4.
Choose or develop an organizing framework.
Billings and Halstead (2019) describe the purpose of an organizing curriculum framework as an educational blueprint that provides a mental picture to help teachers and learners determine what knowledge is valuable to nursing practice and how that knowledge should be defined, categorized, and linked to illustrate the whole of nursing practice. This framework may be drawn from theory or may be a combination of concepts or constructs considered crucial to nursing education and practice. These important concepts/constructs will likely be reflected in the program’s philosophy and mission, vision, and values. Although there is no one right way to develop an organizing framework, principles for crafting the framework may include: § Choose concepts/constructs that accurately reflect faculty beliefs about nursing education and practice AND are relevant in health care today and in the immediate future. § Frameworks developed by professional entities may be used if they are sufficiently broad to cover all necessary aspects of professional nursing practice. Examples of such frameworks may include the AACN Domains found in the new The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education or the Differentiated Essential Competencies of Graduates of Texas Nursing Programs , (DECs) established for entry level nurses by the Texas Board of Nursing. § The linkages between and among concepts/constructs in the chosen framework should be explained via both diagram and narrative. Such an explanation helps students to understand, apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate the knowledge necessary for nursing practice.
5.
Develop Program Goals to describe the outcomes graduates should demonstrate.
Think broadly about what knowledge and skills are reasonable for new graduates from your school to have upon entering the workplace, regardless of the clinical area they choose. The Program Goals, sometimes called Learning Outcomes, should be written at the application level of cognition or higher and reflect the expectations of regulatory entities and/or accreditation requirements.
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