Nursing Curriculum

Nursing Clinical performance can be graded in two different ways. Letter grades are the most common, but some places choose to use the pass/fail technique instead. In that option, there is no letter grade given. The person being graded is simply told whether they have passed or failed the clinical examination. As a member of the committee, I would favor using the letter grades for clinical experiences.

This provides much more feedback for the person taking the clinical examination, and a person who would clearly receive an A grade is not in the same league with a person who would barely pass with a low C. Or even a D. grade. It is necessary to note this, because both of those people passed, but yet they are not at all equal to one another.

With that in mind, it would be inappropriate to simply tell both people that they passed, when there are many things one person needs to work on and significantly fewer things the other person needs to work on (Tyler, Gagne, & Scriven, 1967). Passing a clinical examination is important, but those who barely pass it will still need important instruction on how to improve.

Formative and summative assessments are both related to this issue, because summative assessments look for weaknesses that can then be worked on through formative assessment techniques (Glickman, Gordon, & Ross-Gordon, 2009). This is what is done in a clinical assessment, since the goal is to sum up how well the person is doing with what he or she is learning and how that information can and should be applied to a clinical setting.

From that point, any problems the person has can be worked on, and a formative assessment of that work can be addressed as the person moves toward stronger abilities and a better understanding of any issues that need to be taken care of (Glickman, Gordon, & Ross-Gordon, 2009). Clinical assessments are great ways to determine what a person still needs to work on where his or her weaknesses are.

Educational regulation relates to the curriculum that can and should be taught in schools, and the information that has to go into a particular program in order for a degree or certificate to be awarded in that program. Accreditation, on the other hand, comes from an outside, governing body, and is designed to show that the U.S. Department of Education has certified a particular school and its programs as meeting specific standards (Lenn, 1992). Most employees and other educational institutions want people who have degrees from accredited schools.

Without that accreditation, the school may not be teaching its students what they really need to know in order to be prepared for further schooling and/or the proper job opportunity in their chosen field. That can be detrimental to the student, and could also be detrimental to the people who come into contact with that student in the future, as clients or patient. With nursing, an accredited program is vital.

Nurses who have not been through accredited programs generally do not find employment, because they are not deemed to be properly trained. Regulations are based on each school and what it requires for its students and instructors. This can be based on the curriculum the school offers, the admission requirements, the number of credit hours needed for a degree, and much more. These are only set by the school, and each school can set whatever regulations it chooses.

However, that does not mean the regulations set by a school will be accepted for accreditation (Lakshmi, 2012). There are many fake colleges popping up, in the U.S. And other places, along with colleges that are.