Nursing Curriculum Evaluation Assignment

Curriculum Evaluation Assignment
Curriculum is an important structure of an educational program, as it guides the learner and instructors throughout the courses’ components. Curricula incorporates a variety of elements, from the programs philosophy to outcomes desired to be met (Billings & Halstead, 2012). During this design process each faculty member works together to achieve the best curricula possible. The design process however, is just the beginning. As nursing as a profession grows and changes more focus is being given to graduation of students, pass rates and retention (Billings & Halstead, 2012). For that reason of these changes nursing programs must have continuous evaluation of their curriculum in order to meet the ever changing profession.
Evaluation is not just for the program to assess its own quality, but it is also used by governing bodies such as, the Accreditation Commission for Educating in Nursing (ACEN), to ensure standards are being upheld (Lewallen, 2015). The data appraised should be collected from many resources, from beginning to the end, in both formative and summative assessments (Kumm & Laverentz, 2017).
In the developmental stage and throughout the program formative assessment should take place as a way of certifying the programs curriculum is on track, as such the summative assessment should take place at the end as a means to assess outcomes (Kumm & Laverentz, 2017). Resources used in both these forms of assessment include; testing scores, faculty evaluations, and student evaluations (Lewallen, 2015). With the use of this information instructors can measure if the curriculum outcomes are being met, courses are structured correctly and instructional strategies are optimum (Schug,