The Significance of Preplanning and Faculty Engagement in Curriculum Change

The challenge of curriculum renewal in nursing is ensuring a balance in rigor with a flexible, robust evidence informed curriculum. To achieve this, faculty at Dalhousie University School of Nursing used a unique and creative approach to develop a new nursing curriculum. Extensive preplanning, utilization of small working groups, working through consensus building and utilizing a project plan engaged faculty in all facets of the curriculum development. Draft plans were developed which were reviewed and revised by all faculty through multiple creative planning events. This process allowed consensus around key decisions such as philosophical underpinning of the curriculum, core themes and new educational approaches. Using this framework, coupled by preplanning and data collection prior to starting the curriculum revision process allowed faculty to have a senate approved new nursing curriculum in about 18 months from initial discussions and resulted in high levels of faculty engagement.