Educational Curricula or the Educational Environment Influenced

¶ … educational curricula or the educational environment influenced by news media? By attitudes or activities of educators and facilitators? By community events or expectations? By regulatory or accrediting agencies?

The most recent example of the effect of the news media on educational curricula that comes to mind was the way that American business schools began increasing their attention to business ethics and ethics-related topics after the public disclosure of the major scandals in American big business. After the infamous Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom scandals, MBA programs began increasing the number of courses devoted to business ethics to prevent today's graduates from falling into the same traps as those that resulted in the highest-profile business scandals reported so widely in the media. Something similar seemed to have happened in healthcare education curricula in connection with problems like transmission of blood-borne pathogens throughout the 1980s and 1990s to prevent HIV transmission during routine medical and diagnostic procedures. More recently, the 2007 changes announced by CMS in connection with reimbursements to hospitals for hospital-acquired infections seems to have inspired similar changes in healthcare education to promote greater attention to preventing those types of infections in clinical settings.

2. Do you think the influences, in discussion question one, have increased or decreased in the last 20 years? What supports are there for your response?

I think it is safe to say that the influence of the news media on educational curricula has greatly increased in the last 20 years. That is largely a function of the fact that the digital age has made news reporting and news consumption a 'round-the-clock process that occurs across various different types of media. Whereas the news media used to be limited substantially to television, radio, and print journalism, today's media transmission has expanded to Web-based outlets that reach their audiences, including those individuals who do not consume media through the traditional means. I think support for that observation is readily available just by turning on a Web browser such as AOL because computer users are inundated with links and advertisements for news articles designed to prompt them to visit online news providers as soon as they sign on to open their email. In principle, this is very different from the situation 20 years ago because back then, a person who did not purchase a newspaper or turn on the television or radio was largely immune from news media advertising and promotion.

3. What is a curriculum and what curriculum do you propose to pursue in future? (550 words)

In general, a curriculum is the list of academic courses and major courses of study available to students at any academic institution of learning. For example, in public high schools, the curriculum is usually set by state boards of education and consists of all of the required course and optional courses for students within that state. Within institutions of higher learning and professional educational programs, the curricula usually represent the current trends in student demand as well as in the types of vocational opportunities available to graduates of those institutions. Curricula can also be influenced by non-academic factors, such as when the number of forensic science-related programs increases as a result of the public demand inspired by the popularity of fictional television crime drama programs.

In professional healthcare education, the curricula and programs of study available to students is substantially determined by the staffing needs of the healthcare industry (Billings & Halstead, 2009). For example, as the population of the United States becomes older, healthcare education shifts to increase the availability of educational and professional certification programs in geriatric-related specialties at every level from geriatric medicine to preparatory programs for home health aids and rehabilitation specialists (Billings & Halstead, 2009). To a great degree, changes in the educational programs and to the curricula within professional healthcare and nursing programs also represent feedback from the industry (Billings & Halstead, 2009). In that regard, all educational institutions maintain connections with the professional fields they serve and they employ many instructors who are simultaneously in clinical practice themselves. This provides a feedback mechanism to allow educational programs to incorporate any perceived needs for changes in educational programs and curricula from the point-of-view of the healthcare industry.

In my case, the curriculum that I intend to pursue is in practical nursing and that is also a function the vocational opportunities that I expect will be available to me in the near future. The first part or "core" components of the practical nursing curriculum will be those courses on general health and biological sciences that pertain to nursing. Since modern medicine and nursing is heavily dependent on empirical research and on evidence-based practice (Billings & Halstead, 2009), the practical nursing curriculum will also emphasize understanding the basic process of conducting research, interpreting research results, and applying the practical implications of empirical research to clinical practice.