A Concept-Based Curriculum Revision of a PN Program

The revision of a practical nursing curriculum in order to have a more up-to-date approach of teaching, increase student satisfaction, and yet meet or exceed the outcomes of the previous curriculum.  A concept-based curriculum (CBC) is one that is formed around the concepts of nursing practice rather than formed around the medical model. The traditional way of laying out a nursing curriculum is similar to the medical model with Medical/Surgical, Pediatrics, and Obstetrics (Lee-Hsieh, Kao, Kuo, & Tseng, 2003). This way of setting up a curriculum causes an overabundance or oversaturation of information for the students to memorize and try to learn. Concept-Based Curriculum is being looked at nationwide in nursing programs and is becoming a “major trend for the future of education” (Giddens, 2013, p. xiii). Changing curriculum to a concept based approach will decrease repetition of information and create a paradigm shift from volume of information to value of information (Godfrey, 2013).

Some examples of concepts within a concept-based curriculum could be oxygenation, clotting, electrolyte balance, and nutrition. When you examine the concept or teach to the concept you could start off with an explanation of what oxygenation is and how it is seen or treated. Then you could break the class up into groups and have an activity where they need to create short ten minute talks for their classmates about different diagnosis related to oxygenation, what abnormal labs are seen, what medications are given for that disease, as well as what the assessment findings are for the patient with the diagnosis. When you consider that it will not only be a Medical/Surgical class but also a Pediatric class you could give oxygenation issues like asthma, croup, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and pneumonia. When the groups talk about their findings or research in class you are not only making this a student centered activity and active learning activity but you are also helping to improve the students’ critical thinking ability and fostering a commitment to lifelong learning” (Giddens & Morton, 2010).

Another important question is whether we will be able to have the same outcomes with a concept based curriculum change? The literature states that the results have been the same if not better, that the students from concept-based curriculums feel they are thinking like a real nurse and being able to put different ideas and concepts together in order to create a plan (Nielsen, 2009). After making a change the school of nursing would need to continue to assess HESI and NCLEX scores and pass rates as well as satisfaction of students and faculty to reevaluate the curriculum.  According to Elsevier Publishing, CBC is not currently being utilized by LPN programs, only by bachelor and associate programs throughout the country. The benefits to a CBC is that it creates critical thinkers who can connect concepts more readily and solve problems.

The National League for Nursing (NLN, 2003) called for dramatic reform of nursing education as healthcare is ever changing so education needs to move along with it. Overall, nursing curriculum is in need of a redesign nationwide in order to keep up to speed with the healthcare changes of today. Nurses need to be able to critically think and problem solve on a daily basis while providing the highest quality of care to their patients. As Nielsen states (2009), we can no longer just fill student’s heads with information; we must ensure that they truly understand the needs of the patients in order to provide safe quality care.  Lasater & Nielsen (2009) believe that the traditional nursing program has become inadequate and we must create new models to foster deeper clinical thinking and sound clinical judgment.