J Nurs Acad Soc.  1983 Dec;13(2):22-43.

A Study on Curriculum Improvement of the Korean Army Nursing Academy

• Ko JK

Abstract

1. Need for and Purpose of the Study There is an increasing demand for curriculum improvement of the Korean Army Nursing Academy (KANA), since it was upgraded into 4-year institution of higher learning from 3-year one. In particular, it is strongly advocated that the KANA needs the outside expertise for its-curriculum improvement-namely not only from the internal military view of points but also from the viewpoints of professional educational society. In line with such a necessity for the study, this study was aimed at 1) analyzing the current actual practices of KANA'S curriculum, 2) investigating the desired practices of KANA'S curri culum, and 3) identifying the discrepancy between the actual and desired practices of curriculum. 2. Problems for the Study This study had 4 problems to be answeared as follows: 1) What are the actual curriculum practices of KANA? 2) What are the desired curriculum practices of KANA? 3) How are the extents of erception of actual and desired curriculum different in four groups (student, faculty & administrator, nurse, and medical doctor in militay hospital) ? 4) What are the restraining forces that impede the change from actual to desired curriculum practices? 5) What are the relationships of curriculum components in actual and desired curriculum practices? 3. Methods and Procedures This study was conducted by means of document analysis in addition to literature review and by means of needs assessment questionnaire which was developed by the researcher. The questionnaire included 62 statments with 7 questions for demographic data collection. The needs assessment questionnaire was managed to a total of 243 subiects (100 students, 46 faculty & administrators, 55 nurses, and 42 medical doctors). The collected data were treated using SPSS computer system so as to calculate mean scores, standard deviations, and correlation coefficients. The significance test was made through t-test and one-way ANOVA. The statistical significance level was set at both .05 and .01 level.4. Major findings The major findings in this study are as follows: 1) The score of desired practices was significantly greater than that of actual practices, representing a strong need for curriculum betterment. 2) There were significant differences in the perceptions of actual practices as well as desired practices among four groups (student, faculty & administrator, nurse, and medical doctor). 3) The most frequently selected restraining forces were army's inherent character, economical limitation, and educational expertise limitations, 4) Such variables as sex, position attachment to the KANA and grade made a statistically significant effect on the perception of desired curriculum practice, while the variables like mar-rige, position, and military class made it on the perception of actual curriculum practice. 5) The coefficients among the curriculum components were lower in perception of the actual curriculum practices than those in the desired practices, 5- Conclusions The conclusions based on the aior findings of this study are as follows: 1) The current curriculum development procedure of the KANA is not consistent with the theoretical frame of systematic development sarategy of curriculum. 2) There are wide conflicts among the groups who are supposed to participate in curriculum development, concerning the actual and desired practices of KANN'S curriculum. 3) A great deal of need for curriculum improvement for the KANA is clearly felt, and in particular, in the process of teaching and learning. 4) Each component of curriculum is not intergrated into a whole development procedure, being segregated each other. 5) For better curriculum improvement, such restraining forces as financial arid professional limitations should be eliminated. 6. Recommendations 1) For Further Research a. There is a need to replicate this study after in-depth statistical analysis of each item of need assessment questionnaire, and with more representative subjects. b. A study should be conducted which, has its focus on the analysis of restraining forces for the change from actual to desired curriculum practices of the KANA. 2) For KANA'S Curriculum Improvement a. There is a need to promote the professional expertise of the participants in curriculum development and the communication among them. b. It is desirable to establish an institution or section of administration, which is soley in charge of curriculum development. c. To better develop KANA's curriculum not only faculty and administrators but also students should be encouraged to participate in development process, while the military medical doctors' participation should be carefully considered.

MeSH Terms

Administrative Personnel
Computer Systems
Curriculum*
Data Collection
Humans
Learning
Military Personnel
Needs Assessment
Nurse Administrators
Nursing*
Surveys and Questionnaires