Nursing Course: Curriculum Design and Evaluation

Background

Every field requires specialization for efficiency. Any medical course such as nursing is no exception here. However, specialization also requires a course to be studied, which requires organized planning. The organized plan for the effective study is what is termed a curriculum. The curriculum provides the direction of how to undertake a certain academic exploration. This implies that a poor scheme of work or poor lesson planning can result in disastrous academic output. This shows how important it is for the structure of academic guidelines to excellence (Flynn, 2004).

The question that has been asked widely is: How can nursing students contribute toward the provision of reliable academic results? The faculty members believe that students should be empowered to make sound decisions about what they want later on in their careers. The only strategy that would achieve this objective was teaching nursing students using case studies. This strategy enables the students (nurses) to make sound decisions at an earlier stage in their career because it is highly involved. This article delves deeper into this learning strategy by giving its strengths, weaknesses, real examples, and recommendations on how and why a case study should be used.

Introduction

This paper sets out to develop a curriculum structure and process in the nursing practice. It studies the different objectives under the topic of fluid balance in the human body. Such include the following: distribution of fluid volume in the human body, how fluids and electrolytes move between intracellular and extracellular compartments, and the way the skin, the kidney, the lungs, and the gastrointestinal tract help to maintain fluid and electrolyte balance. It begins with a table that shows the alignment of the learning objectives in tandem with national competencies: a scheme of work. Besides, there are two clinical activities that are meant to give students a practical hands-on experience of the nursing practice. It has a number of activities to be performed by students themselves with the teacher only as a guide. It is succeeded by an assignment testing critical thinking of the students and eventually an activity testing reflective thinking (Whitman, 1999).

At this level, students need not be taught. The major theme of the teaching was that students should not be taught, meaning that the learning should be facilitated. Depending on someone’s philosophy of teaching, teaching and facilitation might be considered as one-and-the-same or even as totally different. However, the results of the study show the need for teaching approaches used in nursing graduate education to reflect facilitation. According to Webster’s online dictionary, facilitation is defined as the act of assisting or improving, or making easier the progress of something.

The role of the nursing teacher or facilitator is to guide and help or assist the process of learning but not to control it. Nonetheless, facilitation is a kind or form of instruction, and it is aimed at providing an inviting or favorable learning environment for students. It is particularly intriguing to know that some students recognized the effectual teaching strategies as being grounded in the adult learning theory: It included a wide variety of adult learning cantered techniques; several professors knew about the adult learning theory and treated them as such. Likewise, when unproductive or ineffectual teaching was demonstrated, we find that some of the nursing students felt that the university lecturers or professors should actually take some teaching courses (Meng, 2004). Most of these people do not have proper or proper communication skills and also do not understand the learning process (how best to help others learn).

Not amazingly, learning preferences frequently dictated the type of teaching approaches that were deemed effectual: “I like hands-on or practical experience. Very visual; laboratory courses provided this. Some students look forward to the hands-on training. Practical learning is actually the strength of most nursing students. Every theme that is described demonstrates the teaching strategies that are considered to be more effective by graduate students who do not always see the professor’s teaching as important (Melrose, 2004).

Lesson Plan 1

WGU Task Objective Number: 0073

General Information

• Topic or Unit of Study: Circulation of fluids in the body
• Lesson Title & Subject(s): Distribution of field volume in the body
• Grade/Level: Nursing Diploma
• Instructional Setting: The students will be in groups of five, discussing various topics and doing assignments.
• Learning Objectives: The objectives of the learning process entail the following:

  1. The main objective will be to assist the students in describing the use of fluid in the human body and be able to inspect a patient with problems of fluid circulation in the body.
  2. To enable the students to apply the information in hospitals.
  3. To relate fluid circulation with the various function of the body.
  4. To enable the students to differentiate between functions carried out by the heart, functions of the lung, and the skin.
  5. To be able to identify a patient who has a fluid circulation problem.
  6. To be able to discuss with the students the care needs of a patient.

Materials

The learning process will constitute the employ of the following materials to enhance the learning experience for the nursing students.

A rat for the dissection

These will be plastic-made plants designed to demonstrate the condition of plants in different seasons of the year.

Coursebook and library materials. A laboratory.

Adaptations/Differentiation of Instruction

The subject of fluid circulation in the body is broad in its scope, and the lecturer will employ various feasible differentiation methods to ensure that all the varying learners’ needs are catered for. As part of the differentiation, the teacher acknowledges that learners have varying skills and abilities and thus will use appropriate differentiation to ensure that the fourth-grade learners are catered to in the least restrictive learning environment. For the presentation of the lesson on ‘circulation of the fluid in the body,’ instruction will be modeled in varying forms of adaptations, modifications, and accommodations to ensure that all learner capabilities are catered to. The differentiation strategy entails the use of multisensory techniques as means to captivate learners at different levels. The learners will be exposed to various laboratory experiments to help them understand the topic well. The student will also be supplied with charts which will enable them to understand the subject better.

Instructional Objectives

After exposing the learners to the key concepts on the subject of fluid circulation in the body through various approaches, learners must be able to associate various conditions of the human body to fluid circulation. Students should be able to identify and name various fluids circulating in the body and their role in the function of the body. By extension, learners will be required to name and draw certain body buds which help in the circulation of fluids.

Strategies

The core strategy of the learning process will be experiment and case. Learners will also be asked to discuss in groups during the learning process activities. The activities will be conducted in a manner such that by the end of the process, all learners will have gone through all activity components done in group activities.

Development Procedures

For a systematic execution of the lesson plan, the learning design will constitute clearly guided activities. The major thrust of the activities will be drawing of various fluid circulation systems in the body and being able to identify the functions of these fluids in the human body. The activities will entail laboratory experiments and case studies.

Motivation

Learners will be stimulated to the realization that the fluid circulation in the body plays an important role in keeping a human being healthy. The students will be informed to rule various presentations on how fluid circulation in the body is responsible for human sweating, human shivering, and many functions. The aim of the motivation strategy is to educate learners on the functions of fluids in the body.

Standards and Indicators

The learning outcome of this lesson will be closely related to the scope and objectives of the lesson and requires the learner to use various inter-lecture skills to understand fluid circulation in the body. Apart from the human skill that the student should use, their behavior will also be important in chatting the way forward of the lesson

At the end of the lesson, a student should

1. Know types of fluids in the human body and their mode of distribution.
2. Be able to identify proper fluid distribution in the body
3. Should know what sign in a patient of poor distribution of fluids.
4. Know the sign noticed in a person with the proper fluid distribution.

Assessment

Assessment of the success of the learning design and approach will be drafted from the learning process objectives.

• Learners will be required to complete written exercises where they will be required to match certain human behaviors with fluid circulation in the body. On the same aspect, learners will also be required to give explanations to the matches according to what they would have gathered from the learning process.
• The learning process will also require learners to name fluids that circulate in the body.

Follow-up

Results of the assessment will be used to identify loopholes on the part of the learning process by showing underperforming learners, and supplementary measures will be implemented to cater to gaps arising as indicated by the results of the assessment process.

Lesson Plan 2

WGU Task Objective Number: 0073

General Information

• Topic or Unit of Study: Circulation of fluids in the bodyLesson Title & Subject(s): Distribution of field volume in the body.
  Grade/Level: Nursing Diploma.
  Instructional Setting: The students will be in groups of five, discussing various topics and doing assignments.

Overview

The following is the presentation of a nursing lesson on the subject of the circulation of blood in the body. The learning design will make use of the laboratory for practical to enable students to grapple the best from a teacher.

Learning Objectives

The objectives of the learning process entail the following;

1. To familiarise learners with various functions of the lung and the skin in relation to blood and other fluid circulation in the body.
2. To educate learners on the importance of fluid circulation in the body.
3. To underscore the importance of the interrelatedness of various body functions in determining fluid circulation in the body.

Materials

The learning materials will entail books, laboratory, and internet sources.

• Computer-This will be used to run automated software that simulates different weather patterns.
• Pictures-The learning experience will also be enhanced by pictures to give an impression of different weather patterns and conditions.

Adaptations/Differentiation of Instruction

For the delivery of the lesson on blood circulation in the body, instruction will be designed in varying forms of adaptations, modifications, and accommodations to ensure that all learner capabilities are catered to. Laboratory experiments and case studies are important in enabling the student to study and understand the subject well.

Instructional Objectives

The core instructions objective of the lesson is to present the subject to the learners in a manner that they will be able to apply it practically in hospitals.

Strategies

The core strategy of the learning process will be student participation in the case study and participation student in the experiment.

Standards and Indicators

Students are required to comprehend the relationship between various functions of a body part in helping in blood circulation in the body. As such, the yardstick of the lesson design is the channeling of learners to an understanding of how various functions of a body part and fluid circulation are interrelated.

Indicator 2

Learners will be able to establish the relationship between functions of lungs, skin, and heart.

Assessment

Assessment of the success of the learning design and approach will be drafted from the learning process objectives.

• Learners will be required to complete written exercises and practicals where they will be required to apply what they have learned in class in the laboratory setting.

Follow-up

Outcomes of the assessment process will be used to identify gaps on the part of the learning process by showing unrealized set goals and objectives. The learning process will be revisited and remodeled for underperforming learners, and supplementary measures will be implemented to cater to gaps arising as indicated by the results of the assessment process.

Curriculum

Notes to curriculum

• The following questions should be attempted by every student. Questions for Reflection:

  1. Why was it important to study fluid and electrolyte balance in the human body?
  2. From the experiments performed during the different lessons, what is the role of the organs discussed in maintaining fluid gases?
  3. Why was it necessary to visit the hospitals or nursing homes during certain classes?
  4. Which lessons were most interesting: drawing lessons, question, and answer, lab experiments, or visits out of the school? Why?
  5. As a nursing student, what could you advise a patient of fluid and electrolyte imbalance to do?
• Reflect on the following experiences and try to resolve the dilemmas involved.

  • Jimmy, who is a nurse, has just reported working in the morning. The goose pimples on his skin are erect, yet when breathing, smoke-like vapor can be emitting from his mouth. This proceeds even when he put on a cardigan.
  • It is freezing cold in the morning. Terry, however, is sweating profusely in her palms with sweat enough to water her books and make the pen slip through her fingers and drop. Some sweat can also be seen on the tip of her nose, while the rest of her body is ‘normal.’
  • From lesson 6, week 3, the dog’s lungs were discovered to be moist and elastic. Similarly, the diaphragm housing the lungs had a huge void. Account for these observations.
• Think critically about the following situations and give a solution to each situation.

The dog that was dissected above had been borrowed from its owner for the experiment. The owner handed out the dog on the promise that it would be brought back alive. During the experiment, however, Sam was leading the experiment. He then notices that the dog is over bleeding and is facing the danger of death. Informing the teacher would nullify his marks, yet this would determine his possibility of graduating or not. Pretending that the dog was fine could earn him the marks, yet his teacher would later be imprisoned later to pay for the damage, but after Sam would have already graduated.

• If you were Sam, what would you have done?

  • What mistake might Sam have made in the process of making the dog to over bleeding?
  • What could be done to restore the fluid and electrolyte balance in the dog’s body?
•  In lesson 4 of week one, the nursing students visited the hospital of r a live observation. While they had just arrived, an ambulance came razing in with the siren wailing and the danger lights flashing. From the ambulance was withdrawn a man who seemed unconscious. After a few moments of observation, the concerned doctor recommended that the patient be added four points of drip water before any medical administration. Among the areas examined by the doctor were the eyes, the tongue, and the blood capillaries.

  • What might have been the problem with the old man?
  • After the addition of drips, the man got totally well, and the doctor advised no more medication was needed by his patient. Explain this using homeostatic balance (Whitman, 2000).

Recommendations

It is imperative to understand that learning is a continuous process, and therefore, students should be equipped with the necessary skills that might be needed at an advanced stage, more so, nursing students. From the above discussion, it is evident that this teaching strategy has immense benefits to nursing students. The present-day student needs a sound mind to make tangible decisions, and this strategy does exactly that. Experiment teaching strategy should be recommended for independent-minded students who are innovative and ready to learn on their own (Brady, Giddens, Wright and Harris, 2008). The positive aspects of this strategy surpass its negative, and thus, it seems to be the best strategy that can be recommended to any student. Because of its involving and collaborative capabilities, applying experiments in learning allows students to share every aspect of a study; therefore, making it effective to students from all fields of study. Note that this strategy empowers the modern-day student with every tool necessary for education (Hayes, 2003).

Rubric: nursing

• Student Name
• Student Number

Reference List

Brady, D., Giddens, J., Wright, M., & Harris, J. (2008). A new curriculum for a new era of nursing education. Nursing education Perspective, (29) 4, 156-157

Flynn, J., (2004). A guide for nurse educators and clinicians. New York: Springer.

Hayes, E. (2003). Helping preceptors mentor the next generation of nurse practitioners. New York: Springer.

Melrose, S. (2004). What works? A personal account of clinical teaching strategy in nursing. Education for Health, (17) 2, 236-239

Meng, A., (2004). An opportunity to stimulate critical thinking. Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Whitman, N. (2000). Creative medical teaching. Salt Lake City: University of Utah School of Medicine.

Whitman, N., (1999). A guide to clinical teaching. Salt Lake City: University of Utah School of Medicine.