Curriculum Development Its Revision and Process In Nursing Education

 Curriculum Development, Revision and Process

What Is Curriculum ,Curriculum Development ,Revision of Curriculum

What Is Curriculum 

    Curriculum is defined as, “All the learning which is planned and guided by the school, whether it is carried on in groups or individually, inside or outside of school to develop or revise nursing curriculum is a difficult task and requires a thorough knowledge of the curriculum development process. The faculty and curriculum committee members need a proper direction right from planning, implementation and monitoring of the curricular exercise. 

    The curriculum development reflects the future of nursing education, changing trends in healthcare system and expectation of stakeholders. The nursing faculties involved in curriculum development process spend a lot of time in thinking how to analyze and organize in writing a new curriculum. The pathway to curriculum revision and development still remains as an unknown lane. This article would help the novice curriculum developers with guidelines to develop a comprehensive nursing curriculum. It mainly focuses on curriculum development institutional level.

Curriculum Development 

    Curriculum development simply means the sum total of all planned learned experiences which an institution decides for its students. Some authors define curriculum as the total effort of the school to bring about desired outcomes in educational institutions and also out of college situations. More than ever nowadays nurses are to be prepared to meet the dynamic health care needs of the society. To prepare competent nurses, the basic nursing education needs to be sound enough to meet the demanding needs of the health care system. 

    The nursing graduates have to be prepared to meet the essential competencies, to incorporate evidence-based practice, take up leadership roles to maintain and improve the quality of health care. Initial nursing or midwifery education aims to prepare individuals to fill a role in the professional workforce where they will be called upon to strengthen health systems to meet population needs and protect the public. 

    quality education programs that meet a global standard are therefore imperative 2 The global standards for initial nursing and midwifery education identify essential components of education. Implementation of the standards will facilitate progress towards the highest level of education attainable in a country or region, ensure equitable and appropriate placement of nurses and midwives in health care roles and, potentially, simplify recruitment practices throughout the world hence to develop a new nursing curriculum or to revise an existing curriculum is a major factor in meeting the global standards. 

    Curriculum development or revision is an ongoing process and requires a great deal of work from the faculty. It requires a lot of support from the educational institution. Developing a new curriculum is different from curriculum revision with major or minor changes. Knowing how to develop a new curriculum and to revise an existing curriculum is like an expedition

Revision of Curriculum

    Curriculum revision means making modifications and changes in the current curriculum to give new direction. It involves making changes in the existing curriculum in its objectives, objectives, course contents, learning outcomes and assessment strategies. The curriculum revision can have various approaches. It can either be adding, deleting something into the existing curriculum. It can also be a process of organizing the current curriculum into a better shape. 

    The general educational system in schools follows either a traditional or progressive curricular pathway. Since nursing is a clinically oriented course, developing an integrated curriculum with evidence-based concepts incorporated into it will help the faculty to develop a desired nursing curriculum. Nurses and midwives must have an evidence-based education that enables them to meet changing health care needs, working both on their own and in teams with other professionals along the entire continuum of health and illness. 

    In addition, their work needs to be systematically evaluated to show its efficiency and effectiveness, and they need to be involved in decision-making for health policy, for which preparation must begin in the initial education program. 

Curriculum Development and Preliminary Process:

    There should be a legal basis for the procedural guidelines and implementation in an academic institution where curriculum revision or development is planned. It can be a new curricular innovation or revision from the existing curriculum. Many documents and standards are required to be included in the curricular revision.

    Resolutions from university council regarding the approval for the curricular revision or development, approval by curriculum committee. The rationale for the revision along with the objectives for the revision. The proposed implementation scheme for the curricular revision Copy of current study plan. Copy of national standards for nursing practice and higher education.

    Copy of international standards for nursing practice and education. Budget plan for the curriculum implementation. Written certification from the dean (institutional head) to all the members of the committee for the review process.

    Major and minor revisions require more or less of the same documents mentioned above. The major revision of curriculum additionally needs some documents like end user survey, and rationale for major revision in the curricula.

    Designing new nursing program curriculum needs few additional things like specializations available in the campus. The proposed new program should be in par with the requirements of the desired program Feasibility of introducing new curricula depends upon resources such as infrastructure, physical facilities, and faculty appointments, availability of non-academic administrative staff, library and laboratory facilities.