Curriculum Issues in Healthcare

¶ … changes affecting healthcare in the next five to 10 years. There are two specific areas, though, that will be the focus of these changes. These are the number of older adults who need care and the advances in technology. The idea that technology is important does not come as a surprise, because it is continuously evolving and reaching new levels throughout the world. As technology gets better, the way healthcare is delivered will also see improvement. Technology changes and new options emerge, and then in the blink of an eye there is another new technology option behind it. Healthcare is tied to technology now, and will need to find ways to keep the population better served as the needs of that population continue to change. The number of older adults requiring healthcare is also important to address, because it can cause difficulties in the healthcare system with having enough doctors, nurses, and other healthcare practitioners.

People are living a great deal longer than they used to, and that means the healthcare industry as an entirely new set of issues it must address. The diseases and conditions of that group must be managed, and illness prevention also has to be considered carefully. That will mean the need for a larger number of financial resources, as well, to care for the higher numbers of patients. Healthcare already has its share of problems, and these are going to get worse if they are not handled appropriately. There are not enough providers to handle all the patients who need nurses and nurse practitioners. According to Verdon (2013), the reduction of primary care providers means technology will need to fill the void. That can come from patient portals or online consults with providers. These issues will also change the way education is delivered, and curriculums will have to be ready for those adjustments and also provide nurses with the opportunity to learn more about illness prevention as opposed to treatment.

2. When reflecting on the scope of change that was seen during the 20th Century, it is easy to tell that mankind has ushered in numerous changes during that time period. More took place in the medical and nursing fields during that century than all of the previous 19 centuries. That leads one to reflect on the changes that are going to happen in the 21st Century, and how much nursing -- and nursing curricula -- may change to help ensure that patients are getting proper treatment. Demographics, the environment, and technology all contribute to those changes. Accepting that basic premise, one can see that evidence-based technological changes will be a big part of nursing curriculum in the future. Keeping up with the innovation and changes that are occurring can be difficult, however, because it requires the curriculum to be almost constantly changing. The changes also have to be validated or based on evidence before they can be placed into the curriculum, and by that time something new is being considered and further changes need to be made.

"As technology evolves, increased numbers of nursing programs have found that e-learning, simulation, and mobile devices offer much potential for nursing education" (Billings and Halstead, 2012, p.96). A secondary issue is global change, and how it impacts both the environment and demographics. A recent report published by the Millennium Project states that there are at least 15 Global Challenges expected this century, and they will all affect humanity to some degree. They will also affect nursing theory, practice, and curriculum in such areas as ethics, population, finances, decision making and information technology. That will require periodic modification of the nursing curriculum in order to help nurses treat a large and diverse population with different religious and cultural values. It is becoming a necessity to make changes to curriculums in order to allow for new technology and other changes. Understanding the significance of globalization on nursing is vital.

3. The greatest strengths of the reviewed curriculums are their desires to focus on technology and their commitment to making sure their students learn everything they need to know. Each and every nursing student needs to have the latest and most updated information if he or she is going to be successful (Stanley, 2007). With that in mind, schools that have not changed their curriculum in 20 years are going to have a lot of trouble providing a quality education to their students. They do not have the current information they need to give students the proper knowledge. That can lead nursing students to be misinformed when they enter the workforce, and can also put their patients at risk, especially when they have a high caseload and not a lot of time to spend with each patient. The schools considered here have important strengths, because they know they have problems with their curriculum and they want to change for the better.