Weekly case studies for nursing curriculum development.

2. Read the required chapter(s) of the textbook and any additional recommended resources. Some answers may require you to do additional research on the Internet or in other reference sources. Choose your sources carefully.

3. Consider the discussions and any insights gained from it.

4. Create your Assignment submission and be sure to cite your sources, use APA style as required, check your spelling.

Assignment:

Critical Thinking Exercises :

Case Study #1: Bellemore University School of Nursing

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Bellemore University , an accredited, long-standing institution of some 150 years, with approximately 10,000 full- and part-time students, is located in a mid-western industrial city of 350,000 inhabitants. University departments offer programs in liberal arts, social, physical, and health sciences. The four-year baccalaureate nursing program is one of three others within the College of Health Sciences. Eighty students are admitted annually to the nursing program, which has a total complement of 290 students in the four years. The majority is female and enrolled on a full-time basis. Approximately 25% of students study part-time, are mature, and have taken jobs in the community in order to meet tuition costs.

Thirty full- and part-time faculty, 15 with doctoral degrees, 12 with masters preparation, and 3 with baccalaureate degrees teach classroom and clinical courses in the school of nursing. The nursing program received full accreditation 4 years previously.

The main industry of the city of Bellemore, for which the university is named, is automobile manufacture. The largest auto plant, which employs approximately 2000 workers, offers health services to all employees. There is concern that general downsizing of North American auto manufacturing will soon lead to downsizing of the local auto plant.

In addition to the university, the city of Bellemore boasts a 3000-student technological community college, as well as the following health facilities and services: a 450-bed acute care general hospital; a 275-bed long term and chronic care facility; 3 physician-serviced medical clinics; 2 walk-in emergency clinics; 3 nurse practitioner clinics, many physicians’ offices, and a county community health department.

Bellemore School of Nursing is preparing for a reconceptualization of its four-year baccalaureate program. Examining the contextual factors that will affect nursing practice, and hence the curriculum, is recognized as integral to designing a future-oriented, context-relevant curriculum.

Dr. Amèlie Le Blanc, the curriculum coordinator, requested a meeting of the curriculum committee, made up of representatives from faculty, students, and community health personnel, to discuss contextual factors relevant to a redesigned curriculum. The group decided to schedule a faculty development session to help them with this activity. As a result of this session, several task force groups were formed to determine who would participate, which relevant data to gather, the sources, methods, and tools for this undertaking. The group agreed to meet again when the contextual data-gathering phase was complete.

Which contextual factors would be most relevant to Bellemore’s vision of a future-oriented nursing curriculum?
What are the essential data to collect about these contextual factors?
Which data-gathering methods and tools might be employed to obtain information about the contextual factors?
What would be a suitable time period for collecting and collating these data?
Who could best participate in this data-gathering activity? How could they organize to obtain relevant data expeditiously?

Case Study #2: Poplarfield University School of Nursing

Members of the Poplarfield University School of Nursing completed their data-gathering about internal and external contextual factors. A curriculum consultant was hired for a two-day retreat to help the group derive the curriculum nucleus from the data. Dr. Werstiuk, the School Director, stated her intention to attend and participate fully. The Dean of the Faculty was also invited, since her support would be needed for any additional resources that might be required for the new curriculum. Faculty believed that the dean’s involvement would be an effective way to educate her about the complexity of curriculum planning and the many influences on the nursing curriculum. Additionally, members of the Curriculum Advisory Committee were invited to attend, and two of the twelve members were able to do so.

In preparation for the retreat, data had been organized for each contextual factor on a chart and a hard copy distributed to all faculty members. A copy of the chart was loaded onto laptop computers, so that ideas could be immediately recorded and preserved.

The group agreed to derive the curriculum nucleus collectively, starting with a shared understanding of the environment. They were committed to the ideas of inferring curriculum concepts and professional abilities, proposing curriculum possibilities, and deducing curriculum limitations. There was consensus to dismiss identification of administrative issues, since “we already know what the issues are: not enough faculty and not enough money in the budget.

Examining and Integrating Contextual Data: During the course of discussion about contextual data, the faculty tried to focus on the meaning of the data, and the inter-relationships among the contextual factors. They also addressed curriculum concepts, professional abilities, and curriculum possibilities without labeling these ideas as such, discussing ideas about how:

the presence of more aged people leads to a greater demand for health care, which increases the requirement for health care professionals
the growing RN shortage could increase public demand for more seats in nursing programs, and this in turn would necessitate more resources for the School, including human resources
RN shortages could lead to more care by nonprofessionals, increasing delegation and supervision by RNs. The RN shortage might result in specialization by all RNs or de-professionalization of nursing
student skills in information technology could be developed when they had limited expertise
professional standards for nursing practice, accreditation standards, and the availability of clinical placements in and near Poplarfield could be reconciled
local health problems can be addressed, in a society and health care system which are focused on problems of national scope, such as cancer
nursing priorities and mandates must be explicated for a society with a growing proportion of elderly people and a health care system where acute care stays are shortened and out-of-hospital care is increased Weekly case studies for nursing curriculum development.

The group also talked in detail about some specific data, and how to interpret it.

In trying to reach a shared understanding of the context in which the curriculum would be implemented and graduates will practice nursing, several integrated summaries were offered. Each resulted in some disagreement. Finally, at the end of the morning, the group agreed that the environment could be described as one in which:

there will be less institutionalized health care and growing emphasis on community-based care
independent decision-making and supervision of non-professional health care providers will become a stronger feature of nursing practice
vulnerable groups in the community may grow in size
the proportion of aged people in the community will increase, while young people will likely continue to leave the Poplarfield area
ethnic diversity will become more apparent
agriculture will continue to be a significant contributor to the Poplarfield economy. Weekly case studies for nursing curriculum development.