A Process of Curriculum Analysis

Abstract

The changing needs of society for nursing personnel, an enlarging student body, and the establishment of a medical school at McMaster University led the faculty of the School of Nursing to critically review the curriculum design of the undergraduate nursing programme. While major changes were initiated in 1971, the process of curriculum analysis and change continues today. From the time that the process of curriculum change began, the structure within which the programme operates has become more complex. Changes have occurred in the university's administrative organization; a Faculty of Health Sciences has been established which encompasses both medicine and nursing; two new educational programmes have been established, in which nurse faculty members have major roles: and there have been a number of changes in the faculty complement that has the major responsibility for the B.Sc.N. programme. This changing group of faculty has continued to meet the challenge. The reader can appreciate the spirit of the programme if he/she accepts modification and change as the only constant; a standard of excellence as the major goal. There were four major areas that required an organizational structure to support a dynamic, changing curriculum. Task Groups composed of nursing faculty, other health science faculty, students, clinical service personnel, and research associates were established to perform the following functions: 1) Curriculum monitoring _ Programme Task Group 2) Resource allocation _ Resources Task Group 3) Long-term planning _ Goals Task Group 4) Monitoring of standards _ Evaluation Task Group