NURSING MS C920 Contemporary Curriculum Design and Development in Nursing Education
Western Governors University
Contemporary Curriculum Design
... [Show More] and Development in Nursing Education
Course Modules
See Attached/Uploaded Document.
Course-Related Information
Learning environment
DeWitty, Huerta, and Downing (2016) purport that the Academic Nurse Educator’s role is to cultivate a safe and structured learning environment that is both intellectually stimulating and challenging. Such an environment provides learners with the opportunity to develop their knowledge, skills, attitudes, and competencies required to successfully transition from the student nurse to a competent autonomous practicing nurse. The course elements included in each module of The Role of the BSN Nurse in Promoting Community Health provides learners with an environment that stimulates the learning process through intellectually stimulating, challenging, and thought-provoking learning activities, and allows the development of the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and competencies essential to the community health nurse.
Module 1. Introduction to community & public health nursing. The course elements included throughout this module create an environment that is intellectually stimulating and challenging and require the learner to examine the evolving roles and responsibilities of the community and public health nurse, analyze the differences between the two, and understand their respective roles within a complex health care system. This allows the learner to obtain a working knowledge of the community and public health nurse and how community health systems and policies influence the scope of practice.
The scenario-based learning activity will be an unfolding case study, where learners will individually complete a random case study, then divide into groups with other learners that had
the same case study. By grouping learners together, they can begin to intellectually stimulate each other through peer teaching and reciprocal learning which is team based. Each learner can bring a different perspective to the case study from which everyone can learn something new or gain a deeper understanding of the task. The case study assigned in this module provides the learners with an interactive approach to a patient situation in a controlled and safe environment, and promotes the development of nursing knowledge, skills, and competencies through critical thinking and clinical reasoning. Learners will respond to situations in the case study, and as the case study progressively unfolds, learners will gain more information, have opportunities to review their prior decisions, and proceed to identify pertinent information in the case study which pose as opportunities to intervene and promote positive patient outcomes. Utilizing case studies will assist learners in developing their clinical forethought and assist them in predicting potential complications.
The learning activity aligns well with the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (n.d.) key competencies as it pertains to patient-centered care, safety, and teamwork and collaboration. This learning activity will help encourage learners to understand that plans of care are patient- centered in focus, emphasize safety for the patient, and require teamwork and collaboration in order to produce a positive outcome.
Module 2. Health promotion, maintenance & prevention. The course elements included throughout this module create an environment that is intellectually stimulating and challenging and require the learner to appraise research data on the community to determine a current need in the community utilizing a needs assessment. Learners then take the research and begin to design their own evidence-based project to ameliorate the gap or need in the community. This allows learners to identify any barriers to healthcare and salient issues and begin to
challenge themselves into collaboratively developing patient-centered plans of care for the community.
The scenario-based learning activity will be a community education project, where learners will divide into groups and develop an education program based on the community needs assessment. By grouping learners together, they can begin to intellectually stimulate each other through peer teaching and reciprocal learning which is team based. Each learner can bring a different perspective to the case study from which everyone can learn something new or gain a deeper understanding of the task and role of the community health nurse. The community education project assigned in this module provides the learners with an interactive team-based approach in assuming the responsibility for teaching others, and promotes the development of nursing knowledge, skills, and competencies through critical thinking and clinical reasoning.
Allowing learners to produce a community education project gives them an opportunity to demonstrate learning and challenges them to develop their nursing knowledge, skills, and competencies as a community health nurse.
The learning activity aligns well with the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (n.d.) key competencies as it pertains to evidence-based practice, patient-centered care, safety, and teamwork and collaboration. This learning activity will help encourage learners to utilize evidence-based approaches to understand that plans of care are patient-centered in focus, emphasize safety for the patient, and require teamwork and collaboration in order to produce a positive outcome.
Module 3. Emergency preparedness, disaster management & violence in the community. The course elements included throughout this module create an environment that is intellectually stimulating and challenging and require the learner to analyze aspects of the
emergency preparedness and disaster management model and the factors in a community that influence disasters and violence, and the community health nurse’s role on the multidisciplinary team.
The scenario-based learning activity will be simulation via virtual reality. Learners will first be required to review all learning resources via a flipped classroom learning strategy.
Multiple learning resources are available to the student to prepare them for the virtual simulation. For example, learners will need to review how to perform jump start triage assessments, as assigning the appropriate emergency severity index score is required in the simulation. The virtual simulation assigned in this module provides the learners with an interactive approach to a mass casualty patient situation in a controlled and safe environment, and promotes the development of nursing knowledge, skills, and competencies through critical thinking and clinical reasoning. Learners will respond to situations in the simulation, and as the simulation progressively unfolds, learners will gain more information, have opportunities to review their prior decisions, and proceed to identify pertinent information in the case study which pose as opportunities to intervene and promote positive patient outcomes, just as in the unfolding case study. Utilizing virtual simulations will assist learners in developing their clinical forethought and assist them in predicting potential complications. A computer generated debrief will be provided after the learner has completed the virtual simulation.
The learning activity aligns well with the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (n.d.) key competencies as it pertains to patient-centered care, safety, and teamwork and collaboration. This learning activity will help encourage learners to understand that plans of care are patient- centered in focus, emphasize safety for the patient, and require teamwork and collaboration in order to produce a positive outcome.
Learning theory
According to Bastable (1998), learning theories provide a fundamental framework of unified constructs that delineate how people learn. With the ushering in of a new culturally diverse student population that no longer consists of the “traditional fresh out of high school student,” and now includes single parents, middle aged adults, and individuals who are re- specializing in to nursing as a second career, curriculum needs to be tailored to all learning styles and needs.
Fernando & Marikar (2017) purport that by utilizing the constructivist learning theory, learners diligently and actively obtain a new working body of knowledge, and utilize ideas and concepts previously learned to build upon and construct new ideas. With the application of the constructivist learning theory, nurse educators are challenged to assist learners in drawing critical connections between previously learned theoretical frameworks and build toward a deeper understanding of all material. For example, community health nursing is typically presented to learners toward the end of their nursing school journey, and learners have to draw on all previously learned nursing theories and concepts to excel in the class.
In Module III, the student learning outcome of “distinguish nursing interventions that would promote positive health outcomes to vulnerable populations involved in emergent and disastrous situations,” reflects the constructivist learning theory. Since the constructivist learning theory purports that knowledge is built upon prior learned experiences and knowledge, learners are given the opportunity to use their past knowledge of previous nursing curriculum to proficiently navigate through the learning activity presented. For example, learners will be able to successfully critically think their way through the virtual reality simulation, by referring all the way back to their nursing fundamentals and health assessment knowledge.
The constructivist learning theory applies to an online learning environment because it encourages the learners to critically think, synthesize and apply all their learned nursing knowledge gained thus far. According to Gold (2019), learners can actively obtain new knowledge and concepts from experiences in this course by actively building with and from prior nursing curriculum assimilations. Nurse educators can apply the constructivist learning theory to class curriculum by utilizing online discussion boards with open ended questions for learners to respond to in order to gain a deeper insight into the material, and help them develop their knowledge, skills, and attitudes related to community health nursing. Open ended discussion boards allow learners to draw their own conclusions about the material based on their previous experiences and learned concepts, and also allows learners to communicate with one another so they may see other learner’s perspectives in the class.
Although the online learning environment may be more convenient for some learners, several challenges still exist when attending a class via an online environment, which may decrease a learner’s chances at achieving the student learning outcomes. For example, learners may be less motivated to complete assignments online due to minimal face-to-face interaction with instructors and classmates. To address this, nurse educators should encourage learners to “check-in” with the instructor and one another via an online discussion board weekly to discuss learner progress and also ask each other questions related to the material. Nurse educators can use the discussion boards to clarify any information and provide more resources for learners faster than if they had to wait for the next face-to-face meeting lecture time. Another challenge which may decease a learner’s chances at achieving the student learning outcomes is related to a possible learning curve for the less technical savvy learners. As previously discussed, learners vary in ages, knowledge, and experiences, and some may not be technically savvy. Nurse
educators can provide “cheat sheets,” videos, or PowerPoints about how to successfully navigate all online course content to help the less technically savvy. Universities typically have student success centers which learners can be referred to for help with technical topics via live cohorts and discussion groups. Nurse educators can also open up more office hours to meet with learners electronically or via telephone to assist them.
Learning resource justification
Module 1 learning resources. The topic or course element of this module is an introduction to community and public health nursing. The learning resources provided for this module include three peer reviewed journal articles, one video, and a textbook. The three articles, video, and textbook provided are resources that learners can utilize to help them better understand and explore the roles and responsibilities of the community and public health nurse. Providing the articles, video, and textbook are best suited for the curriculum and can benefit all the different learning styles which may be present in the class by actively engaging learners to the course material. For example, the video provided as a resource is beneficial for the auditory and visual learner, while the articles and textbook provided is beneficial for both the visual and kinesthetic learner. Each learning resource aligns with the course objectives and learning outcomes and thoroughly prepares each learner for the scenario-based learning activity to demonstrate proficiency of the weekly topic.
Module 2 learning resources. The topic or course element of this module is health promotion, maintenance & prevention. Learners will be tasked to work in groups to implement a community needs assessment based on the given topics described in the course overview. The learning resources provided for this module include a California Department of Public Health status profile, two online resources from reputable sources that will help guide them in
developing their own educational tool to present to the class, one video, and a textbook. The video and textbook provided are resources that learners can utilize to help them better understand the roles and responsibilities of the community and public health nurse in the promotion, maintenance, and prevention of the community. While the CDC and Health People resource provide learners with a reference for when they begin to develop their educational tools. The video provided is a resource regarding the community health assessment process.
Each learning resource aligns with the course objectives and learning outcomes and thoroughly prepares each learner for the scenario-based learning activity to demonstrate proficiency of the weekly topic. Providing the articles, video, and textbook are best suited for the curriculum and can benefit all the different learning styles which may be present in the class by actively engaging learners to the course material and with one another. For example, as previously discussed, the video provided as a resource is beneficial for the auditory and visual learner, while the status profile and textbook provided is beneficial for both the visual and kinesthetic learner. The group project assigned encourages learners to work together toward a common goal. It allows learners to be in charge of the learning process for one another through thoughtful interaction and critical thinking.
Module 3 learning resources. The topic or course element of this module is emergency preparedness, disaster management and violence in the community. Learners will be tasked to successfully complete a virtual reality simulation based on a mass casualty incident where they are part of the multidisciplinary team providing care to patients. The learning resources provided for this module include seven articles and a textbook. The articles and textbook provided are resources that learners can utilize to help them better understand the roles and responsibilities of
the community and public health nurse in the emergency preparedness, disaster management and violence in the community.
Each learning resource aligns with the course objectives and learning outcomes and thoroughly prepares each learner for the scenario-based learning activity to demonstrate proficiency of the weekly topic. Providing the articles and textbook are best suited for the curriculum and can benefit all the different learning styles which may be present in the class by actively engaging learners to the course material and with one another. The simulation assigned will challenge the learners to bring all their learned nursing concepts together to care for patients in an emergency situation. The simulation will encourage critical thinking and autonomy in order to help them develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required of the practicing community or public health nurse.
Scenario-based learning activity
Scenario-based activities allow nurse educators to employ multiple active learning strategies which provide learners an opportunity to utilize critical thinking and clinical judgement through a controlled storyline. Utilizing scenario-based activities requires learners to develop and perform at the cognitive level of application and ensures higher-order thinking and application of learned knowledge, critical thinking, analysis, synthesis, and nursing skills in a safe, controlled environment based on real-world context.
According to Leaman & Flanagan (2013), a virtual reality simulation will support learners in skill development and encourage reflective practice through the situated learning theory. Leaman & Flanagan (2013) purport that learning occurs in the context in which it will be used. Therefore, allowing learners to participate in a simulation that mimics a real-life scenario will foster an environment of educational and nursing growth. Utilizing a simulation will allow
learners to participate in instructional scenarios which enforce experiential learning. In the simulation, all learners will have an opportunity to practice specific nursing skills related to disaster management and community violence. Simulations provide learners the opportunity to develop critical thinking, autonomy, and encourage the application of theoretical concepts and higher-order thinking to real-life situations being simulated.
Creating a meaningful and thought-provoking opportunity for every learner to grow and develop a strong nursing prowess through simulations allows all learning types to practice nursing skills, develop autonomy, and increase their confidence in a controlled environment, without fear of judgement, and risk of harm. The process of simulations strengthens learners clinical reasoning and encourages self-reflection. The virtual simulations are programmed to record the simulation in real-time, and at the end of each simulation, learners are able to watch, analyze, and synthesize their clinical decision making skills throughout the simulation. After the initial shock and anxiety caused by the simulation is over, learners are then able to reflect on and discuss what went well in the simulation, what could have been done different in the simulation, and identify opportunities for growth. Dreifuerst (2015) purports that a debriefing session after a simulation can facilitate teachable moments, strengthen learner’s clinical reasoning, and encourage reflective analysis of all parties participating. Through previous personal experience in a high-fidelity simulation, being able to review the recorded simulation, provided opportunities to reflect on the simulation. Being able to analyze the recording, provide an opportunity to discuss victories and opportunities for growth. Being able to discuss the simulation with peers and faculty allowed the opportunity to share ideas and reflect, which promotes meaningful student-centered learning and a deeper understanding and appreciation of the theoretical frameworks presented in class. [Show Less]