Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
The Ministry of Health also acknowledged that nurses constitute the
largest health workforce and therefore have the responsibility to
deliver as much of the needed health care as possible. It is
therefore deemed to be essential that this workforce be educated to
meet the goals of the Ministry of Health (Ministry of Health 2003).
In 2005, the Nursing Council of New Zealand published a document
on ‘The Standards for Competence Assessment Programmes’. In
this document, it was stated, that new graduates from nursing
education programmes had to meet the competencies for their
scope of practice, as developed by the Council and that
programmes in nursing education had to be accredited by the
Council (Nursing Council of New Zealand, May 2005).
The Council prescribed the following standards that had to be
fulfilled before nursing education programmes could be approved:
1. The programme complies with legislated requirements and the
Council’s policies and guidelines.
2. The programme has a structured curriculum.
3. The scope and content of the curriculum includes theory and
related practice experiences to enable students to achieve the
expected outcomes of the programme.
4. The curriculum is implemented by lecturers who are qualified
for their roles.
5. Facilities in resources are available to support the
achievement of the expected outcomes of the programme.
6. The environment supports the teaching-learning process.
7. Student performance in assessed against learning outcomes
relevant to nursing practice.
8. The application for registration complies with legislated
requirements and Nursing Council policy and guidelines.
(Nursing Council of New Zealand, June 2005, pp.2-3).
In educational circles it is now accepted that the information
relevant to nurse education will double every 5 years (Barnard et al.
2005), which can be seen as further evidence for the need to
change curricula regularly to keep up to date with the latest
developments. This meant that irrespective of the changes in
health strategies, a change in the curriculum was due.
Developing a new curriculum involves major decisions such as when
and how to gain the input of stakeholders. A more traditional
approach is to develop the curriculum and then to consult with
stakeholders, while more contemporary approaches requires
collaborative agreements with targeted stakeholders as part of the
development process.
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