Welcome to the course, Principles and Goals of Writing Curriculum, A Practical Approach. This module content was authored and developed by Denise Martin Sheridan, CRNA, Ph.D., professor at the Albany Medical College. The series of education courses was developed by Betty Horton, CRNA, Ph.D., F.A.A.N., and Rebecca Gamkoto, CRNA, D.N.P. Please note that throughout this PowerPoint presentation, the numbers seen in parentheses will correspond to the reference list found at the end of this presentation. The purpose of this presentation is to provide an overview of the Basics of Writing Curriculum that is both practical and applicable to nurse anesthesia educators who may be new to the faculty role or who are looking for a refresher on the topic. Several topics will be covered, including principles that faculty should employ who are involved in writing curriculum based on best practice guidelines. At the end of this presentation, you should be able to describe what a successful curriculum design looks like and what resources are required to accomplish the writing. There are curriculum designs, course descriptions, and course syllabi provided so that you can see examples of what nurse anesthesia programs have developed and are using to foster a quality education environment for their graduate students. We have always been impressed with the fact that nurse anesthesia educators are so willing to share the outcomes of their hard work with colleagues. Thank you to Nancy Bruton-Marie at the Raleigh School of Anesthesia, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Sherry Burns at Glendale Midwestern University Nurse Anesthesia Program, Jody Della-Rocca at the Albany Medical College Center for Nurse Anesthesiology, Michael Kramer at Rush University College of Nursing Nurse Anesthesia Program, and James Walker, Baylor College of Medicine Graduate Program in Nurse Anesthesia for providing the examples used in this presentation. This presentation will cover eight broad topics. Number one, the definition of curriculum, of which there are several. Number two, the process of curriculum writing that includes strategies of design, development, implementation, and evaluation. Number three, the characteristics and elements of course descriptions and syllabi. Number four, how and why educators assign credit hours to a course. Number five, the rationale behind sequencing courses in the curriculum. Number six, applying the principles to nurse anesthesia education programs. Number seven, the process of developing a standards-based curriculum in nurse anesthesia education. And number eight, examples of curriculum design. In the classical sense, curriculum is often described as the courses offered by an educational institution, as a set of courses in an area of specialization, or a specific instruction that prepares the student for certification in a specialty. Conceptually, the word curriculum can be used to describe the entirety of courses offered by an institution or any particular grouping of courses in a particular major. At the elementary and secondary education levels, curriculum also is used to describe all planned school activities, including such things as athletics, clubs, homeroom, and assemblies, as well as courses of study. Curriculum has also been used to describe educational activities of continuing education programs and programs in adult education. The origin of the word curriculum is from the Latin curare, which means to run a course. From this literal translation, curriculum could be defined as what students must do in order to be successful in life. With this in mind, constant changes to the curriculum should be expected and planned because life is always changing. Because the education environment is dynamic, curriculum should never be static. Examples in the general environment that have led to changes in the education environment include new technologies, new strategies for teaching, a better understanding of needs and predispositions of the learner, new skills, and new roles to meet the demands of the workforce. In nurse anesthesia education, an example of a new technology that has revolutionized curriculum is the advancement of simulation models. The application of simulation supports the premise that the curriculum should never be static, but should change in keeping with changing times. The writing of curriculum is, or should be, a collaborative process. Even when a course director develops content for a specific course, at some level that course will undergo review by stakeholders. Stakeholders may include the director of the program, curriculum committee of the institution, graduate students in the program, and or the dean of the college. It is essential that stakeholders are able to provide input into the curriculum as it is designed, developed, implemented, and evaluated. Input into the process of writing curriculum is important because stakeholders may be individuals with the greatest insight into the essential skills and concepts the curriculum should provide to the learner. In a very real sense, the curriculum writing should focus on essential skills and concepts, match the essential skills and concepts to a set of standards, and express coherence as the learner progresses from entry to completion. A concrete example for nurse anesthesia educators is the Council on Accreditation, COA, Standards for Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Education Programs. The COA standards reflect the skills and competencies required of the entry-level nurse anesthetist and should serve as the structure for lifelong learning as the CRNA proceeds along the career continuum from novice to expert provider. Educators who have experience writing curriculum know it is often difficult to initiate the process, especially when teams of individuals are involved. Conceptualizing the big picture is helpful to identify what the learner needs to know, what the structure of the curriculum should look like, what is required to put the curriculum in motion, and what tools or methods should be used to determine if the objectives of the curriculum have been met. To help getting organized, think of the process as having four phases or parts, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. Approaching each phase sequentially, or at least outlining the elements of each phase at the outset, may avoid a situation when the process becomes derailed. A curriculum design phase considers the general and specific objectives of a particular program, what abilities students are expected to possess when they enter, and what abilities the students will possess at program completion. At the higher education level, and especially in colleges preparing graduates for professional practice, it is not uncommon for faculty to conduct a job analysis early in the design phase to identify the knowledge and skill requirements their graduates will need to meet the demands of the workforce. The results of the analysis should provide the basis for formulation of program objectives and specification of entry prerequisites. In nurse anesthesia, a practice analysis is conducted by the National Board for Certification and Recertification of Nurse Anesthetists, the NBCRNA, on a periodic basis. In 2011, the NBCRNA conducted a professional practice analysis, quote, to determine the knowledge and skills that newly certified nurse anesthetists must have in order to provide competent service as entry-level practitioners. The professional practice analysis focused on the relevant elements of responsibility in nurse anesthesia and identified the knowledge base that nurse anesthetists draw on at least in the early stages of their careers, end quote. The results of the professional practice analysis are available on the NBCRNA website and are the basis of the content outline used to develop the certification examination for nurse anesthetists. During the design phase, it is important to conceptualize the big picture of what the curriculum is intended to be like. Often this is predicated on the institution within which the curriculum is conducted. For example, the curriculum of a graduate nurse anesthesia program housed in a school of nursing is likely to be different in design compared to a graduate nurse anesthesia program housed in a school of education or a college of medicine. Writing curriculum design should be purposeful and organized, deliberate and yet creative. It should operate on many levels and include input from stakeholders. It often requires compromise among competing interests and can fail even with careful planning. Writing curriculum design has stages and can be guided by establishing a set of process questions. These are the stages of writing curriculum design. The first stage is setting objectives. What is the educational purpose and what should the overall curriculum look like? Second stage is learning objectives. What educational experiences will attain the purpose and what is the core content? The third stage is organized learning experiences. How should educational experiences be organized? Will there be multiple years of courses and what is the instructional format? Finally, there's evaluation. What are the program's benchmarks and what data will be used to evaluate these benchmarks? How will revisions be made? The term curriculum is frequently used to refer to the content which will be taught in a class, a seminar, or a course. In basic terms, curriculum is what will be taught. A goal in the curriculum development phase should be to organize instruction around a specific focus of inquiry in each course, whether didactic or clinical in nature. Initially, faculty should study the curriculum literature, search the internet, speak with colleagues in the profession, and review curricula from other programs. Importantly, faculty should become familiar with the requirements established by the responsible accrediting agencies or sanctioning bodies at the start of the development phase. For example, for nurse anesthesia educators, reviewing the COA standards for accreditation is a critical first step in this phase. Curriculum development is a plan that describes the learning environment and identifies the personnel, materials, and resources required for implementing the curriculum. It is a systematic and rational approach to identifying the structure of the curriculum. It is the phase where faculty actually develop what is to be done, the objectives, the content that should be included, the content, the instructional strategies, resources, and activities that will be used, the method and organization, and the methods and instruments that will be used to assess results. One of the most difficult areas in the development phase is prioritizing the scope of the content to what students must know. It may be helpful to think of this as the key factors of knowledge or judgment that are required to ensure an effective outcome. In the case of nurse anesthesia education, the knowledge and judgment required for the entry-level nurse anesthetist. The curriculum development phase can also be viewed as a set of eight stages organized to direct the development process. Stage 1, formulate the objectives. Stage 2, select relevant content, must know, should know, it's nice to know. Stage 3, organize and sequence the content. Stage 4, select instructional methods and materials. Stage 5, organize the learning experiences. Stage 6, develop what to assess. Stage 7, develop the means to make the assessment. And finally, Stage 8, develop how to relate the assessment back to the objectives. Any discussion of curriculum development writing would be incomplete without a review of curriculum development models. There are a number of curriculum development models, each with specific organizational themes. Although each attempts to identify the best strategies to accomplish writing the curriculum, the individual nature and predispositions of the learner are at the core of each. For the purposes of this activity, descriptions of the Tyler model and the TABA model are presented. One of the best known curriculum models was developed by Ralph Tyler in 1949, an American educator who believed curriculum design should be structured around four pragmatic questions. Number one, what do we teach? The purposes, the mission, the vision of the college or program are identified. Number two, how do we teach? Educational experiences related to the purposes are developed. Number three, how do we sequence instruction? The educational experiences are organized to achieve a specific outcome. And four, how do we evaluate? A systematic assessment of the purposes takes place. Hilda Taba was a curriculum theorist and contemporary of Ralph Tyler. She was a proponent of progressive education and viewed learning as dynamic and interactive. She perceived that curriculum should be designed by those who would teach the content and that writing curriculum should begin by developing the objectives specific to the needs of the learner, then follow with the overall general design. In the TABA model, assessment of the needs of the learner is conducted, then formulation of the objectives of the curriculum is based on the learner's needs. Organization of the content and selection of the learning experiences are based on the level of the learner. Organization of learning activities is developed and evaluation of the outcome provides necessary data to revise the curriculum. Although the Tyler and Taba models are historical in nature, both are examples of an organized and systematic approach to writing curriculum and continue to be part of the course content for those who major in educational theory and instructional design. The final destination of any curriculum, whether it's at the elementary, secondary, higher education level, or professional specialization, is the classroom, clinical or didactic, involving students and educators. Implementing the curriculum is one of the most crucial phases of curriculum writing and sometimes is the most difficult. If the curriculum remains on the shelf and never implemented, all of the efforts and planning are wasted. Implementation must be carefully planned, organized, and structured. It requires interaction between those who designed and developed the curriculum with those responsible for its implementation on a day-to-day basis. Those responsible for implementing a curriculum often hear comments that the plan was good, but the implementation was poor. So why does the implementation phase fail? Here are some reasons as to why the implementation phase can fail. Number one, the structure of the curriculum is not useful to the educator. Number two, the curriculum does not communicate the objectives accurately. Number three, those who must implement the curriculum were not involved in writing it. Number four, those who wrote the curriculum do not understand the content. Number five, faculty has not been well-oriented to the curriculum. Number six, resistance on the part of the stakeholders. And number seven, the review process was not consistent as implementation plans were developed. These are real concerns and can be made worse when persons implementing the curriculum are not clear what is expected of them. Good plans reaching the classroom or clinical area are not properly implemented because of a lack of planning and preparation. Interactions between those who have developed the program and those who are charged to deliver it is critical. Implementation requires an understanding of the relationships, traditions, the roles and responsibilities of individuals in the system. The evaluation phase of curriculum writing also should be a thoughtful and organized process to determine whether the goals and objectives have been achieved. Rather than a one-time occurrence, the evaluation phase should be an ongoing check and formal determination of the quality, effectiveness or value of a single course or of the curriculum overall. Importantly, the evaluation phase must be planned and based on an assessment of predetermined objectives identified prior to the time the course, the curriculum is implemented. For example, an objective may be to measure performance of students, faculty or of the program against a specified standard. The measurement standard for students may be the percentage who submit a research manuscript for publication. The measurement standard for faculty may be the percentage who receive positive evaluations from students. At the program level, the measurement may be the degree of satisfaction perceived by the graduates of the program and or by employers of graduates of the program. Following identification of the objectives that are to be evaluated, data collection tools are developed. The data collection tools may be in the form of student, faculty and employer surveys, longitudinal success of graduates taking the certification examination, and demonstration of how the curriculum remains congruent with the mission of the parent institution. Data are compiled and analyzed, a report is developed, and changes or enhancements are made based on these data. The evaluation phase may be conducted by a specific department or program, by a group of departments of faculty, by an institution, or by the entire education system. It may be internal, the curriculum evaluation committee of a department or college, or commissioned by an external agency, regional accrediting agency, the COA, state education department. By whatever vehicle, the outcome should be to create or enhance an education environment. Writing course descriptions and syllabi. The components of a course description will vary according to the policy of the conducting institution or system. Generally, the course description provides a brief explanation of the content of the course, identifies the course title, the course number, department designation, course prerequisites, what the learners must know before the start of the course, the overall objective of the course, the purpose of the course, and what the learner will know at its conclusion, and the number of credits and or hours. This is a hypothetical example of the components of a course description. It identifies the number and title of the course, a number of credits, and the semester when the course will be taught. It notes the prerequisites for admission into the course, and a brief course description. It also identifies a contact person who could be contacted for more information. At the bottom of this slide is a hyperlink to examples of course descriptions from the Midwestern University Nurse Anesthesia Program. Thank you to Dr. Sherry Burns and her faculty for sharing this information. As consideration is given to the development of a course or of an entire curriculum design, it is important for educators to reflect upon several essential questions to guide them through this process. Who will enroll? A course designed for a cohort at the beginning stages of the program will need to be significantly different for a cohort about to graduate. What is the level of the prospective students experience? An important question to consider given the range of academic and clinical experiences prospective students to nurse anesthesia programs possess. Information about the level of experience prospective students have will provide insight into what foundational knowledge they bring to the course and whether some students may require remediation to help them succeed. How many students will enroll? The instructional format certainly may be influenced by the number of students who enroll. Small discussion groups may not work well for a class size of 50 students. Class size also is an important consideration for courses provided in an online format. Many educators restrict class size to 15 students for courses provided in an online format. What resources will be required? The range of resources may include such things as the size of the room where the course will be held, the type of audiovisual equipment needed to present the content, the use of simulation for development of clinical skills, and personal computers so students are able to access examinations posted to a platform. What role does this course play overall in the program college? If this is a core course in an area of concentration, example advanced nursing practice, the program and or the conducting institution may have certain requisite outcome objectives that must be achieved. What external professional standards need to be met? For nurse anesthesia educators, it is important to know that the COA educational standards are and what role the course under consideration plays in accomplishing those standards. If the course description is a brief overview of the course, the syllabus is a comprehensive description of the course, course content, and objectives. It provides specific information about the lecturer, grading mechanisms, expectations, and the rules. The overall purpose of the syllabus is to maximize student learning by providing the roadmap to success. The course syllabus includes all the information in the course description, the year and semester the course is offered, and the department offering the course. It includes the name, the contact information, and office hours of the course director and faculty if applicable, the learning objectives, learning outcomes, and teaching strategies. Assignments, examinations, student assessments, grading, and required materials are noted. A list of lectures, topics, and discussions is included and there may be outlines for each lecture. An effective syllabus sets the tone for the course, identifies what students need to do to succeed, clearly communicates the expectations of the course in terms of student responsibilities, and describes the relevant course, department, and college policies. It specifies how students will be assessed and outlines a remediation policy if remediation is allowed. Credit hour is a reflection of the amount of work required to successfully complete a course or the amount of credit required to complete a specific degree. Although the amount of credit assigned to each course or to a specific degree is at the discretion of the conducting institution, credit hour standardizes the workload and instruction time into a common frame of reference. Historically, units of credit or credit hours were first applied during the early 20th century, but were not meant to measure student learning. Units of credit were developed to measure faculty workload in a matrix to estimate the amount of a pension a faculty member should receive. In contemporary higher education, credit hours are used in a way that is more familiar to educators. By accrediting agencies during an assessment of an institution or program, credit hours are used to determine that the amount of work students must engage in to accomplish a typical course or degree meets the established higher education standards. And importantly, federal student aid regulations mandate that institutions establish guidelines to measure whether students are making satisfactory academic progress in their education programs. One quantitative method used to measure academic progress is the documentation on the academic transcript of the amount of credit hours the student has received. Part 600.2 of the Higher Education Act establishes the criteria under which higher education institutions are eligible to participate in loan programs. In addition to a long list of rules, this section of the regulations specifies that one hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction and a minimum of two hours of out-of-class work each week in a 15-week semester is equivalent to one credit hour. This means that a three credit master's or doctoral course will include three hours of instruction and six hours of assignments per week over the period of one semester. A three credit course is equivalent to 45 hours of instruction. Calculating credit for clinical experiences is less prescriptive. Many programs that have a clinical component use a ratio of 45 to 1, where 45 hours of clinical experience and preparation time is equivalent to one credit hour. While there are no hard and fast rules about credits assigned to clinical hours, a rationale that supports the institution or program policy must be developed. Course sequencing refers to the organization and sequencing of course content in an individual course or in a program. While there are no hard and fast rules about how courses are sequenced, the overall objective is to achieve the outcomes of the course, curriculum, and or the program. Course content may be sequenced chronologically, where content is organized according to periods in time. An example could be the organization of content in a pharmacology course according to the chronological development of anesthetics. Many courses are sequenced to begin with basic concepts and end with advanced concepts. An example could be a discussion of the basic techniques of anesthetic administration that concludes with a discussion of advanced techniques. Course content or curricular content may begin with theoretical information and conclude with the development of an evidence-based plan of care. A course also may be sequenced according to a set of case studies, which is often the approach in content that deals with ethical issues. The most common approach used to sequence a course is according to increasing complexity of the material, where basic topics serve as the foundation for integration of new concepts and skills. Whichever approach is selected, it is critical to identify the strategies that will be required to integrate new concepts into the curriculum. Identify what resources students will need to succeed. For example, small group discussions or presentation of case scenarios may be more effective than a traditional lecture for understanding certain concepts. If the course requires the development of psychomotor skills, it may be appropriate to utilize simulation to demonstrate the skill and then to provide students the opportunity to practice the skill at specified times according to their level in the program. As educators begin to conceptualize a course or an entire curriculum, plotting the sequence of activities that will best facilitate skill acquisition and learning is important. Sequencing also may refer to the configuration of the entire curriculum of the program. In nurse anesthesia education, this generally identifies whether the program is front-loaded or integrated. This is an example of a front-loaded model, where the first semester is 100% didactic. Clinical courses begin in semester two and are 2% of the curriculum. The percentage of clinical experiences are increased over the remaining months and comprise 90% of the curriculum by semesters four through seven. This slide is an example of an integrated model, where the first semester is 90% didactic and includes a clinical experience that is 10% of the curriculum. Semester two is 80% didactic and 20% clinical. The ratio of didactic courses to clinical courses in these models was developed for the purpose of providing examples of how the entire curriculum may be sequenced and to not reflect any actual programs. In fact, most programs that describe their curriculum sequence as integrated are actually hybrids, whereby a certain percentage of the first semester is didactic. No one model has proven to be superior to the other relative to educational outcomes. To be successful writing curriculum for nurse anesthesia programs, educators must consider best practice methods that have a proven track record in higher education. It should be logical and purposeful, deliberate, as well as collaborative and systematic. During the curriculum design phase, the general and specific objectives of the program should be identified. Consideration is given to the abilities the students possess as they enter the program and what abilities they must acquire to meet the demands of the nurse anesthesia workforce. Since the outcome of the curriculum is graduation and certification in practice, the newly certified nurse anesthetist must have the knowledge and skill to provide competent service as an entry-level practitioner. Consideration also has to be given to the requirements, rules, and standards of the entities and agencies with the authority to regulate the curriculum and the program. The design and content of the curriculum is congruent with the mission and goals of the conducting institution. For example, if the parent organization does not include educating learners as an integral part of its mission, then the mission of the design and content of the curriculum of the nurse anesthesia program is not congruent with the mission of the conducting institution. If the conducting institution has scholarship and research as part of its mission, then the nurse anesthesia program should include a strong focus in scholarship and research. Another example of the influence of the conducting institution on the design and course content of a nurse anesthesia program is the comparison one could make of a nurse anesthesia program housed in a College of Nursing and a nurse anesthesia program housed in a College of Medicine. While both will include the nurse anesthesia core required of the COA, each has a course content that reflects the mission of the conducting institution. Two links are provided here for you to review the curriculum of a program housed in a College of Nursing, the Raleigh School of Anesthesia, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, and the curriculum of a program housed in a College of Medicine, the Albany Medical College Center for Nurse Anesthesiology. Thank you to Nancy Bruton-Marie and her faculty from the Raleigh School of Anesthesia and Dr. Jody Della Rocca from the Albany Medical College Center for Nurse Anesthesiology. Nurse anesthesia programs may be accredited by several external agencies, each of which has requirements that must be met to achieve accreditation. Prior to the start of any project to write curriculum, nurse anesthesia educators should become familiar with the standards in order to remain in compliance with them. Excellent advice to those who have not had the opportunity to work with the education standards is to attend a training program sponsored by the accrediting agency. The Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Education Programs, COA, is the accrediting agency for nurse anesthesia programs in the U.S. and its territories and protectorates. The COA establishes the standards for accreditation of nurse anesthesia educational programs. It publishes the educational criteria, course content, and policies and procedures required of programs that seek its accreditation. A link to the COA's website is included on this slide. Nurse anesthesia programs housed in colleges of nursing also have other external accrediting agencies, each of which has requirements that must be met to achieve accreditation. These include the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, the CCNE, and the National League for Nursing Accreditation Commission, NLNAC, which is now known as the Accreditation Commission for Education Nursing, ACEN. State governmental and regulatory agencies also may have authority over nurse anesthesia programs and nursing practice at the state level. Curriculum must be in compliance with their laws, rules, and regulations. Examples include state boards for nursing, state health departments, and state education departments. The National Board on Certification and Recertification of Nurse Anesthetists establishes the certification standards for nurse anesthetists. The NBCRNA reviews and validates academic transcripts to determine a graduate's eligibility to take the certification examination. The NBCRNA periodically conducts a professional practice survey to validate that the content of the certification examination is developed on the basis of current best practice models. Before beginning the process of writing a curriculum, you should review the practice analysis and content outline of the certification examination published by the NBCRNA. A link to their website is provided. Although the Professional Organization for Nurse Anesthetists, the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, does not have the authority to regulate nurse anesthesia education programs per se, members of the AANA have the responsibility to identify how nurse anesthesia education should be structured for the future. In 2005, the AANA Board of Directors appointed the Task Force on Doctoral Preparation of Nurse Anesthetists to develop options for doctoral preparation of nurse anesthetists and identify competencies for the CRNA practitioner at the clinical doctorate level. In 2007, the membership and the Board of Directors unanimously adopted the position supporting the move to the practice doctorate by 2025. In 2011, the COA appointed the Standards Revision Task Force to draft a major revision to the Standards for Accreditation and develop the educational and curriculum standards for the practice doctorate and CRNA postgraduate fellowships. In 2014, the COA approved the report of the Standards Revision Task Force and adopted the practice doctorate standards. The practice doctorate standards are the underpinning of any curriculum developed to prepare nurse anesthesia graduates at the practice doctorate level. Following a trial period of one year, in 2015, the practice doctorate standards will be implemented. Educators should refer to the COA website to review the practice doctorate standards and policies and procedures. Additionally, before writing curriculum, educators are encouraged to attend workshops conducted periodically by the COA that provide information about the nuts and bolts of what is required to meet accreditation standards. A standards-based curriculum is one that is aligned to requirements established by certification and accreditation agencies and the professional organization. The American Association of Nurse Anesthetists has a long history of standardizing the education of nurse anesthetists. This process could not have been accomplished without accreditation standards. A standards-based approach was used to develop the curriculum in the practice doctorate standards. The curriculum in the practice doctorate standards was aligned to competencies identified for entry into nurse anesthesia practice. A standards-based curriculum establishes benchmarks to measure what learners should know and be able to do. Content standards are the essential knowledge, skills, and experiences a learner must acquire to achieve competence in a specific content area, example, pathophysiology. Performance standards identify the level of mastery a learner is expected to attain, example, perform an intubation 80% of the time, achieve a GPA of 3 in all nurse anesthesia courses. A standards-based curriculum is a method to validate the curriculum and ensure the entry-level nurse anesthetist has met and established competence in practice. The curriculum of nurse anesthesia programs should focus on full scope of practice and competencies for the CRNA practitioner at the clinical doctorate level. The scope of nurse anesthesia practice was used as one tool to validate the curriculum in the practice doctorate standards and has a focus on full scope of practice. The competencies for the CRNA practitioner at the clinical doctorate level should serve as the framework for developing practice focused doctoral curricula. The results of the NBCRNA professional practice analysis are used to develop and validate the national certification exam and establish the passing standard. The national certification exam candidate handbook includes a list of major content areas on the exam which is a helpful guide to writing curriculum. This slide demonstrates how standards of practice were used to develop the curriculum in the practice doctorate standards. During the development of the doctorate standards, the standards revision task force developed a crosswalk between the AANA scope of nurse anesthesia practice and the practice doctorate standards to ensure they included the elements necessary for an entry-level nurse anesthesia practitioner. In the left column are the elements of the scope of nurse anesthesia practice and in the right column is the standard or standards that address the element. For example, the element to perform a comprehensive history and physical is addressed in standard 8 of the practice doctorate standards. This slide demonstrates how a nurse anesthesia program can use standards to develop course content. In this example, the course ABC 800 evidence-based research is crosswalked to the COA standards, the COA doctoral competencies, and the AACN essentials for advanced nursing practice. These crosswalk examples and other standards in higher education for practice doctoral degrees can be used by educators who write curriculum for nurse anesthesia programs. This slide is an example of the curriculum design of the Baylor College of Medicine graduate program in nurse anesthesia. Thank you to Dr. Jim Walker and his faculty for sharing this. This slide shows a few more details of the curriculum design of the Baylor College of Medicine graduate program in nurse anesthesia. Thank you again to Dr. Jim Walker and his faculty for sharing this. This slide is an example of the curriculum design of the Rush University College of Nursing nurse anesthesia program. Thank you to Dr. Michael Kramer and his faculty for sharing this. The opportunity to write curriculum for a course or over an entire degree program is exciting and sometimes challenging. The most important way to make the process a pleasure and not a pain is to be prepared. Get started. No course or curriculum design is completed on the first draft. Make a plan for yourself. Develop goals and objectives. Find out if there are specific institutional, accreditation, or professional requirements that need to be met within the course or over the degree program. For nurse anesthesia educators, get a copy of the COA standards and the NBCRNA content outline for the certification examination. Look for examples. See what other faculty have developed. Get help if you are just starting out. Attend a workshop or hire a consultant. Good luck and thank you.

Curriculum Development

Nurse Anesthesia

Best Practice Guidelines

Accreditation Standards

Stakeholders' Input

Institutional Missions

Systematic Planning

Workshops