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Capella University

NURS-FPX6108 Curriculum Overview: Design, Develop and Evaluate

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Curriculum Overview

The education nurses receive can greatly affect their skills, kindness, and knowledge-based work. Nursing curriculum has been known to impact patient safety and clinical outcomes across health care systems. The University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing will be used as a sample for the introduction of the complete Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program. Established in 1939, the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing is one of the country’s oldest baccalaureate nursing programs (University of Pittsburgh, 2024). The following will be highlighted as a major component of this Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program: Mission Alignment; Standards; Outcomes; and Current Review Process.

Curriculum Identification, Organization, and Learner Population

Before deciding whether or not the nursing program at the University of Pittsburgh is a fit for your needs, you will want to take into account what kind of nursing program (institutional context) it is teaching and for which groups of people (target population). The University of Pittsburgh offers a Bachelor of Science – Nursing (BSN) program for anyone who wants to enter the field of nursing as a generalist, entry-level nurse with a high school diploma. The program takes four years of full-time study on campus, at the University of Pittsburgh campus in Pittsburgh, and is eligible for the NCLEX-RN examination after completion (University of Pittsburgh, 2024).

To be successful in a rapidly changing and complex healthcare world, a diverse and appropriately prepared population of learners is needed to help support the nursing workforce. The target population of learners within the University of Pittsburgh Nursing program consists of those learners who graduate from high school directly into the nursing program and those learners who transfer into the nursing program (internal transfers) (University of Pittsburgh, 2024). The nursing program is designed to give the students enrolled over 1200 hours of clinical time, which will be spent in a hospital, clinic, or community setting, and will be more than just theoretical knowledge. Therefore, the nursing program embraces various kinds of learners and offers coursework that not only lays a theoretical foundation but also offers much greater hands-on professional preparation than today’s generalist nurse requires.

Mission Statement Linkage to Curriculum

The mission of an organization is to establish a basis for the philosophy of their nursing program, and the Mission Statement of the University of Pittsburgh has a key mission of “To prepare the highest quality nurse to provide holistic care for patients/individuals, families and communities across all populations” (University of Pittsburgh, 2024). Part of this mission is a commitment to diversity/inclusivity and equity for all ethnicities, races, cultures, ages, disabilities, and gender identities (University of Pittsburgh, 2024). In addition, these mission values are addressed through cultural competence content in the nursing curriculum and through diversity of clinical placement opportunities.

When the mission statement of the organization is congruent with the nursing education curriculum, it offers a mechanism to support institutional values and purpose—all curricular development is based on advancing the nursing education larger institutional (organizational) mission statement. It draws on the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics to encourage the development of practices that involve compassion, respect for the dignity of all, and make inclusion of all within their scope of practice a reality (University of Pittsburgh, 2024). The evidence-based practice and scholarly participation emphasized in the curriculum indicate the approach in developing the mission-based academic standards (Sangwa & Mutabazi, 2025). This ethical obligation is fulfilled via interprofessional training sessions, health equity content and training, and clinical experiences in community settings.

Course List, Sequencing, and Organization

We can list the courses in sequence – from simple (the foundation of the curriculum) to complex (advanced nursing knowledge) to enhance the understanding of the curriculum. The Pitt BSN has a four-year curriculum with the first two years focused on taking some basic sciences, as well as liberal arts, and then introducing the clinical nursing courses throughout the remaining two years. In third and fourth years, the clinical nursing courses build on basic skills (assessing a patient) to the more complex skills of caring for a patient with multiple organ systems (University of Pittsburgh, 2024). This will assist in supporting the AACN (2021) recommendation to begin simple and work towards more complex learning.

This sequence will give students a seamless course flow to receive continuous learning and support, and allow them to build upon their clinical nursing skills acquired from previous clinical experiences. Concurrent nursing courses will enable students to integrate all three disciplines in learning about patient care, such as basic science and/or liberal arts courses (from the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences) and clinical nursing courses (University of Pittsburgh, 2024). Comprehensive practice assessments will be provided throughout the nursing curriculum, with a final comprehensive NCLEX diagnostic predictor exam / 3 day NCLEX review at the end of the program for the student to demonstrate their ability to prepare for the NCLEX. A complete list of the courses, with a description and the sequence/curriculum guide, is provided in the appendix of this paper.

Professional Standards, Guidelines, Competencies, and Technology

The curricula for the nursing programs are derived from outside sources, specifically those of nursing profession regulatory/oversight agencies and accrediting or third-party agencies. The University of Pittsburgh’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program is accredited by the Commission for Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). The quality of the baccalaureate degree programs (University of Pittsburgh, 2024) is very high in CCNE. This program’s curriculum is based on the core competencies outlined by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) (2021) in The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education (AACN, 2021). Person-centered care, partnerships, scientific theories and research guiding practice, partnerships with patients, families, and communities to improve the quality of healthcare, and use of information technology/informatics are core competencies.

Today, nursing education has become an era in which expecting to integrate technology is the norm. Digital health technology is a fundamental part of the education of nurses and essential for safe and effective quality care in the health-care landscape today. The Pitt Nursing Program uses various technology-related components in the curriculum, which include simulation skill/lab development for clinical skills, clinical information systems, and patient care technologies (Uppor et al., 2024). Recent studies have shown that simulation-based education can lead to improvements in the acquisition of clinical reasoning skills and decrease patient safety issues caused by nursing students (Uppor, F, Papadopoulou, E, & Janes, D, 2024). Therefore, by ensuring Pitt nursing graduates have technology-related competencies needed to successfully transition into practice, they will meet State Board of Nursing requirements for licensure as well as employer needs upon entering the workforce in today’s health care delivery systems.

Learning Outcomes and Meeting Needs of Diverse Learners

Student learning outcomes (SLOs) are statements of knowledge, ability, and behaviour that a student should be able to demonstrate upon graduation of the program. The expected outcomes for the Pitt BSN Program are based on the AACN (Association of American Colleges of Nursing) Essentials (2021) and require graduates to use nursing theory and support their clinical judgement across all of their current practice settings. The expected outcomes are developed as a series of four levels of outcomes, with each year’s outcomes in clinical and academic areas building on the prior year’s outcomes (University of Pittsburgh, 2024). The four levels are structured on the current evidence-based principles of effective educational design, which are based on the mastery learning of the students irrespective of their academic performance (Kayyali, 2025).

A critical measure of the quality of an academic nursing program is to accommodate the educational needs of the diverse student population that attends and participates in a program. The program’s education requirement is for coursework in cultural competency, and all clinical experiences will be in community-based and acute-care clinical settings that support a culturally competent professional nurse (University of Pittsburgh, 2024). Mashwama et al. (2025) note that inclusive design that incorporates multiple types of instructional methods and equitable assessment strategies will result in positive academic outcomes for all students. The Pitt BSN Program has shown it is aligned with the AACN (2021) established standards, and the coursework in the program has been mapped to the expected learning outcomes for BSN graduates that are competent and ready to care for a diverse patient population.

Process Timeframe and Stakeholders for Curriculum Currency

The curriculum for the nursing program needs to implement a review system among various organizations to ensure the content is current with the knowledge in health care. The CCNE accreditation cycle, which will run from 2024 to 2034 for the Pitt DNP program and through ongoing assessments for the Pitt BSN program, includes the following: There is a systematic curriculum evaluation process (University of Pittsburgh, 2024). Individuals who participate in the process of keeping the curriculum current include faculty and students, clinical partners, hospital administration, and the State Board of Nursing for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Input from all of these different people impacts the curriculum’s development, as their input helps update the curriculum based upon changes to health care practices as well as ensure that the curriculum in its current state meets the needs of today’s available workforce.

By systematically reviewing the curriculum, we can ensure that the nurses who graduate from us are trained in the latest topics and techniques in nursing practice, according to the required competencies in the nursing profession. The nursing program’s curriculum is developed through the efforts of committees consisting of faculty members, periodically reviewed and continuously evaluated within the University of Pittsburgh context. The nursing program’s curriculum should be assessed based on the results of and/or indicators of student performance data, NCLEX pass rates, employer satisfaction, among others, per year (or every two years), as stated in Obafemi (2024). As it reflects expected standards of nursing practice and is a reflection of the latest evidence-based practice in healthcare, it would be expected that the curriculum of Pitt’s BSN program would remain relevant and in step with the most current advances of the profession of nursing.

Conclusion

Consequently, there is evidence in the overview of the curriculum that graduates from this nursing program are being prepared to practice safely, effectively, and equitably. The University of Pittsburgh’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program has clear relationships between its institutional mission and goals, the AACN Competency Standards, and the CCNE accreditation requirements. In addition, the course sequencing of multiple courses throughout this program is well-structured, providing students with numerous, diverse clinical experiences during their educational experience at the University of Pittsburgh. They are all clearly structured and organized and reflect high-quality design of the modern-day nursing education program. In addition, this program will continually strive to enhance evidence-based nursing education and will regularly audit the curriculum to ensure it will be viable in the constantly evolving and dynamic health care environment.