum evaluation procedures collaboratively. Consequently, the facilitator could monitor and review each evaluation procedure before proceeding to the next step.
Long-term evaluation, on the other hand, analyses the overall goals and objectives of the curriculum evaluation. Adopting a well-recognized and accepted methodology for the evaluation process is an example of long-term evaluation improvement. The right methodologies ensure that all the necessary information and data are captured by the facilitator accurately. Comparison of the different curriculum is an example of improving the evaluation process. Curriculum developers use comparisons to identify weak and strong areas of the curriculum (Quek 2017). The substantial area of the program is upheld while the weak area of the curriculum is restructured.
Application of EB in Curriculum Improvement
Evidence-based practice is widely accepted and valued in all medical institutions. Evidence-based practice in nursing helps facilitate effective decision-making in healthcare delivery (Shen, Zeng, Jin, Yang, Shang and Zhang 2018). Curriculum development can adopt some evidence-based research, theory, and best practices to improve the program. Integrating evidence-based practices in curriculum development ensures that educators equip students with multiple levels of essential knowledge. The curriculum should allow students to practice evidence-based scenarios in problem-solving during their practicum. This will improve the students learning experience and service delivery in a clinic environment.
Accreditation Body
Obtaining accreditation for the nursing program is voluntary. However, accredited nursing schools have numerous advantages over the non-credited institution. The Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing is an example of an accreditation body in the country (Shen, Zeng, Jin, Yang, Shang and Zhang 2018). ACEN ensures that all nursing programs meet the specific standards and guidelines. Accreditation bodies review processes that evaluate nursing curriculum programs. The body also ensures that there is a similar level of nursing curriculum in all institutions and programs.
The accreditation body analyzes specific criteria in nursing programs before it grants its permission. The accreditation criteria for ACEN include assessing the faculty qualification, catalog of courses, resources used in the program, and the program plan for the study. The program is approved and receives final accreditation once it has completed all the requirements.
Conclusion
Curriculum evaluation is an educational process intended to produce high quality and evidence-based nursing curriculum. The nursing curriculum evaluation provides numerous advantages to the educator, student, and even future patients. The evaluation ensures that nursing students get a quality education. The skills and knowledge obtained that will, later on, be applied in clinical settings. Nursing students, educators, and facilitators can use the information provided in this paper to develop an effective curriculum in their institutions.
Reference
Hande, K., Williams, C. T., Robbins, H. M., Kennedy, B. B., & Christenbery, T. (2017). Leveling evidence-based practice across the nursing curriculum. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 13(1), e17-e22.
Mukhaiyar, R., Muskhir, M., & Dolly, V. P. (2019, November). Curriculum Evaluation based on AUN-QA Criterion for the Case Study of the Electrical Engineering Vocational and Educational (EEVE) Study Program. In Journal of Physics: Conference Series (Vol. 1387, No. 1, p. 012039). IOP Publishing.
Shen, L., Zeng, H., Jin, X., Yang, J., Shang, S., & Zhang, Y. (2018). An innovative evaluation in fundamental nursing curriculum for novice nursing students: an observational research. Journal of Professional Nursing, 34(5), 412-416.
Quek, C. G. (2017). Curriculum Evaluation. In Curriculum for High Ability Learners (pp. 223-239). Springer, Singapore.
Question
curricula for nurse educator 1) importance of ongoing curriculum evaluation, why and for whom 2) list criteria important in curriculum evaluation 3)explain how and why pilot testing is used 4) examples of short and long term evaluation process improvement 5) how to apply EB nursing concepts, theories, and best practices to improve curriculum 6) identify appropriate accreditation body and describe appropriate accreditation evaluation criteria
Curriculum for Nurse Educator
Curriculum for Nurse Educator