New BSN Curriculum Suggestions

Last week, I submitted a list of my thoughts to the Assistant Dean who was asking for feedback regarding the new  Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) curriculum which was mandated by the CHED Memorandum Order No.5. I may not be the best person to talk about curriculum development as my qualifications would present, although I think that thoughts from a humble product of the said curriculum might just help in its implementation. 


My thoughts might deviate a little from the prescribed curriculum but rest assured I try to line them up with the same goal of producing globally competitive nurses. Since the University of Santo Tomas (UST) is an autonomous institution, meaning it can design its own curricula, implementing some modifications to the prescribed BSN curriculum isn't impossible.

Here are my thoughts:

NURSING RESEARCH

Expanding the subject into two semesters allows the students to be more immersed in the field of research. Since the subject ends on the 1^st sem of the senior year, I think the decreased load is very welcome for the  students since they can concentrate on their graduation requirements on the 2nd semester.

RESEARCH APPLICATION

As part of the role of the nurse as a research consumer, I have this idea of adopting a more substantial  method of doing Nursing Care Plans (NCPs).  I suggest that we adopt a more evidence-based NCP by having the interventions supported by academic articles, internationally published journals, DOH/WHO recommendations, books, and other evidences aside from the NANDA. 

This practice does not only promote evidence based practice but it may also help the students in identifying the grey areas of nursing practice. Once they identify these areas, these can stand as the basis of their researches in their senior year. The findings of research can then be directly applied to the clinical area by using the best practice methods to date.

SKILLS FAIR

The skills fair really gave us the opportunity to practice our skills in the clinical area although I think the time isn’t enough for us to practice all of the skills included in the manual so I think additional time taken from the RLE is needed. To further stimulate the students to become better in the skills fair, I suggest that we have a Skills Fair Competition which will be open to all RLE groups. The RLE group who will get the highest score after performing all the skills will be then given an award or recognition. 


PRC ORIENTATION
There must be a formal orientation regarding the PRC and the different forms to be submitted for graduation at the sophomore level. This is to avoid confusion among the students regarding the requirements. The redundancies in the forms must also be addressed (see Intensive Nursing Practicum checklist and Green Book Checklist) so that the students would not be hassled by the different forms that I think are not really necessary.

COMPETENCY APPRAISAL

The Competency Appraisal (CA) is one of the new subjects offered by the new BSN curriculum. It serves two purposes: to measure and develop our competence and to review the basic concepts in all the areas of nursing practice. In UST, we had several case scenarios which were discussed in class, adopting a participative type of student directed learning. The CA teaching style really developed our critical thinking skills although it did not become very effective in reviewing us in all the aspects of nursing subjects. Neither did it compensate for the lecture classes similar to the review. With this issue, I suggest that the case discussion method in CA be reverted back to lecture classes. I have two ideas on how we will proceed without removing the much needed case discussions:

(1) CA will be integrated in the respective subjects in the lower years. For example, after we take our CHN subject in 2^nd year, we would be given a case scenario similar to the one in CA and the case would be discussed in class. By then we would have had the needed exposure in the case scenario, giving us more time to review basic concepts in the 4th year.

(2) Another suggestion is to integrate CA in the RLE during their exposure to the respective related area. For example, after we have our OR exposure, we will be given the case scenario which shall serve as the case presentation to assess our competence. This may lessen the burden in finding extra time in the classroom.

MEDICAL SURGICAL NURSING

I feel that the case scenario per system is quite a heavy load for the 3^rd year students. As they are already busy with other requirements form different subject, it does very little to encourage the student to immerse themselves into the core of the subject as the students focus more on “finishing the requirement” rather than reviewing for the subject. Well, this was my observation when I was in third year. Also, there isn’t ample time allotted for feedback in the classroom so the students do not really know if they get the correct answer.

The expansion of Medical Surgical Nursing up to the 4^th year 1^st semester is one of the good provisions of the new curriculum. However, I think that it does very little to decongest the load of the MS in the first two semesters as it discuss solely  both Emergency and Gerontologic Nursing. I think that some systems should be moved to MS3 so that the students can focus more on these systems as well as to lighten the load of the two semesters of MS.

I think that the gerontologic nursing can be downgraded into an elective course since it has a limited content while the elective Critical Care can be included in MS3 to allow more time for discussion as it has a broader scope.

ELECTIVES

Mother and Child – some topics overlap with OB and Pedia, probably we can have a well defined scope so that the discussions would not be repeated.

TQM –good to have as a subject so that we become oriented with the concepts of quality care. Although I think that the concepts in the subject can already be easily comprehended and can already be included in Nursing Leadership and Management.

Spiritual Care – a good way to increase awareness among the students. Adding a cultural care component to the subject would make it more interesting. 

Critical Care – a very useful and practical subject; I think it can be integrated in MS3

Suggested Electives:

Cultural Care Nursing – This is in line with Madeline Leininger’s theory. This may help in developing  culturally sensitive nurses, making them more globally competitive.

Gerontologic Nursing – as suggested to be separated from MS3

Complementary and Alternative Therapy Nursing - a lot of people are already welcoming new forms of therapy, nurses might as well be more familiar with these.