More Bang for Your Buck: Engaging Graduate Students in Curriculum Development

Future nurse educators need to have real-life experience in curriculum development.  The curriculum development courses for master’s nurse education provides in-depth information. However, the practical application of the knowledge usually only occurs after the new nurse educator is charged with developing or revising curriculum after he or she begins his or her first teaching experience.  By providing students with hands-on curriculum development of courses that may need to be developed or revised gives the students the necessary exposure to this important skill.  Additionally, because the student are involved in the development, course content and activities will most likely be relevant to the learners needs.  This project involved the integration of master’s nursing education students in curriculum redesign of master’s level courses for their capstone projects. The project consisted of two separate "curriculum committees", each of which included a faculty member as mentor, two graduate nursing students, and an instructional designer.  Each committee was charged with revising a master’s of nursing education course.  The students had all recently successfully completed the courses.  Including students in the curriculum revision and development process is a practice innovation with significant potential for advancing the theory to practice transition for new nurse educators.  Rather than waiting until graduates acquire teaching position, the students engaged fully in the actual curriculum redesign while still in the student role.  The development process emphasized accreditation regulations, learner experience, and future employer needs and expectations. The graduate students benefit from the mentoring and role modeling provided by the faculty supporting them.  The college benefits by extensive feedback from students advocating for instructional design improvement, based on their personal experience and observation.  The profession of nurse educators benefit from better prepared novice nurse educators who are armed with valuable experience and have had a chance to better identify with their new roles. This experience is needed for the redesign of nursing education to meet 21^st century healthcare needs.  This innovation fills an existing theory to practice gap and is anticipated to facilitate the role transition for new nurse educators.