Curriculum Overview, Framework, and Analysis

Evaluating Capella University’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program offers a synthesis of advances and significance of the nurse educators ‘role in the current complex healthcare learning environment. In this particular evaluation, it will be necessary to describe the theoretical background and structure of the curriculum of the BSN program and stress how it is under the goals, values, and mission of the institution (Hamed et al., 2023 ). This work will demonstrate how Capella University provides for the expectations of the developing nursing practice environment through the analysis of the curriculum organization, the student’s learning achievement, and the incorporation of professional guidelines. It will also ensure students have the competencies and the required proficiencies to practice nursing competently and ethically.

The Nursing Curriculum

The curriculum of Capella University’s program BSN is an extensive educational model designed for preparing professional nurses, who will be able to manage the complexity of the modern healthcare system. Some of the subjects covered in this program include clinical procedure, evidence-based practice, leadership, and basic and advanced nursing ideas (Tosun et al., 2021). The outline of the program integrates theoretical learning with practical practice so that the graduates of the program will be equipped with skills on how to provide quality patient care, manage changes in the delivery of health care services, and develop the habit of continuing education.

The main target group of the BSN program offered at Capella University is the registered nurses who seek enhancement of their knowledge and opportunities for career advancement. From the program, these people, who are from different backgrounds and experiences, benefit from the convenient online learning environment that they can do at their own convenient time depending on their working conditions.

Mission Statement and Course Descriptions

Mission Statement

The goal of the BSN program at Capella University is to develop professional, caring, and competent nurses to lead the profession to deliver excellent patient care and contribute to the development of advanced practice nursing and health promotion (Flanagan et al., 2021). Ultimately, the expected outcome is graduating nurses who are capable of meeting the different needs of individuals, families, and communities by training nurses to be ethical, analytical, research-informed, and culturally sensitive nurses.

Course Descriptions

Nursing Foundations

This course outlines the concepts in the practice of nursing including the ethical concepts, the theories in nursing, and the assessment of health.

Promoting Health and Preventing Diseases

Concerns techniques of handling other frequent health complications throughout the lifecycle, disease prevention, and health enhancement.

Clinical pharmacology

Outlines safe administration of drugs, nursing care pharmacological principles, and Medication Administration.

Sources of nursing research

Sources of nursing research, critiquing the research studies, and using research findings Nursing Research and Evidence-Based Practice discuss issues in nursing practice.

Community health nursing

Community health nursing emphasizes public health principles, population care, and community health evaluation and promotion.

Leader Ship & Management

Leader Ship & Management in Nursing will focus on Nursing Quality Improvement, Organizational Management, Healthcare Policy, and Leadership Theories.

Advanced Medical-Surgical Nursing

This area of nursing care deals mainly with complicated medical-surgical nursing and implies methods and ideas of advanced patient management and critical care thoughts.

Critique of Content

The analysis of the factors that influence the process of creation of a nursing curriculum involves looking at things like advancement in the healthcare delivery system, technological trends, legal frameworks, and student needs among others (Hamed et al., 2023). Thus, analyzing the curriculum of the University of Capella’s BSN program, it is possible to consider that even though it provides a rather holistic approach to nursing education, there is a need to make some amendments to better meet the demand in the market and improve new trends in nursing (Hartman et al., 2020). The increased amount of interprofessional, increased use of simulations and especially more emphasis on experiential-based learning can nurture students for contemporary collaborative healthcare settings and clinical practice.

In addition, the curriculum should ensure that concepts such as Health Disparities/Socio Determinants of health, health equity, and cultural competence are emphasized more as it might enhance the nurses’ ability to deliver patient-centered care (Hodges et al., 2019). This again means that the program has to be revised and updated as often as is practicable depending on available evidence, its stakeholders, and continuing program evaluation to ensure that the set learning outcomes are being met to bring about the change that is desired.

Professional Standards, Guidelines, and Competencies

Understanding the factors that affect nursing curriculum involves evaluating the changes in workforce and patient demands together with technology, trends in health care, and policies. Organization and Program Name Capella University BSN Fundamental nursing concepts with modern health care Stage of development shows its commitment to maintaining professional standards and competencies  (Roberts et al., 2021). The academic program equips students for various nursing careers by focusing on practical, clinical experiences, leadership, sound decision-making, and teamwork. It is on nutrition with the American Association of Colleges of Nursing or AACN standards.

Furthermore, the content of the curriculum integrates theories that are drawn from education sociology psychology into a framework that draws from nursing theories. It can be considered that through this multifaceted approach, a comprehensive education that includes clinical skills, analytical reasoning, ethical judgment, cultural competency, and lifelong learning is guaranteed (Hodges et al., 2019). The integration of these components outlines a broad nursing course that prepares graduates to meet the cutthroat competition that marks the growth of the profession in a rapidly evolving healthcare sector as well as practicing professional nursing and patient care in the highest of standards.

Learning Outcomes 

This means that courses that are taught to nursing students should meet the standard professional landmark, norm, and competency within the field. For instance, an academically diverse student population seeking to become nurses is the target client group of Capella University’s BSN program (Mitchell et al., 2021). The curriculum is developed to meet the standards set by standardized such as the AACN to ensure that the students are trained to acquire the basic skills, attitudes, and knowledge which when practiced will not endanger the lives of patients they are supposed to attend to. The learning objectives of Evolve dealing with topics such as clinical competency, practice based on evidence, communication, leadership, and moral decision-making are aligned with these criteria.

The learning objectives of the BSN program are therefore in harmony with the Capella University mission as it aims at providing quality nursing education to its learners and prepare the students for the challenge of nursing care in a world of increasing need for health care (Lewis et al., 2022). Application of theory with clinical practice is underscored in the syllabus concerning emphasizing the students’ clinical judgment and critical thinking. Also, much attention is paid to the personal development component with an emphasis on continuing education, thus encouraging the students to update with the changing medical practices and technologies.

Recommendations to Update Healthcare Knowledge

There is a need to seriously and methodically address the ideas of material to ensure that the healthcare expertise stays relevant within Capella University’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) course. Thus, first, there should be a committee on curriculum revision: members of the faculty, industrial partners, and practitioners of the healthcare industry involved (Flanagan et al., 2021). This would consist of a variegated assembly that would be pre-scribed to meet regularly to assess the curriculum as it is, identify where improvement is required, and incorporate the latest research and/or up-to-date technological breakthroughs.

Second, collaborations with university and academic institutions professional societies, and healthcare organizations have to be ensured. Such partnerships raise access to advanced clinical availability, top-notch practices, and acknowledged research (Love et al., 2020). Clinical practicums as part of interprofessional and geriatric education, guest speakers, and clinical placements for example show students issues and solutions in practice and feed into the adaptation of curriculum about patient needs and expectations and existing industry trends. Last but not least, the use of technology-based teaching aids such as virtual simulation and online tools increases students’ awareness of up-to-date knowledge. 

Summary of the Process

The process of how the Capella University BSN program should maintain its curriculum current in the cultivation of healthcare knowledge and relationships includes the formulation of a committee to review the curriculum, cultivation of relationships with other healthcare facilities, and the use of technology-enabled instruction  (Roberts et al., 2021). This five-division approach ensures that there is a systematic and systematic approach to searching, implementing, and spreading innovative ideas and methods in nursing education.

Justification for Its Selection

The choice of this procedure was informed by the fact that knowledge in the healthcare sector is continuously changing therefore the curriculum for nursing should also evolve. As a part of the curriculum review process, the academics along with the professionals from the industry form a group and ensure that new developments and the research-backed techniques are reviewed appropriately (Mitchell et al., 2021). The interactions with other parties also help enlarge the experience of the student and provide useful insights. Technology-enhanced learning resources enhance access and reach to students as well as address the diverse needs of today’s students. This method is under the production of proficient and adaptable nurses in the current practice of health care.

Organizing Design and Theoretical Framework

It has been believed that the concept of competency-based is the most suitable to build up the nursing curriculum for Capella University’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN). The emphasis of competency-based education is on the documented proof of the achievement of the competencies necessary for competent nursing practice (Best et al., 2022). This framework focuses on the achievement of specific skills required in delivering quality and secure care to patients as they relate to the evolving market context. The competencies are designed within the program such that the students are equipped with both theories as well as practice to enable them to perform better in the identified positions and settings based on the various nursing fields.

A competency-based structure of the BSN program is quite evident in the learning objectives and performance standards of Capella University. For example, such courses as “Advanced Medical-Surgical Nursing” and “Clinical Pharmacology” focus on developing competencies in comprehensive patient care, critical care concepts, and drug administration (Lewis et al., 2022). The Capella University BSN has attempted to adopt a competency-based education through competency assessments, simulated clinical practice, and experiential teaching and learning. Qualifications accomplishment assessment, practicum placements, and different tasks contain competency assessments, which offer opportunities to enhance and receive feedback.

Overview Organizing Design and Theoretical Framework

Among several classifications of curriculum, it is generally believed that the concept-based curriculum framework is more applicable in developing the nursing course for the BSN program of Capella University. The syllabi grouped under concept-based curricula entail wide concepts or postulates on the practice of nursing such as evidence-based practice, critical thinking as well as health promotion/maintenance (Tosun et al., 2021). This strategy is in concordance with the mission of the school to turn out competent nurses who can deliver quality care to the patients. The use of organizing principles that focus on fundamental ideas ensures that students develop a deep understanding that can be applied in other clinical settings.

In the early part of the 20th century, nursing education pioneer, starcher, coined a registry-based curricular conceptual framework when nurses demanded curriculum change to enhance clinical judgments and critical thinking (Roberts et al., 2021). Historical development of the critically acclaimed concept-based curricular framework is one of the important components of the BSN program offered by Capella University, which indicates that the university is fully committed to offering state-of-the-art, research-based nursing education. Adopting this strategy it accepts the fact that nursing students benefit from being provided with basic concepts that are beyond the concept of practical psychomotor skills.

Major Concepts of Organizing Design

An example of how a concept-based educational paradigm looks in the nursing curriculum will be discussed in this paper. Organizing ADPIE: nursing process, theory, databases, sets knowledge and noаd, combining key concepts in a simple way to apply them to the practice and learning.

Competency-Based Education (CBE)

Contrary to the model combining a finite number of classes or hours and credit hours, competency-based education focuses on mastering certain competencies or skills. This approach at Capella ensures that the students progress in their training by acquiring important fundamental skills in education like; communication, clinical assessment, and evidence-based practice (Best et al., 2022). As such this specific method assists in increasing students’ interest and rate of achievement due to being able to address various learning needs and learning methods.

Clear Learning Outcomes

The primary objective of competency-based frameworks is to translate the concept of learning outcomes into targeted set goals- measurable learning outcomes that identify the knowledge type of skills and dispositions that are expected of the students (Mitchell et al., 2021). These are under professional nursing standards in schools such as Capella University offering a BSN program ensuring students meet the needs of modern health care delivery. They help in the formulation of curricula, teaching methods to be adopted, and methods of evaluating the students.

Performance Assessments

In CBE, assessment is majorly centered on the demonstration of competencies acquired by the students in different situations. In an evaluation form of performance, students may demonstrate their competence in the task and duty assignments of nursing through case studies, instructors, simulations, and clinical practice (Love et al., 2020). Performance assessment techniques are therefore integrated into the BSN curriculum at Capella University to afford the students formative feedback, reflection, and practice to enable them to achieve admission into the professional nursing practice.

Flexible Progression Pathways

Competency-based frameworks used in courses offer the patience that is required in learning since there are progression pathways that allow the student to progress at the right speed depending on competency acquisition. It cements a tuned notion of moving forward where students can tinker and fine-tune with their pace based on their needs and experiences (Best et al., 2022). For example, the competency-based assessment of the Capella University BSN program offers the students an option of displaying their competency through competency-based tests as well as the prior learning assessment. This enables curriculum compression in that students are allowed to progress through the curriculum at a faster pace without compromising on quality.

Conclusion

The understanding and student-centered approach to education is uncovered by the examination of the nursing curriculum and the theoretical underpinnings of Capella University’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program. For that reason, Capella University ensures that students attain the competency that is necessary for a successful practice in professional nursing by applying a competency-based approach (Walden, 2021). According to Stapel and Wolfe, the fact that the curriculum has incorporated the performance evaluations, as well as learning objectives and flexibility of the career progression tracks, also responds to the evolution to meet the demands of the healthcare sector and equips graduates to handle the difficulties of contemporary healthcare systems. From this curriculum alone, this preparation implies that Capella University commits to offering quality nursing education that prepares students with competencies sufficient to impact the healthcare workforce.

References

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