| Course | NR 524 Curriculum Development |
|---|---|
| Week | 3 |
| Paper type | Program outcome set |
| Length | About 1,130 words, 3 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | MSN, Nurse Educator |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for NR 524 Week 3
Program Outcome Set: Six End-of-Program Outcomes for a Rural Associate Degree Nursing Program, Each Rewritten From Catalog Language So Someone Outside the Faculty Could Check It
Student Name
College of Nursing, Chamberlain University
NR 524: Curriculum Development
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Program Outcome Set: Six End-of-Program Outcomes for a Rural Associate Degree Nursing Program, Each Rewritten From Catalog Language So Someone Outside the Faculty Could Check It
From Promise to Outcomes
Our catalog describes what graduates of our associate degree nursing program will do in general terms: safe and compassionate care for people of every age, dying patients included, wherever the region's hospitals, nursing homes and home care services employ them. A catalog paragraph is a promise to applicants; it is not something a reviewer can check. This paper rewrites that promise as six end-of-program outcomes. Each is pitched at the program as a whole, not at a single course; each describes something a graduate does, observably; and each names how the program will know it has been achieved. The set replaces the program's current outcomes, which were adopted in 2016 and do not mention end-of-life care at all.
The Outcome Set
Table 1 lists the six outcomes and the program-level evidence for each.
Table 1
End-of-Program Outcomes and Evidence
| Outcome | By graduation, the student will | Program-level evidence |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Safety | Deliver care that prevents avoidable harm, using safety practices and reporting errors and near misses | Final clinical evaluation; simulation with a medication or handoff error to catch |
| 2. Clinical judgment | Recognize changes in a patient's condition, interpret their meaning and respond in time, in acute and long-term care | Unfolding case examinations; clinical evaluation of recognition and response |
| 3. Person- and family-centered care across the lifespan | Plan and give care that reflects the patient's and family's goals and preferences, including comfort-focused care for patients who are seriously ill or dying | Assessed simulated end-of-life conversation; clinical evaluation items drawn from palliative care competencies |
| 4. Communication and teamwork | Communicate clearly with patients, families and the interprofessional team, including in handoffs and difficult conversations | Structured handoff observation; simulation debrief |
| 5. Professionalism and ethics | Practice within legal and ethical standards and the scope of the registered nurse | Clinical evaluation; ethics case assignment |
| 6. Care in rural settings | Coordinate care across hospital, long-term care and home health settings with limited specialist support | Transition-to-practice project; employer survey at six months |
How the Outcomes Were Written
Each outcome starts with a verb a reviewer could observe: deliver, recognize, plan, communicate, practice, coordinate. The old outcomes used verbs such as understand and appreciate, which cannot be checked. Each is written at the level of a new graduate registered nurse, not a specialist; outcome 3 asks for comfort-focused care, not for independent management of complex symptoms. Each can be traced to the catalog promise: safe (outcome 1), compassion at every age and at the close of life (outcome 3), and in the region's settings (outcome 6). Outcomes 2, 4 and 5 are implied by any promise of safe practice and are standard in nursing education.
Why Six and Not More
Early drafts had eleven outcomes, including separate ones for informatics, health promotion, cultural humility and evidence-based practice. The faculty cut them to six for a practical reason: every outcome must be carried by courses and assessed at the program level, and a four-semester program with eight nursing courses cannot give eleven outcomes the attention each deserves. Some of the removed ideas were folded into the remaining outcomes; health promotion and cultural humility now sit within person- and family-centered care, and evidence-based practice within clinical judgment. Others, such as informatics, remain part of course content without being named as program outcomes. The faculty judged a short list that is actually delivered to be more honest than a long list that is only partly delivered.
Outcome 3 in Detail: Where the Promise Was Weakest
A multisite survey of prelicensure programs found this kind of content usually scattered across courses as lecture (Lippe, 2019). Outcome 3 carries the part of the catalog promise that the current curriculum does not deliver: care at the end of life. The wording draws on the national undergraduate palliative care competencies, which describe what all undergraduate nursing students should achieve by graduation, including communicating with patients and families about serious illness, assessing and managing symptoms, and supporting families through death and grief (Ferrell et al., 2016). Our outcome selects the parts of those competencies a new graduate in our region most needs, since most of the region's hiring hospitals lack a specialist palliative service.
Its evidence is deliberately direct. A simulated end-of-life conversation, assessed with a rubric, shows whether a student can do the thing the catalog promises. Clinical evaluation items drawn from the competencies show whether the student carries it into practice.
Alignment With National Standards
The outcome set was checked against the domains of the national professional nursing education standards, whose ten domains range from the knowledge base of nursing and care centered on the person through to safety, partnership across professions and professional identity (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2021). Every domain relevant to entry-level practice is represented in at least one outcome. Our accreditor accepts either national or program-specific frameworks, and the faculty chose to write outcomes in the program's own language while keeping the crosswalk on file.
The advisory committee's comments were recorded in its minutes, which will be attached to the proposal so the curriculum committee can see that the outcomes were tested with the people who hire our graduates.
How the Outcomes Will Be Read Outside the Faculty
The outcomes will be published in the catalog beside the program description, replacing the current general paragraph with statements a reader can test. Applicants will see what the program commits to; employers, who sit on the program's advisory committee, will see what they can expect of new hires; and the accreditor will see outcomes linked to evidence. The advisory committee reviewed a draft and asked for one change: that outcome 6 name home health explicitly, since the region's home health agencies hire more of our graduates each year. That change was made. Publishing outcomes in this form invites exactly the questions the program should be able to answer, including the question that started this revision: where, precisely, do students learn to care for someone who is dying?
What the Set Leaves for Courses
Program outcomes do not specify which course teaches what. That is the job of the curriculum map, which will show at which level each course introduces, develops or brings each outcome to mastery. A program outcome that no course has agreed to carry is a promise with no one responsible for keeping it. The next step in the revision is to test that directly, starting with outcome 3.
References
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2021). The essentials: Core competencies for professional nursing education. https://www.aacnnursing.org/essentials
Ferrell, B., Malloy, P., Mazanec, P., & Virani, R. (2016). CARES: AACN's new competencies and recommendations for educating undergraduate nursing students to improve palliative care. Journal of Professional Nursing, 32(5), 327-333. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2016.07.002
Lippe, M. (2019). Assessment of primary palliative care content within prelicensure nursing education: A multisite feasibility study. Journal of Hospice & Palliative Nursing, 21(5), 373-381. https://doi.org/10.1097/NJH.0000000000000535
NR 524 Week 3 instructions, in plain terms
Week 3 asks you to write end-of-program student learning outcomes for a nursing program. Prompts usually ask for a set of outcomes that reflect the program's mission, align with professional standards and can be measured. Outcomes should be written at the level of the new graduate, use observable verbs and describe performance rather than knowledge alone. Keep the number manageable, since every outcome must be carried by courses and assessed. Show alignment with a recognized framework, such as the national professional nursing education standards, and name how each outcome will be evidenced. Sources belong in APA 7; some sections also want a crosswalk table or cap how many outcomes you list.
How the NR 524 Week 3 example is put together
The example begins by explaining why a catalog promise is not checkable and states its three tests for an outcome. Table 1 lists six outcomes, each with a statement and program-level evidence. A section explains the observable verbs and how each outcome traces to the promise. Another explains why the faculty cut eleven outcomes to six and where the removed ideas went. The outcome on person- and family-centered care is developed in detail, drawing on national palliative care competencies. An alignment section checks the set against national domains. The final sections describe publication in the catalog, advisory committee review and what the set leaves for the curriculum map.
NR 524 Week 3 rubric: what full points look like
The rubric for program outcomes usually rewards measurable, program-level statements aligned with the mission and professional standards, with a clear plan for evidence. Graders check verbs, since outcomes built on understand or appreciate lose points. Alignment with a national framework should be shown, often in a crosswalk. A criterion on feasibility rewards sets small enough to be delivered and assessed. Explaining choices, such as why an outcome was cut or merged, often earns credit for critical thinking. Any table should be numbered and titled in APA 7 style, and each outcome worded precisely. Outcomes reviewed by external stakeholders tend to be rated more credible. Graders often test a verb by asking how they would watch a graduate do it.
NR 524 Week 3 help from the desk
The biggest mistake is writing course objectives and calling them program outcomes, which makes the set too long and too narrow. Pitch each outcome at the new graduate. Another is using verbs that cannot be observed. Students also forget evidence; if you cannot name how an outcome will be checked, it is not ready. Avoid copying a national framework's domains as outcomes without adapting them to your program's mission and region. Do not let the set grow to cover every topic. Finally, identify the outcome your curriculum is weakest on and develop it most carefully, since that is where the rest of the course's work will focus.
Get a NR 524 Week 3 example written to your instructions
Send the assignment prompt, the rubric, and any alignment framework your section names, and a custom NR 524 Week 3 example comes back written to them inside 24-48h. The first one is free. Reading a finished outcome set next to your own is the fastest way to see which of your verbs would survive a grader and which would not.
More NR 524 papers and MSN samples
- NR 524 Week 1: Discussion Post on a Program Promise
- NR 524 Week 2: Curriculum Philosophy Statement
- NR 524 Week 4: Curriculum Map
- NR 524 Week 5: Sequencing Rationale
- NR 524 Week 6: Gap Analysis
- NR 524 Week 7: Revision Proposal
- NR 524 Week 8: Curriculum Evaluation Plan
NR 524 Week 3 questions, answered
How many outcomes should the set contain?
Published programs commonly land somewhere between six and ten, and the reasoning is practical rather than stylistic. Every outcome has to be introduced, carried and evidenced inside a fixed number of credit hours, so a longer list forces thinner coverage. Where your section names a required range, follow it and spend the rationale explaining what each outcome buys.
Do outcomes have to map to an external framework?
Most sections expect some alignment, because a program answers to bodies outside itself and the outcome set is where that shows. Name the framework you are aligning to and align honestly, marking partial coverage as partial. Claiming full alignment across every outcome is the version graders distrust, since real programs almost always cover some standards more thinly than others.
What separates an outcome from a competency?
Usage varies between programs, so the safest move is to define your terms in the framing paragraph and stay consistent. Commonly an outcome states what a graduate of the whole program can do, while a competency names a narrower ability that several courses build toward. Whichever convention you adopt, the grader is checking consistency rather than allegiance to one vocabulary.
Where can I find a free NR 524 Week 3 sample paper?
The six-outcome set above, with its evidence table, is a complete NR 524 Week 3 sample and anyone may read it. For outcomes suited to a different program type, share your mission through the request form and a set is drafted for you.
How many program outcomes should NR 524 Week 3 include?
Enough to cover the promise and few enough to deliver and assess. The sample settles on six after cutting an eleven-item draft, and explains where the removed ideas went.