The process of evaluation of the undergraduate pre-licensure nursing program is identified as an important practice. Research is conducted on the student outcomes in the nursing undergraduate program with a significant drop experienced to below 80% in the first attempt. The NCLEX-RN program has not had any significant changes in the curriculum since the high pass rate of more than 80%. As a result, research findings of the evaluation of the program should be to the appropriate stakeholders in learning institution as a means of generating strategies that could be used to improve the outcomes of students and quality of education provided. The following paper identifies the numerous stakeholders that should receive a dissemination of the program evaluation findings and their required responses on the same. This will help in identifying an effective strategy to improve the program.
Sharing Findings with Sheila (Dean) and Frank (Chair) and Expectations
The key stakeholders in this evaluation of the undergraduate pre-licensure nursing program are the Dean education and the Chair of the department of nursing. In this case, the information shared to these stakeholders should be in its entirety. The Dean and the Chair should understand that the curriculum of undergraduate pre-licensure study has not changed over the last few years. However, the student outcomes have been on a steady decline. Previously, students who would pass this program would be at least 80% which has since reduced. The Chair and the Dean will need distinctive results on the critical decline of passing grades among the nursing undergraduates. The passing percentage will provide the Dean and the Chair with the magnitude of the situation. It will create urgency in the pecking order of priorities to focus on.
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They should also realize that the nursing program has not experienced any significant change in its administration or its curriculum. This means that the content of the program has remains to be the same since the time when the passing students were more than 80%. The two key stakeholders will realize the gravity of the situation where failure to change curriculum may have been a major part of the problem that is currently at hand. The administration will refer to the educators of the curriculum who plan lectures and create the tests that have been undertaken throughout the course only to fail at the NCLEX-RN assessment. The Dean and the Chair will be made aware of the average grade point that the students will usually have to achieve to be allowed to pursue this program. As it is quite high already, raising it even higher may be troublesome for the program as it may discourage many from pursuing it. However, this will result in the majority of the students taking up the undergraduate study passing it with flying colors.
The key stakeholders will be expected to call an urgent meeting with the rest of the staff members associated with the program in the institution. The Dean and Chair will bring about numerous recommendations that may be useful for improving the outcomes of the program. The two will call for significant tasks to be undertaken by the various standing committees that are present within this program. The stakeholders are expected to keep a close eye on the developments that take place in the undergraduate nursing program. The Dean and Chair have the power to influence and inspire the various professional educators to instill the knowledge in students as a possible means of improving their outcomes at the end of the program. This will also help in avoiding students repeating the program in a bid to pass the NCLEX-RN.
Program Standing Committees
Curriculum Committee
The curriculum committee will be charged with coming up with numerous ways that can lead to a change in the outcomes of the students. It is important that a significant research is conducted to identify the numerous concerns the program may have. This may include specifics including content in the program to its administration by the professors. The study may be carried out through a survey of the students in a bid to come up with the problem. It is important that the committee unfolds why students may have the same average grade during admission to the program yet not all of them are able to pass. As a result, the curriculum committee will look into the issues present in the curriculum that may be a considered factor in the failure of the students.
Progression and Retention Committee
The members of this committee have the main objective of ensuring the students continuing with the undergraduate nursing program are capable of passing and demonstrate their competency at the workplace. At this point, this committee may be seen to be failing to identify the students that will effectively pass the final assessment NCLEX-RN. The committee will look further to conduct numerous assessments within the nursing undergraduate program as a means of ensuring better outcomes. It is important that the standing committee identifies the critical nature of the poor outcomes within this program. As a result, the individuals within this committee create a new system of retention and progression of the students within the program. They should ensure that the new system is simple effective and in accordance to the policies governing health education in the state and country.
Student Affairs Committee
This is one of the most important committees of the undergraduate program. They are tasked to conduct significant interaction with the students who currently have undertaken the program at hand. The students will report numerous misgivings that have been presented within the teaching of the content. The issues that are identified with the program may also have to do with extra-curricular activities. Through this committee members will report issues that the students may be facing such as the effect of a minority status as a factor that is causing failure in the program (Lukewich et. al, 2015). The findings have identified it as a factor that causes significantly lower grades. Therefore, the committee will seek to establish the magnitude of this effect and the steps that could be made to improve outcomes of these students such that they are equal or even more than that of the majority.
Testing and Evaluation Effectiveness Committee
Testing and evaluation is another important factor in the development of the students throughout the course progress. The committee in this case provides the students with the assessments that they receive throughout the course of an entire semester. The committee will seek to prove to the Dean and Chair the effectiveness of their testing process as a means of preparing the students for the NCLEX-RN. According to the findings presented, the testing and evaluation of the students has not been effective as it is seen that the number of students passing each year continues to deteriorate. The nationally standardized exit examination was seen to fail to predict failure of students 41% of the time. As a result, it is important that the committee come up with challenging testing and evaluation techniques to ensure that students don’t have to go through the entire program only to be disappointed in the end. The committee will identify the importance of variability in passing grades in the nursing undergraduate program (Reynolds, 2015).
Nursing Faculty Organization
The faculty organization refers to the members of the institution who have taken it upon themselves to provide the students with the knowledge of the program. The members of the faculty should be made aware of the poor state of outcomes that students have been experiencing throughout the process of studying nursing. Therefore, it is important that a system is incorporated so as to improve the outcomes that have been identified in the previous years. This is where the members of this organization can conduct surveys of themselves from each of the semester they teach a class. The students will present issues they may have with the lecturer that may have impacted their outcomes. This group is the most important in coming up with effective strategies that will provide positive outcomes in future.
Detailed Program Improvement Strategy
In a bid to improve the passing rate of undergraduate students of the nursing program, it is important that an effective program improvement strategy is created. This may include remediation practices where a research by Mee and Schreiner (2016) has identified its growing significance in improving student scores in the nursing program and ultimately the NCLEX-RN. The case study identifies the effect of minority status in failing the pre-licensure examination (Donnell, 2015). As a result, the improvement strategy will incorporate communication as a major factor in ensuring success in student outcomes. Communication may be used as a significant part of ensuring that minority groups are able to better understand their lectures and comprehend the content delivered during lecture hours (Owen, Shaw & Mitchell, 2015). This is a significant factor that may be used to motivate the students within the program. Hereby, issues affecting the minority will not always affect the majority.
The remediation practice may also incorporate the use of web-based simulation programs as a means of ensuring students are capable of demonstrating their competency of the content that is taught. The study by Cooper et al (2012) demonstrates the importance of this in a bid to ensure that students grasp the concept of managing patient deterioration. Smith, Pearson and Adams (2014) have identified the need to implement pre-registration nursing education project as a useful addition to the course. This is where the curriculum is slightly changed to suit the changing clinical environments.
Conclusion
The decline in the students passing the undergraduate nursing program to become registered nurses has been dropping at a high rate. As a result, it is quite evident that the change is a cause for concern for major stakeholders in the issue. These include the Dean, Chair and the numerous standing committees that have facilitated the entry of students and guided them throughout the content of the program. The technological improvements within the clinical environments have not matched those within the institutions and demonstrate a clear concern. Through an urgent meeting between the stakeholders, an improvement strategy will be conducted as a means of ensuring future success of students within this program.
References
Cooper, S., Beauchamp, A., Bogossian, F., … et. al (2012) “Managing patient deterioration: a protocol for enhancing undergraduate nursing students’ competence through web-based simulation and feedback techniques”, BioMed Central Nursing , 11: 18-24.
Donnell, W. M. (2015) “A Correlational Study of a Reading Comprehension Program and Attrition Rates of ES L Nursing Students in Texas”, Nursing Education Perspectives , 36, 1: 15-21.
Lukewich, J., Edge, D. S., Tranmer, J., Raymond, J., Miron, J., Ginsburg, L. & VanDenKerhof, E. (2015) “Undergraduate baccalaureate nursing students’ self-reported confidence in learning about patient safety in the classroom and clinical settings: An annual cross-sectional study (2010-2013)”, International Journal of Nursing Studies , 52: 930-938.
Mee, C. L. & Schreiner, B. (2016) “Remediation in Nursing Education Today: Review of the Literature and Considerations for Future Research”, Journal of Nursing Regulation , 7, 1: 37-45.
Owen,. S., Shaw, J. & Mitchell, C. (2015) “What’s going on? The effectiveness of communication in undergraduate inter-professional education: The student experience.” Peer Review Section , 7, 3: 5-15.
Reynolds, D. (2015) “Variability of Passing Grades in Undergraduate Nursing Education Programs in New York State”, Nursing Education Perspectives , 36,4: 232-236.
Smith, J., Pearson, L. & Adams, J. (2014) “Incorporating a service improvement project into an undergraduate nursing programme: A pilot study”, International Journal of Nursing Practice ; 20: 623–628.
