In today’s curriculum meeting, one faculty member made a motion to change our undergraduate curriculum. Currently, we teach the nursing curriculum using the “womb to tomb” theory. For example, OB/PEDS is taught in the sophomore year and geriatrics is taught in the senior year.
Prior to this course, I had no problem with this curriculum theory. However, I posted this theory on Blackboard, and a classmate made a suggestion to teach med-surg first to serve as a foundation and then follow it with the specialty courses (e.g., OB/PEDS and Psych). I feel this rationale is logical because most employers prefer a nurse to have at least two years of experience in med-surg before working in a specialty area.
The proposed curriculum change is to teach med-surg and pharmacology in the spring semester of the sophomore year, and OB/PEDS in the fall semester of the junior year. I have two concerns regarding this proposal. First, the content that is taught in the sophomore year is difficult (med-surg and pharmacology), and I am not sure if students will be able to grasp it after only having Fundamentals. Second, we currently use Erikson and Maslow as theories in our curriculum. Obviously, with this curriculum change, Erikson will no longer be applicable in our program. One of my personal goals for this course is to learn about curriculum models that we could use in our undergraduate nursing program.
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I think the best run program I ever taught in was one in which fundamentals and pharm were taught in the first semester. Pharm was kept very conceptual: students learned classifications and did not concentrate on individual drugs at all. Med-surg was next, and there was significant attention paid to individual meds. Peds/OB/Psych was later.
The recurrent theme here was moving from general concept to specific content. Foundational concepts were learned in fundamentals and pharm, then made more specific and practical in clinical, med-surg, and specialty areas. Again, general concepts were learned in med-surg and made more practically applicable and specific in clinical. Specialty areas then became about applying med-surg principles to different populations, each of which had their own concerns as well.
It took a long time to twist the curriculum into this shape, but it worked very, very well once we got it done. It sounds like you're on the right track too!
Thanks for your comments. I will share them with the nursing faculty.
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