Using the Ottawa Model for Nursing Curriculum Renewal to align a baccalaureate nursing program with the 2021 AACN Essentials

Abstract

There is an urgent call to transform nursing education in response to evolving changes in healthcare. It is critical that nursing graduates are prepared to thrive and deliver care in complex environments to increasingly diverse populations. This article describes a nursing school's approach to achieve these goals and presents details of work completed during the early phases of curriculum revision to integrate the American Association of Colleges of Nursing's (AACN's) 2021 publication, The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education, into the baccalaureate programs. The Ottawa Model for Nursing Curriculum Renewal was utilized to structure this process into three phases: preparatory, active, and evaluation. The preparatory phase focused on creating structure, establishing leadership, defining goals, setting a clear timeline, engaging faculty and stakeholders, conducting needs assessments, and identifying improvement areas. The active phase is still in progress and has centered on the following: finalize goals and priorities, assess current curriculum, plan and make changes, seek approval for changes, and plan and implement curriculum revisions. Evaluation, initiated early, will continue through implementation and conclude with a comprehensive assessment to ensure effective adoption of the Essentials. Examples of lessons learned thus far include the importance of sustained faculty and stakeholder engagement, practice partner collaboration, continuing education, and ongoing evaluation. Details presented about the nursing school's initial planning processes and implementation strategies, experiences encountered, insights gained, and facilitators and barriers experienced may provide valuable guidance for other baccalaureate nursing programs embarking on a similar transformation process.