Course Development and Influencing Factors

The curriculum implementation for nursing needs the integration of effective courses that will be used to improve the skill development and performance enhancement of the students. The course development will provide a deep insight into the strategies that need to be implemented effectively in the clinical practice for better healthcare response of the patients and the effectiveness of the healthcare organization in ensuring the well-being and satisfaction of the staff (Bhati et al., 2023). The curriculum designed for developing clinical competency in registered nurses needs to have a course to develop decision-making and critical thinking skills in the registered nurses of the Mayo Clinic. This course will improve the efficiency of the nurses in dealing with deteriorating health conditions through effective critical thinking skills regarding the early assessment of the problem and timely intervention of the healthcare providers. The involvement of the faculty members and other stakeholders in the successful implementation of the nursing course is necessary along with the consideration of the effect of external and internal stakeholders on the effectiveness of the curriculum. This assessment will also discuss the mission, philosophy, and framework that was used to successfully integrate the specific course into the curriculum.

Appropriate Course for Curriculum

The course that will be added to the curriculum is the development of advanced skills in registered nurses including the skill of decision-making and critical thinking. These two skills allow the nurses to effectively monitor the health situation of the patients and through critical thinking analyze the impact of the implemented strategies and policies on the health of the patients and how it can be improved for better patient response (Nguyen & Liu, 2021). Through effective decision making the nurses will be able to apply evidence-based interventions to the healthcare situation of the patients for improved health outcomes. The course will also provide training regarding the implementation of effective critical thinking skills in the clinical practice for improved outcomes for the patient. This will increase their ability to successfully increase patient safety by early recognizing and responding to the health situation of the patient. The course will be based on the integration of evidence-based practices, the use of technology like electronic health records for early detection of deteriorating situations using alarms, the implementation of proper ethical and legal guidelines for the effective response of the patients, and the identification of high-risk health situations for the early response of the healthcare providers (Mennella et al., 2024). This course will be placed in the middle of the curriculum where nurses have gained enough basic knowledge regarding the competencies and their trends in the clinical industry.

Rationale for Adding Course

The emerging trends in the clinical setting make it the need of time for the students and the nursing staff to improve their knowledge and information regarding the advancements in the clinical industry and ensure their competency in dealing with deteriorating health situations effectively without causing any health harm and improving the standard of care and safety provided to the patients (Flaubert, 2021). However, some more rationale regarding the integration of decision-making and critical thinking courses in the curriculum are given below;

• The first and foremost impact of this course is to improve the response of the patients regarding the care provided to them.
• The early recognition and response to the deteriorating health situation of the patients can be possible through the critical thinking and decision-making ability of the nursing staff.
• The integration of evidence-based practices in clinical practice ensures the improvement of nursing practice.
• The nursing staff will be able to respond actively to high-risk health situations through the effective skill of critical thinking and analyzing the situation of the patients.
• The nurses should know the legal and ethical practices in the healthcare setting to ensure the effectiveness of the care provided to the patients.

Topical Outline for a Course

The outline for the course is given as advanced decision-making and critical thinking for the nursing staff. This course will provide guidelines regarding the effectiveness of the nursing staff in ensuring quality healthcare services and care coordination for patients (Flaubert, 2021). The outline of the course is listed below;

• Providing basic knowledge regarding the importance of critical thinking and decision-making in clinical practice.
•  Integrating the knowledge about the detection of early signs of the deteriorating health situation of the patient using clinical tools effectively.
• Knowledge regarding the identification of high-risk situations and prioritizing the situations for the prevention of health damage is necessary.
• The knowledge regarding the collaboration of interdisciplinary teams in ensuring the effectiveness of the treatment provided to the patients will be provided to the nurses.
• The application of evidence-based best practices to understand the effectiveness of the process of decision-making in high-risk health situations.
• Providing knowledge regarding ethical and legal considerations in the clinical practice for improved health outcomes.
• Giving the experience regarding the case studies scenarios and the simulation-based practices to ensure the effectiveness of the nursing students in rocking high-quality safety to the patients.
• The knowledge regarding accurate and effective communication and leadership will be given to nursing staff.
• The information regarding the efficient use of technology for the better clinical performance will be given to the staff.

Relation to other Curriculum Courses

This course is related to another course of the curriculum in a way that first, it focuses on the evaluation and assessment of the health situation of the patients to apply the best response for better health outcomes. This analysis will be effective in any healthcare practice and will be beneficial for the staff. Then it uses evidence-based practices that act as a cornerstone in ensuring the efficiency of the treatment provided to the patients. The consideration of ethical and legal practices in the healthcare setting provides clear knowledge regarding the importance of alignment of practices with the regulatory guidelines.

Collaboration of Faculty Members

To ensure the effectiveness of the nursing practice curriculum regarding the course integration of critical thinking and decision-making needs the collaboration of all the stakeholders both working in the clinical setting and the institutional facility. Their collaboration will provide knowledge regarding different factors responsible for the effective performance of the nursing staff in the clinical practice. They can collectively define the topics that are essential to be included in the curriculum and the content that will be more engaging for the students and the staff members in the clinical practices. The basic collaborator is the curriculum review committee responsible for reviewing the effectiveness of the curriculum along with the courses and content provided to ensure that it is up to mark and can be helpful for the skill development of the nursing staff (Ahmed et al., 2023). The involvement of clinical practitioners in the curriculum development process is necessary to ensure that the course is effective and is dealing with the current requirements of the healthcare industry. The involvement of administrators is necessary to ensure the availability of the needed resources and support from the clinical leaders for the sustainable implementation of the curriculum. The nursing educators and the students should participate in the development procedure of the curriculum for the better response of the students regarding the education and knowledge provided to them.

Effect of Internal Factors on Curriculum

The internal factors include the regulatory bodies, curriculum committees, and the organizational processes that play an important role in ensuring the effectiveness of the curriculum applied for a certain group of nurses (Hajizadeh et al., 2021). All the internal factors together are responsible for understanding the effectiveness of the curriculum in addressing the current needs of healthcare industries and the stamina of the students to understand and implement all those practices. The effects of internal factors are given below;

Regulatory Bodies

The regulatory bodies are responsible for ensuring the quality of the education provided to the patients along with assessing the alignment of the curriculum with the ethical and legal guidelines provided by the government educational institutes for the better implementation of the curriculum and effective updating process. The institutional review board (IBR) is responsible for the integration of research-based practice in the curriculum and the involvement of quality assurance approaches for better student outcomes regarding the curriculum implemented.

Curriculum Committees

The curriculum committees are responsible for assessing the curriculum designed and proposed for the improved teaching of registered nurses and making them competent for the future healthcare industries (Flaubert et al., 2021). They analyze whether the curriculum aligns with the current courses in the curriculum and how they can collectively improve the process of providing education to registered nurses for their effective performance in the clinical setting. They assess the outcomes of the course along with the course outline and the evaluation methods for better identification of its sustainability.

Organizational Processes

The organizational processes regarding the assurance of the availability of the resources needed to implement the curriculum courses effectively in the educational setting of nursing students are necessary (Xiao & Men, 2022). Moreover, ensuring effective communication between all the stakeholders and the interdisciplinary teams is also the responsibility of the administrators looking into the managerial process of the organization. The decision-making about the effectiveness of the curriculum is also the foremost duty of institutional administrators.

Effect of External Factors on Curriculum

The external factors also have a great influence on the implementation and effectiveness of the curriculum implemented. The external factors include the analysis of the funding resources the institution can use for the betterment of the implementation process along with assessing the role of regulatory accrediting bodies in the implementation of the curriculum (Alenezi et al., 2023). The involvement of the stakeholders also holds significant importance in affecting the development and implementation process of the curriculum. The effect of external factors is given below in detail;

Funding

The funding resources are essential for ensuring the effectiveness of the curriculum development and implementation process and the provision of facilities for the integration of advanced practices in the curriculum to provide enhanced experience and dedication to the students and the nursing staff (AlOmari et al., 2024). The funding is mostly obtained from profit or nonprofit organizations, governmental allowances, and institutional financial capability.

Stakeholders

The stakeholder’s role is prominent in ensuring the quality of educational services provided to the patients (Bareika et al., 2021). They help in decision-making and analyzing the content effectiveness in the curriculum for better learning outcomes. The stakeholders involved are the healthcare organizations, students, healthcare providers, and professionals. They provide their opinion regarding the content effectiveness and evaluate the efficiency of the content for the real-world practice of the nursing staff.

Regulatory and Accrediting Agencies

These agencies provide standard approaches for the effectiveness of the curriculum and ensure the integration of ethical and legal practices during the implementation process of the curriculum (Bourke et al., 2020). They make sure that the curriculum prepares the students and the nursing staff for better healthcare practices and makes them competent to ensure the positive response of the patients by providing high-quality healthcare services for the patients.

Mission, Philosophy, and Framework of the Program

The mission statement defines the objective of the course and the curriculum and the need for its implementation while the philosophy ensures the integration of beliefs, values, and norms in the development of the curriculum. The framework provides a structured approach to the implementation process of the curriculum while ensuring the effectiveness of the process. The impact of different factors regarding the framework and objectives are given below;

Mission Statement

The mission statement highlights the importance of course integration and the development of the curriculum for a better understanding of the benefits and implications of the curriculum on nursing students. The mission statement defines the major reason behind the implementation of the curriculum through the proper analysis of its importance in developing the nursing competency to meet the current and advanced needs of healthcare organizations.

Philosophy

The philosophy emphasizes the integration of beliefs and social norms in the developing process of the curriculum. It makes sure that the research is effective regarding the understanding of the beliefs of the students and the nursing staff for better implementation and design content that will not impact negatively their beliefs (Mohamed et al., 2024). Thus it will ensure the satisfaction of the staff with the implementation of the educational program that is effective in providing high-quality value to the patients thus increasing the competency of the students.

Framework

The framework guides the educational policies used to implement the curriculum in the educational institution for increasing the competency of the registered nurses by ensuring effective healthcare services to improve the outcomes of the patients thus positively impacting the effectiveness of the curriculum. It will guide the educational institutions regarding the best practices that will be integrated for the improved response learning abilities of the nursing students.