| Course | NR 524 Curriculum Development |
|---|---|
| Week | 7 |
| Paper type | Curriculum revision proposal |
| 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 7
Curriculum Revision Proposal: Giving End-of-Life Care a Home in Three Existing Courses Without Adding Credits, Stating What Leaves to Make Room and How Current Cohorts and Bridge Students Are Protected
Student Name
College of Nursing, Chamberlain University
NR 524: Curriculum Development
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Curriculum Revision Proposal: Giving End-of-Life Care a Home in Three Existing Courses Without Adding Credits, Stating What Leaves to Make Room and How Current Cohorts and Bridge Students Are Protected
Summary of the Proposal
The Department of Nursing proposes changes to three existing courses so that the program outcome on person- and family-centered care, including care at the end of life, is developed and assessed before graduation. The proposal adds no credit hours, adds no courses and changes no course titles, prerequisites or catalog descriptions beyond one sentence in NUR 220. It moves about eight contact hours of content, replaces one clinical day and adds assessment items. It would take effect for the catalog year beginning in the fall of 2027. The department requests approval from the college curriculum committee at its November meeting.
Rationale
The program's catalog promises that graduates provide compassionate care "including at the end of life." A curriculum map and gap analysis completed this year found that end-of-life content occupies about five hours across the program, is examined in two items out of roughly 600, and appears in no clinical evaluation tool. Of 41 graduating students surveyed, just over a fifth said they felt ready for a conversation with a dying patient's relatives. National undergraduate palliative care competencies describe what all nursing students should achieve by graduation (Ferrell et al., 2016). The program currently cannot show that its graduates meet them.
The Changes, Course by Course
NUR 120 Adult Health I (second semester). Students work through modules one to three of the ELNEC undergraduate online program (End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium, n.d.), which introduce palliative nursing, conversation skills and pain relief, and write one goals-of-care plan for someone living with advanced chronic disease. Three exam items are added to the unit on chronic illness.
NUR 215 Adult Health II (third semester). Students complete the remaining three modules, covering symptoms, bereavement and the last hours. A two-hour simulation with a standardized family member is added, in which each student conducts part of a conversation about a patient's declining condition, followed by structured debriefing. The simulation is assessed with a rubric and must be passed to progress.
NUR 220 Complex Care (fourth semester). The optional hospice day becomes a required palliative or hospice clinical day for every student, placed after the simulation. Four items drawn from the national competencies are added to the clinical evaluation tool. The catalog description adds one sentence: "Includes required experience in palliative or hospice care."
Why This Approach Rather Than a New Course
The department considered and rejected a separate palliative care course. A new course would require adding credits, which the college's program length limits do not allow, or removing a course, which no faculty member could identify without losing required content. It would also concentrate end-of-life care in one semester, contrary to the department's view that a concept should come back more than once, each time in more depth. Integrating the content into three existing courses keeps it close to the patients with serious illness whom students meet in adult health and complex care.
The chosen methods reflect the literature on teaching end-of-life care to prelicensure students, which describes a range of strategies, including simulation and experiential learning, alongside didactic content (Lippe & Carter, 2015). Placing the simulation before the clinical day, and following the clinical day with structured reflection, draws on the role that reflection plays in how clinical judgment develops (Tanner, 2006). The department does not claim that these methods are proven to improve patient outcomes; it claims they are a reasonable, low-cost way to give an unowned outcome a home, and that the evaluation plan will test whether they work.
What Leaves to Make Room
Credit hours cannot expand, so the proposal names what is removed. In NUR 215, a three-hour review of fluid and electrolyte balance is removed; the same content is taught and examined in NUR 120, and the faculty agree the repetition is no longer needed now that NUR 120 examines it at the developing level. In NUR 120, one hour of the unit on health care delivery systems moves to an online reading, freeing class time for the care plan orientation. In NUR 220, one general medical-surgical observation day becomes the palliative or hospice day; students already complete more medical-surgical clinical hours than the program requires. The online modules are completed outside class time, replacing two existing assigned readings of similar length.
Transition for Students Already in the Program
Students admitted before fall 2027 follow the curriculum in place when they started, as the catalog requires. Students who will be in NUR 215 or NUR 220 during 2027 to 2028 but who took NUR 120 under the old version will complete the first three modules as a short orientation assignment at the start of NUR 215, so no student reaches the simulation without the foundational modules. Students in their final semester in fall 2027 may take the hospice day but are not required to.
Bridge Students and Transfer Agreements
Licensed practical nurses who enter the program through the bridge pathway begin in the third semester and do not take NUR 120. They will complete the first three modules during the bridge orientation course, which already includes a module on transition to the registered nurse role, so they arrive in NUR 215 on the same footing as other students. The change does not affect the program's agreement with the state university's RN-to-BSN program, which is based on total credits and licensure, both unchanged.
Resources, Approvals and Evaluation
The per-student license for the online modules will be covered for two years by the college's workforce grant, after which it will become a course fee subject to the usual review. The local hospice has agreed in writing to host up to 45 students a year for a single clinical day. The simulation uses the existing simulation center and one standardized participant per session. The program director will confirm with the state board of nursing whether the changes require notice or approval, and will report them to the accreditor in the next annual report. The program will evaluate the change using the measures set out in its evaluation plan, beginning with the first cohort to complete all three courses under the revised curriculum.
The department is prepared to present the proposal in person at the November meeting and to bring the hospice agreement, the simulation rubric and the revised clinical evaluation items for the committee's review.
References
End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium. (n.d.). ELNEC undergraduate/new graduate curriculum. Relias Academy. Retrieved September 30, 2026, from https://elnec.reliasacademy.com/elnec-undergraduate-new-graduate-curriculum
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. P., & Carter, P. (2015). End-of-life care teaching strategies in prelicensure nursing education: An integrative review. Journal of Hospice & Palliative Nursing, 17(1), 31-39. https://doi.org/10.1097/NJH.0000000000000118
Tanner, C. A. (2006). Thinking like a nurse: A research-based model of clinical judgment in nursing. Journal of Nursing Education, 45(6), 204-211. https://doi.org/10.3928/01484834-20060601-04
What the NR 524 Week 7 assignment asks for
This week turns your earlier analysis into a formal proposal to change the curriculum. Prompts usually ask for the rationale, the specific changes, the impact on courses and credits, resources, implementation and evaluation. The proposal should be written for a governing body, such as a curriculum committee, which means precise and practical. Credit hours rarely expand, so state what will be removed to make room. Address students already enrolled, transfer and bridge students, and agreements with other institutions. Name approvals required. Cite evidence supporting the approach in APA 7. Your section may provide a proposal template, which should be followed while keeping the argument clear.
Inside the NR 524 Week 7 example
The example opens with a summary stating the change, credit impact, effective date and approval requested. The rationale cites the gap analysis findings and national competencies. A section explains why a separate course was rejected and why integration and simulation were chosen, citing teaching literature. Course-by-course changes are specified with hours and assessments. A section names what is removed in each course and why it can go. Transition rules cover current cohorts, and a separate section covers bridge students and a transfer agreement. The final section covers the license, hospice capacity, simulation resources, approvals and evaluation. Every change is stated with its hours and its assessment.
Where the points sit in the NR 524 Week 7 rubric
The rubric for the revision proposal usually rewards a clear rationale, specific and feasible changes, attention to impact and resources, a realistic implementation plan and an evaluation approach. Graders look for proposals that name what is removed and that protect current students. Awareness of approvals, accreditation and agreements shows professional understanding. Evidence supporting the approach strengthens the rationale. Writing should suit a governing body: formal, concise and precise. Citations in APA 7 complete the grade. A proposal that states exactly what the committee is being asked to approve, and when, often earns credit for professional communication. Proposals that anticipate the committee's first question, usually what is being removed, tend to move through review faster, and graders reward that foresight.
NR 524 Week 7 help: mistakes that cost points
The biggest mistake is a proposal that adds content without removing anything, which a committee will reject for lack of room. Name what leaves. Another is ignoring students already in the program; say which catalog year applies. Students also forget bridge or transfer students and agreements with other institutions. Be specific about hours, assessments and courses. Avoid claiming the change will improve patient outcomes; claim what it will do for the curriculum and how you will test it. Finally, check approvals. State boards and accreditors differ in what they require, and a proposal that says who will confirm this is more credible. Committees approve what they can picture running next term.
Get a NR 524 Week 7 example written to your instructions
Send us the prompt, the rubric, and the gap or program you are proposing to revise, and a custom NR 524 Week 7 example is written to your material and returned inside 24-48h, the first one free. It gives you a worked model of the exchange section, which is where these proposals are usually decided.
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 3: Program Outcome Set
- NR 524 Week 4: Curriculum Map With Empty Cells
- NR 524 Week 5: Sequencing Rationale
- NR 524 Week 6: Curriculum Gap Analysis
- NR 524 Week 8: Curriculum Evaluation Plan
NR 524 Week 7 questions, answered
Can the proposal recommend adding credit hours to the program?
It can, but the bar rises steeply and the document has to meet it. Total length is usually constrained by accreditation expectations, transfer agreements and cost to students, so an expansion argument must address all three. Most proposals that pass argue an exchange instead, because a committee can approve a swap far more easily than a longer, more expensive program.
How formal should the writing be?
Formal, direct and short-sentenced. The genre is closer to a business case than to a reflective paper, and the reader is deciding rather than learning. Keep first person minimal, put the recommendation up front, and use headings a committee member can skim. Any citation should support a claim about evidence or standards rather than demonstrate reading.
Should I propose one change or several?
One argued thoroughly almost always scores better. A single change lets you carry the exchange, the alignment check and the implementation plan properly inside the word count. Several changes force each to be sketched, and sketched proposals fail exactly where this week awards its points, which is in the consequences nobody wanted to work out.
Where can I find a free NR 524 Week 7 sample paper?
The three-course revision proposal above is the complete NR 524 Week 7 sample, freely readable. Programs planning a different revision can outline the change in the request form for a proposal drafted to it.
Can the NR 524 revision proposal add credit hours?
It can, if your program allows it, but most cannot. The sample adds no credits, moves about eight contact hours and names each item removed to make room.