Integrating clinical practice and simulation into modern nursing curricula

Nursing Curriculum

Healthcare is changing so rapidly, there will be a need to profoundly alter the nature of nursing education to address the needs of providers and patients. "Nurse researchers are calling for curricular changes that emphasize how, along with what, students learn. Educators are bringing classroom and clinical teaching together by integrating knowledge acquisition and situated knowledge use in the classroom and clinical practice. The health care system and the patient population have undergone dramatic changes in the last half-century, but many nurse educators teach their students in the same way that they were taught decades ago" (A new dawn in nursing education, 2012, RWJF). A number of innovations have been instituted, both technological and pedagogical in nature. For example, simulation technology allows nursing students to have an experience more accurate to the 'real world' of the nursing environment very early in their education, even before their residency. Also, narrative or case study approaches encourages greater creative thinking and hands-on use of abstract materials.

Every nursing organization must have a clear purpose and impetus for being. This is especially true of educational institutions which, like other healthcare entities, must inspire and motivate its members to be instruments of change. As nurses of the future are educated, they must have a clear sense of purpose and mission, combined with the confidence that what they are learning in the classroom will serve them well as professionals later on in their lives.

Reference

A new dawn in nursing education. (2012). RWJF. Retrieved from:

http://www.rwjf.org/en/about-rwjf/newsroom/newsroom-content/2012/08/a-new-dawn-in-nurse-education.html

Q2. According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), transformations in healthcare necessitate transformations in medical education. "Transforming the health care system to provide safe, quality, patient-centered, accessible, and affordable care will require a comprehensive rethinking of the roles of many health care professionals, nurses chief among them. To realize this vision, nursing education must be fundamentally improved both before and after nurses receive their licenses" (The future of nursing: focus on education, 2011, IOM). Nurses will have additional responsibilities as more burdens are shifted onto their shoulders in an effort to cut costs. Also, the population is aging and experiencing more chronic conditions for longer duration, requiring a new skill set of the current crop of nurses.