Answer for NURS-FPX 6107 Assessment 2 Course Development and Influencing Factors

Nurse educators teach nurse students in the current curriculum of higher education. They also bear the responsibilities of evaluating, developing, and restructuring the curriculum that meets the needs of these students. The accomplishment of the nurse education tasks involves a strong collaborative framework on the part of faculty members and other outside stakeholders (Iwasiw et al., 2020). The internal and external factors affecting nurse curriculum development are interrelated. They are based on philosophies and individual missions aligned to an institution. In the changing dynamics in healthcare, sometimes it becomes necessary for nursing schools to redesign or add a course to the curriculum that would reflect the noted changes in healthcare. Besides, addressing these changes also ensures that nurses receive the best education that can prepare them to be competent nurses and gain the ability to provide quality care. Therefore, the purpose of this assignment is to examine influencing factors affecting the development of the BNS course.

Course to Include in the BSN Curriculum

Capella University’s curriculum would benefit from including or adding NUR 350 Culture in BSN nursing. This would be a 3-credit hour nursing course added to the current curriculum. This course would help nurse students develop cultural awareness, better communication skills, and effective assessment techniques and skills. The course would also train nurses to develop intervention techniques for approaching various cultures and ethnic communities. The course would benefit nurses when it appears as a first course in the curriculum. The current first course within the university is nurse informatics. However, changing this culture would give students the necessary skills and knowledge to offer culturally competent care. These skills would also positively influence their attitude and thoughts on approaching the remaining courses within the program.

The Rationale for Adding the Course

The current issue affecting the world healthcare system is the integration of cultural evolution in meeting the patient outcome. The recent cultural evolution is bound to challenge all healthcare professionals to embark on a journey to develop culturally congruent nurses who can offer competent cultural care (Iwasiw et al., 2020). The changes in demographic patterns, globalization, increased number of multiracial people, and technological integration are part of the current cultural evolution. These changes would increase the need for nurses to be culturally competent in offering care. Again, the intense political changes across the world have increased the number of documented immigrants in the US, leading to an increase in the population of the minority. These changes have increased multicultural and multiethnic groups, resulting in nurse educators’ need to lead the current change.

Designing the BSN course to meet the current cultural evolution would reflect diverse patient and student populations supporting learning outcomes on cultural competence. The influx of patients and students from different parts of the world would bring a new set of cultures and beliefs that will change the ways of providing care (Chen et al., 2020). The healthcare professionals will be challenged to meet the needs of diverse patients. Therefore, cultural competence is an essential part of the nursing curriculum, and implementing courses like culture in the curriculum would aid future nurses in mitigating the challenge of cultural evolution.

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NURS_FPX6107 Assessment 3 Curriculum Evaluation

Topical Outline for the Course

NUR 350 Culture in Nursing will include various topics related to culture and diversity. The course outline (Appendix A) would consist of seven major topics that cover various aspects of multiculturism in nursing. The courses will be spread over a seven-week period, allowing students to cover one topic weekly. Again, exploration and examination of relevant case studies and scenarios would be studied each week to allow students to put what they learn into practice. The course’s final week will require all students to demonstrate their assessment skills in a simulation lab experience. Some of the current courses in the university curriculum will align with Culture in Nursing course, making it a better choice to add to the education curriculum. For instance, the Health Assessment and Promotion course teaches nurses a holistic approach to nursing. This current course will correspond to the topic in Culture in Nursing called ‘strategies to reduce bias during assessment”. Both courses address health assessment but from diverse perspectives. Therefore, NUR 350 Culture in Nursing would augment the current courses in nursing to equip them with the recent nursing skills.

Collaboration

In the attempt to add a new course to an existing curriculum, collaboration among the interdisciplinary group is essential. Working groups and committees are formed to meet and review the current curriculum and the addition of a new course. The collaboration between deans, school management, students, and staff will define a successful curriculum change. Again, the team composition that will lead the work of developing the curriculum is important as they aid in meeting the desired success (Iwasiw et al., 2020). The collaboration, in this case, would be between groups composed of tenured and untenured faculty with diverse backgrounds and skills, nursing students, and faculty with current experience in practice (Iwasiw et al., 2020). The school support and external stakeholders will also form part of the collaboration, and they can be approached individually to capture their opinion on restructuring the curriculum.

The decision to introduce a new curriculum in the BSN program will be affected by the knowledge of the faculty members, interpersonal dynamics within the school, and the credibility of those supporting the change of the curriculum (Bokonjic et al., 2019). The collaboration between the heads of the faculty and nursing committees would be significant in developing an effective process of changing the curriculum. The said collaboration between the noted stakeholders can be undertaken through zoom meetings, video conferencing, emails, WhatsApp groups, and personal meetings among the institution’s members.