The process of harmonizing competency-based curricula for medicine and nursing degree programmes: A Multi-institutional and multi-professional experience from Tanzania.

In many low- and middle-income countries, there seems to be a mismatch between graduate skills and healthcare industry requirements due to variability in curricula. With the current increased global demand for competent health profession graduates, harmonizing competency-based curricula (CBC) is necessary to address this mismatch. This paper describes how three health professions training universities in Tanzania and their two long-standing United States partners embarked on developing harmonized CBC for undergraduate medicine and nursing degrees. The main goal of the activity was to develop templates to harmonize curricula that would support graduates to acquire mandatory national Graduate Minimum Essential Competencies (GMEC) irrespective of the institution of their training. The paper describes the processes of engaging multiple institutions, the professions of medicine and nursing and various stakeholders to develop mandatory curricula generic competencies, creating milestones for assessing competencies, training faculty at each of the three partnering institutions in curriculum delivery and assessments, resulting in the adoption of the curricula by the University leadership at each institution. Ultimately the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) a regulatory body required all schools of medicine and nursing in the country to adopt the curricula, thus creating a harmonized national standard for teaching medicine and nursing beginning October 2022.

Curricular transformation of health professions education in Tanzania: the process at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (2008-2011).

Tanzania requires more health professionals equipped to tackle its serious health challenges. When it became an independent university in 2007, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) decided to transform its educational offerings to ensure its students practice competently and contribute to improving population health. In 2008, in collaboration with the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), all MUHAS's schools (dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and public health and social sciences) and institutes (traditional medicine and allied health sciences) began a university-wide process to revise curricula. Adopting university-wide committee structures, procedures, and a common schedule, MUHAS faculty set out to: (i) identify specific competencies for students to achieve by graduation (in eight domains, six that are inter-professional, hence consistent across schools); (ii) engage stakeholders to understand adequacies and inadequacies of current curricula; and (iii) restructure and revise curricula introducing competencies. The Tanzania Commission for Universities accredited the curricula in September 2011, and faculty started implementation with first-year students in October 2011. We learned that curricular revision of this magnitude requires: a compelling directive for change, designated leadership, resource mobilization inclusion of all stakeholders, clear guiding principles, an iterative plan linking flexible timetables to phases for curriculum development, engagement in skills training for the cultivation of future leaders, and extensive communication.

Evaluating diversity in nursing education: a mixed method study.

This article presents the findings of a methodical examination of how well one school of nursing was meeting its goal of addressing diversity through its pedagogy. The underlying assumption was that a school's curriculum both shapes and reflects a climate of valuing diversity. This mixed-method evaluation study was conducted in four steps, including a content analysis of all syllabi in the School of Nursing's (SON) curriculum, comparison of the content analysis to students' evaluation of diversity in their education, a survey of the 2006 graduates, and an analysis of faculty responses to the findings. The findings are being used to guide the SON in the development of training and to bring about forums for formal dialogue. These will assist faculty to effectively integrate diversity in their teaching and interaction with students and to move toward the long-term goal of preparing culturally humble and sensitive clinicians, educators, and researchers.

Ensuring cultural diversity among California nurses.

The California Strategic Planning Committee for Nursing cultural diversity work group surveyed deans and directors from RN prelicensure and vocational nurse education programs in California in 1998. With a 49% response rate, key survey findings were that 48% of programs were actively recruiting ethnically diverse students using a variety of strategies; various approaches were being used to retain students; barriers to student success were primarily financial and educational; and most programs included curricular content and programming designed to ensure culturally competent and sensitive graduates.