Comparing Nursing Curriculum Models Essay

The block course curriculum in other institutions covers all relevant nursing topics to enhance learning experiences. An example of such a program is maintained at Roseman University of Health Sciences, where the curriculum design ensures that students undertake one topic at a time. Such a model ensures no competing priorities in the learning process (Lipsky et al., 2019). This model promotes corporative learning as teachers can take advantage of frequent and small group lessons and quality time where the instructors can interact with fewer students within the day. The instructors can focus on the students, where they can explore various concepts simultaneously, making it easy to develop a team (Lipsky et al., 2019). The professional staff, the students, and all other staff become a design team for curriculum development. The main challenge of the block course curriculum is that the pace of teaching is high as time is rushed, which may be challenging to the students. Aspects of quality teaching due to the structure, content, and assessment raise concerns about the effectiveness of the block course curriculum model.

The nursing curricula at Albany State University and Roseman University of Health Sciences are entirely different as they vary teaching practices and how they undertake practical aspects. Albany State University focuses on content-based lessons, while Roseman University of Health Sciences utilizes a model that focuses on one core subject at a time, referred to as the Six-Point Mastery Learning Model (ASU, 2019: RUHS, 2020). These models differ in lesson delivery, where the former emphasizes teaching key concepts and incorporating them with practical skills. At the same time, the latter focuses on reinforcing learning for the year. At Albany State University, the curriculum prepares the students to assume responsibilities as leaders, change agents, client advocates, healthcare providers, consumers of research, and health educators through evidence-based teaching and practice (ASU, 2019). Such skills and knowledge enable the students to provide nursing care in traditional and non-traditional settings. On the contrary, Roseman University of Health Sciences emphasizes teaching to attain high scores, enhancing teamwork among the students and faculty to detect areas of misunderstanding (Lipsky et al., 2019). Some aspects of hands-on experience are also emphasized at Roseman University of Health Sciences.

Evidence-based Findings in Curriculum Analysis

An analysis of the content-based curriculum shows a structured framework that enhances learning outcomes through instructional delivery of concepts, lesson objectives, and student assessments. A content-based curriculum in nursing programs entails examining concepts linked to the effective delivery of patient care. The execution of nursing lessons focuses on key and established examples and their interconnected nature to ensure that the nursing students can easily recognize features of health conditions and apply learned concepts (Harrison, 2020). Concept-based learning promotes teaching key concepts effectively applied in different conditions and hands-on experience type of learning (Ambler et al., 2021). Students under the concept-based curriculum can break the boredom that comes with undertaking long classroom sessions, which are present in institutions with the block course curriculum.

The effectiveness of nursing curricula involves how teaching models influence learning attitudes. A study undertaken by Rohatinsky et al. in 2018 examined students’ preference for nursing curricula and discovered that most nursing students prefer the non-block curriculums since they promote critical reflection of the concepts taught, attainment of a balanced lifestyle, and simultaneous combination of practice and theory. Such features are contrary to those attained through block curriculum, characterized by aspects like assimilation, socialization, and consolidation (Lipsky et al., 2019). Concept-based and block course clinical models are effective within undergraduate nursing curricula due to their effective learning processes (Ambler et al., 2021). Evaluation of different clinical learning models shows that the main themes are learning and applying concepts, evaluation process, growth time, reflection, immersing and integrating into the clinical environment, and transitioning and assimilation into the real nursing world.

Theoretical and contextual Approach to Curriculum Analysis

The two nursing curricula use numerous theories and models to teach nursing ideas, standards, principles, and changes in the models utilized. Both curricula introduce their students to various nursing theories reflecting the metaparadigm concepts of health, person, environment, and nursing as a whole (ASU. 2019: RUHS, 2020). Theoretical and clinical learning models incorporate these themes dif