Paper
Monday, November 14, 2005
This presentation is part of : Complexity, the Science of Relationships. Nursing, the Profession of Relationships
Complexity in Nursing Education: A Model Curriculum
Claire E. Lindberg, PhD, RN, APRN, BC, School of Nursing, The College of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ, USA

The U.S. health care system has become an increasingly complex and highly technological environment. In addition, aging of the population ensures that nurses care for fragile patients with complex and, often multiple, chronic conditions. Graduate nursing programs must prepare advanced practitioners to provide clinical, educational, and professional leadership in this dynamic environment. To function within such a system, it is helpful for nurses to understand the principles and applications of complexity science, which is dedicated to the study of complex systems, their internal relationships and interactions and the outcomes of those interactions. This emerging science can provide advanced nursing students with insights into the nature of complex and chronic conditions, individual and family reactions to those conditions and to the challenging issues existing in the healthcare system itself. Complexity Science can provide nurses with a framework for designing interventions for complex client concerns and health system problems. The School of Nursing at The College of New Jersey has an established MSN program, which currently includes three nurse practitioner tracks. Spurred by the need to adapt the existing curriculum to the needs of students in a new Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) track, while continuing to address those of current students, the faculty revised the curriculum to include complexity science principles throughout its MSN core curriculum. Students in the clinical courses, including both NP and CNL students will have the opportunity to apply these principles to their respective clinical practicum experiences. This presentation will demonstrate how complexity science principles are woven throughout the course sequence, becoming a major curricular thread, and will provide examples of student learning experiences designed to assist students to understand how complexity science can lead to more successful and meaningful interactions with patients, families and other healthcare professionals.