On "problems" with integrated curricula in nursing.

Abstract

Curriculum development is many things; it is the study of impact on students, a process through which faculty are moving. It usually does not represent a final decision- like all issues in higher education it is altered as different people and issues arise. The integrated curriculum movement in nursing, while a seminal change, has in a way been like a shadow- incompletely described with lack of clarity about base for comparison. It seems to have become the mode for many schools to develop their own conceptual frameworks and curricular plans. While adaptation to the local setting is expected, one must question how much of the total development effort is necessary and due in part to lack of fully developed curriculum models and dissemination and not building systematically toward improvement in the field. In such a situation we all may be making the same mistakes. If these identified "problems" are indeed just that, they all are amenable to correction. Each solution will require hard conceptual work.