Development of Curriculum for the Emergency Clinical Nurse Specialist

Kim, Kwang Joo; Lee, Hyang Yeon; Kim, Kwuy Bun

Abstract

Various accidents and injuries are currently occuring in Korea at increasingly high rates. Good quality emergency care service is urgently needed to cope with these various forms of accidents and injuries. In order to develop a sound emergency care system, there need to be a plan to educate and train professionals specifically in emergency care. One solution for the on going problem would be to educate and train emergency clinical nurse specialists. This study on a strategy for curriculum development for emergency clinical nurse specialist was based on the following five content areas, developed from literature related to the curriculum of emergency nursing and emergency care situation: 1. Nurses working in the emergency rooms of three university hospitals were analyzed for six days to identify categories of nursing activities. 2. Two hundreds and eleven nurses working in the emergency rooms of 12 university hospitals were surveyed to identify needs for educational content that should be included in a curriculum for the clinical nurse specialist. 3. Examination of the environment in which emergency management was provided. 4. Identification of characteristics of patients in the emergency room. 5. The role of emergency clinical nurse specialist was identified through literature, recent data, and research materials. The following curriculum was formulated using the above mentioned process. 1. The philosophy of education for emergency clinical nurse specialist was established through a realistic philosophical framework. In this frame, client, environment, health, nursing, and learning have been defined. 2. The purpose of education is framed on individual development, social structure, nursing process and responsibility along with the role and function of the emergency clinical nurse specialist. 3. The central theme was based on human, environment, health and nursing. 4. The elements of structure in the curriculum content were divided to include two major threads, i.e., vertical and horizontal: The vertical thread to consist of the client, life cycle, education, research, leadership and consultation, and the horizontal thread to consist of level of nursing (prevention to rehabilitation), and health to illness based on the health care system developed by Betty Neuman system model. 5. Behavioral objectives for education were structured according to the emergency clinical nurse specialist role and function as a master degree prepared in various emergency settings. 6. The content of the curriculum consisted of three core courses(9 credits), five major courses(15 credits), six elective courses(12 credits) and six prerequisite courses (12 credits). Thus 48credits are required. Recommendations: 1. To promote the quality of the emergency care system, the number of emergency professionals, has to be expanded. Further the role and function of the emergency clinical nurse specialist needs to be specified in both the medical law and the Nursing Practice Act. 2. In order to upgrade the qualification of emergency clinical nurse specialists, the course should be given as part of the graduate program. 3. Certification should be issued through the Korean Nurses Association.