Voices of innovation: building a model for curriculum transformation.

Innovation in nursing education curriculum is critically needed to meet the demands of nursing leadership and practice while facing the complexities of today's health care environment. International nursing organizations, the Institute of Medicine, and; our health care practice partners have called for curriculum reform to ensure the quality and safety of patient care. While innovation is occurring in schools of nursing, little is being researched or disseminated. The purposes of this qualitative study were to (a) describe what innovative curricula were being implemented, (b) identify challenges faced by the faculty, and (c) explore how the curricula were evaluated. Interviews were conducted with 15 exemplar schools from a variety of nursing programs throughout the United States. Exemplar innovative curricula were identified, and a model for approaching innovation was developed based on the findings related to conceptualizing, designing, delivering, evaluating, and supporting the curriculum. The results suggest implications for nursing education, research, and practice.

Journey or destination? Evaluating student learning about race, class, and privilege in health care.

The purpose of this research was to use narrative analysis to study final papers in a Social and Cultural Issues in Health Care course in order to understand how to improve nursing student learning about discrimination and oppression in health care. The study addressed two questions: a) What were the dimensions of diversity in the student population, including hidden dimensions such as social class and religion? b) How effectively did students analyze and synthesize course content on race, class, and privilege through autobiographical reflection and cognitive, attitudinal and applied learning? Dimensions of diversity were identified through narrative analysis of student autobiographical information. Four levels of learning emerged from a thematic narrative analysis of how students used personal autobiographical reflection and cognitive, affective, and applied learning to analyze and synthesize course content on race, class, and privilege in health care.This study makes a unique contribution to nursing educational research by exploring the use of narrative analysis in evaluating student learning about discrimination in health care.