- NURS FPX 6111 Assessment 1 Course Definition and Alignment Table.
Course Definition and Alignment Table
It is essential to assess the effectiveness of the program so as to ensure that the students have the knowledge, skills, and competencies that are necessary for practice. This assessment focuses on evaluating the alignment of the learning objectives and the program outcomes as displayed in the Associate in Applied Science, Nursing (NURS) program of Delaware County Community College.
In this assessment, it will be essential to determine how well the expected learning outcomes correspond with the program objectives in order to assess the overall effectiveness of the curriculum in preparing nursing students for their respective professional roles. Faculty members in nursing have to carry out alignment checks so as to determine what has been done right, what has not been done right, and how the educational process can be improved so as to suit the student’s needs as well as the needs of the healthcare setting.
Program Offering
- Program Description
The intended medium of the current educational program, the Associate in Applied Science, Nursing (NURS), is a rigorous program that prepares students to start working as professional nurses. It is pertinent to mention that this program has been developed with a focus on the implementation of the principles of evidence-based practice and ethical norms. It also prepares learners in the area of achieving and maintaining health, preventing diseases, and providing safe, quality, compassionate, and effective client-centered care in the lifespan (Cary et al., 2021).
A caring curriculum educates students on matters relating to communication, embryonic leadership, and management skills, with a view to fighting for patients and achieving positive outcomes. Upon training in this program, learners will be highly technical and capable nurses who are in a position to meet the increasing challenges of the modern health sector.
Apply nursing principles to promote health and prevent illness across the lifespan: The graduate will demonstrate competencies in the use of principles of nursing on completion of the program as set by the Delaware State Board of Nursing. This expertise will be evident in the competencies involving the assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation, and evaluation of care for patients, families, and communities across the life span, as posted by the Board of Nursing in 2024. This includes the requirements provided by the Nurse Practice Act and other requirements of the respective state concerning nursing practice.
NURS FPX 6111 Assessment 1 Course Definition and Alignment Table
Demonstrate effective communication and collaboration within interdisciplinary healthcare teams: To that end, the students shall gain competency in communication and collaboration as described by the ANA and NCSBN (American Nurses Association, 2020). This entails effectively interacting with members of the healthcare team, patients, and their families to promote specific outcomes and ensure optimum care delivery.
Utilize evidence-based practice to deliver safe and quality patient-centered care: The program also focuses on implementing EBP standards provided by AHRQ and IOM in practice (Abu-Baker et al., 2021). Through this knowledge, graduates will apply critique to research findings, professional training, and patient choice, hence minimizing risks in providing quality care.
Integrate ethical and legal standards into nursing practice: As a result of the course, students will be able to solve complex moral and legal problems inherent in the field of nursing. They will abide by the American Nurses Association (ANA) Code of Ethics, as well as the laws as cemented by the Delaware State Board of Nursing (American Nurses Association, 2020). This includes respecting patient self-determination, the issue of privacy, and advocacy of patients’ issues as enshrined in the codes of conduct and the laws that govern the profession.
Palliative Care Nursing
- Course Description, Vision, and Rationale
Advanced Pharmacology in Nursing Practice is one of the courses in the AAS Nursing (NURS) program at DCCC, which is as follows: It enables the students who are pursuing nursing to be well-equipped with knowledge and skills that will allow them to manage medications safely and appropriately. This course also covers issues of pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, medication administration methods, dosage calculations, and understanding of side effects and therapeutic uses in different populations (Board of Nursing, 2024).
The intended learning outcomes of this course include reasons for medication safety and efficacy by enlightening the students on practice-based guidelines and ethical issues. The objective is to enable students to understand and be able to teach and practice first-rate patient-centered care, thereby minimizing adverse drug-related events (Andersson et al., 2022). With the solid theoretical input and the practical practice sessions demonstrated by the students, the course will equip the intended learners with self-confidence and practical skills essential in today’s complex pharmacotherapy operations in healthcare facilities.
The rationale for the Advanced Pharmacology in Nursing Practice course is to establish a match between theory and practice while fostering the development of a highly intuitive understanding of pharmacological elements and their relevance for practice. In this course, the student will acquire critical thinking skills and sound clinical judgment when it comes to matters related to medication administration and management. It appreciates the need for nurses to promote the safe use of medicines and desirable patient outcomes.
This course provides students with the vision and commitment to the ongoing process of their professional development in relation to conforming to the national nursing standards and following the guidelines on evidence-based practice. This helps guarantee that nurses who graduate from the nursing program are competitive, skillful, and nurturing.
- Learning Objectives
Health promotion without disease for various ages can be achieved through utilizing nursing theory and practice in a legal and ethically sound manner. Engaging with patients and other members of the interdisciplinary health care team promotes effective, efficient, and ongoing communication. Adopt decisions based on assessments of research data, medical experience, and client choices in accordance with evidence-based practice. Enhance the delivery of health care through competence in assessing, planning, and implementing, as well as assessing patients’ progress.
Improve patient involvement by supplying leadership and management skills to express rights; then, use these skills to allow organizations to achieve desired outcomes and enhance the quality of healthcare. Improve staff consciousness by encouraging and enforcing critical reflection on practice experiences and advanced education in nursing. This will help them address new trends and challenges arising in the health sector. Upgrade cultural literacy and proficiency with the intention of attending to the different health needs and expectations of one’s society.
Optimize the use of informatics and technology assets to enhance patient care, record and communication standards, and the general strength of nursing practice. Effectively and efficiently enhance knowledge in pharmacology, dosage measurement, medication administration, and patient counseling. Be highly professional at all times; this will strengthen confidence and trust amongst patients, their families, and other personnel in the health facility.
Program Assessment and Evaluation Strategies
Delaware County Community College’s Associate in Applied Science, Nursing (NURS) program’s nursing education course uses a battery of tests to assess students’ progress in the course across three dimensions of learning: Knowledge. Types of learning taxonomy include cognitive, psychomotor, and affective. Despite the advanced Integrated Learning Technologies and the availability of other forms of competencies, the traditional forms of knowledge assessment are writing assignments, tests, and quizzes. These tasks challenge the students on the content area of nursing concepts, principles of pharmacology, and evidence-based practice protocols.
NURS FPX 6111 Assessment 1 Course Definition and Alignment Table
These tests assess how well the nursing students are able to recall information and apply the knowledge they have learned in practical scenarios, the ability to analyze complex problems, and the ability to make a decision based on evidence with the intention of improving patients’ outcomes (American Nurses Association, 2020). This enables students to apply their critical thinking, clinical reasoning, and problem-solving skills to case scenarios and clinical models, among others, in actual healthcare settings.
In the psychomotor domain, performance-based exams are conducted on students’ application of nursing processes and skills. Before progressing to practical assessments or offering tests on actual or simulated working conditions, ultra-modern competency assessments could include clinical skills labs.
Medication administration, wound care, and patient assessments are a few of the nursing interventions that the student is assessed regarding their ability to perform these tasks safely and efficiently while adhering to best practices and principles (Costa & Monger, 2024). The clinical skills of students can be enhanced, and they can identify areas of weakness with the assistance of feedback from faculty members and preceptors found within the program.
Assessments of students’ values, attitudes, and professionalism, which are essential in the practice of nursing, comprise the affective domain. Students are able to exhibit and be evaluated on authentic assets like empathetic verbal and non-verbal communication, cross-cultural competence, and ethical decision-making when attending to patients via different forms of assessment that include self-assessment and peer assessment, an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE).
- Quality of Alignment between Learning Objectives and Program Outcomes
To what extent are the educational goals of the NURS program of Delaware County Community College well aligned with the intended learning outcomes of the students reflected in the degree of alignment between the learning objectives and the achievement of program outcomes? The learning outcomes of this program have been developed with painstaking precision to enable mastery of the knowledge and skills required to practice the nursing profession as envisaged by the certifying and professional nursing bodies (Costa & Monger, 2024). For each learning objective, knowledge, skills, attitudes, and program outcomes, such as enhancing health and averting illness, functioning in multifaceted teams, and making clinical decisions, are relevant.
Partially achieving the elements created by the benchmark of learning objectives and program outcomes is evidence of high-quality alignment that includes the evaluation and assessment of students’ progress and accomplishment. The following are some of the goals that teachers can assist students to achieve by enumerating the information, skills, and the kind of attitudes that one is expected to acquire from the program in their lesson plans, tests, and other staff development sessions. This ensures that learners who graduate from nursing courses are knowledgeable in the values of nursing, capable of handling the current health demands, and assisting in the enhancement of the healthcare system and patient experiences.
- Ways to Use to Assess the Organisation of Objectives and Standards
Some measuring elements that could be used to analyze the possibility of the outcomes of the Associate in Applied Science, Nursing (NURS) program at Delaware County Community College in relation to the learning objectives include clarity, specificity, measurability, and relevance. That is why when goals and program outcomes are well stated and shared with others, especially students and teachers, both are likely to attain the set goals (Enoch et al., 2022). This way, one can be sure that there will be no misunderstanding as to which of the learning outcomes are linked to which of the learning objectives.
References
Abu-Baker, N. N., AbuAlrub, S., Obeidat, R. F., & Assmairan, K. (2021). Evidence-based practice beliefs and implementations: A cross-sectional study among undergraduate nursing students. BioMed Central Nursing, 20(1), 1–8.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-020-00522-x
American Nurses Association. (2020). Nursing scope of practice. American Nurses Association.
https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/scope-of-practice
Andersson, H., Svensson, A., Frank, C., Rantala, A., Holmberg, M., & Bremer, A. (2022). Ethics education to support ethical competence learning in healthcare: An integrative systematic review. BioMed Central Medical Ethics, 23(1).
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-022-00766-z
Board of Nursing. (2024). Board of Nursing. Division of professional regulation – State of Delaware.
https://dpr.delaware.gov/boards/nursing
Cary, M. P., De, J. C., Kauschinger, E. D., & Carter, B. M. (2024). Advancing health equity through artificial intelligence: An educational framework for preparing nurses in clinical practice and research. Creative Nursing.
Costa, L. A., & Monger. E. J. (2024). Criteria to evaluate graduate nurse proficiencies in obtaining a health history and performing physical assessment in simulation-based education: A narrative review. Nurse Education in Practice, 77, 103984–103984.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2024.103984
Enoch, L. C., Abraham, R. M., & Singaram, V. S. (2022). A comparative analysis of the impact of online blended and face-to-face learning on medical students’ clinical competency in the affective, cognitive, and psychomotor domains. BioMed Central Medical Education, 22(1).
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-022-03777-x
Vujanić, J., Prlić, N., & Lovrić, R. (2020). Nurses’ self-assessment of caring behaviors in nurse-patient interactions: A cross-sectional study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(14), 5255.