NURSING CURRICULUM CONTENT - AN INNOVATIVE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS TODEFINE PRIORITIES

Curriculum planning in the health sciences is becoming increasingly co mplex due to rapid societal change and scientific discovery, The half- life of most curricula is 5 years, which necessitates a periodic close examination and revision of both content and process. For nursing fac ulty, this exercise is often viewed as an arduous one and traditionall y can lead to endless hours of circular debate, Planning is usually in two stages; the first stage being the development of or agreement abo ut a theoretical framework and the second stage is deciding on core co ntent and teaching methodologies, This article focuses on decisions in the second stage. Traditionally, decisions around curriculum are arri ved at by much debate, Some argue that all health issues should be add ressed in the curriculum in order that the graduate be prepared to dea l with a breadth of issues, However, this approach often leads to what has been referred to as 'curriculum hypertrophy', where, in an attemp t to be all-inclusive, the curriculum grows without bounds, Rarely is anything dropped from the curriculum when this approach is used, Somet imes priorities are established on the basis of what the individual te aching staff deems important, In other cases a consensus approach is c hosen.