Preparing Nurse Educator Students for the New National Council of State Boards of Nursing NCLEX and AACN Essentials.

Abstract

Graduate nursing education students are required to complete essential core content (such as education theory, accreditation, evidence-based teaching strategies, and evaluation methods) to prepare them to transition into independent practice. The 2021-2022 academic year required a monumental change in the existing curriculum to incorporate the 2021 American Association of Colleges of Nursing Essentials and the Next Gen National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) content. An innovative, prioritized, learner-centered, backward design was used to update the existing curriculum to add the new core content to the nursing education student curriculum. The end of program comprehensive exams revealed that the students were able to successfully develop a test blueprint, utilizing case studies with Next Gen NCLEX question types designed to measure clinical judgment, and map to the 2021 AACN Essentials. The timely implementation of the curriculum revisions resulted in the achievement of desired student learning outcomes. [J Nurs Educ. 2024;63(3):192-196.].