December 9, 2018

Carolyn Nganga-Good
Nurse Consultant
Division of Nursing and Public Health
Bureau of Health Workforce
RNPC@hrsa.gov

Dear Ms. Nganga-Good,

My name is Jean O’Connor and I represent University Nursing School. Our University is
seeking an opportunity to apply for funding under the HRSA-18-012 Education, Practice,
Quality and Retention-Registered Nurses in Primary Care Training Program to complete
a five year concept-based curriculum revision to reduce the preparation-practice gap for
new graduate nurses. The cost of this proposal is $500,000.00. This curriculum revision
is in alignment with the National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice’s
(2010) report addressing the challenges facing nursing education, and their
encouragement that federal departments should support educational preparation, improve
the supply of nursing faculty, and fund models that seek to integrate interdisciplinary and
inter-professional education of healthcare professionals.

Nursing education, as it currently stands, is not meeting the needs of the work place
expectations. “According to the Nursing Executive Center research, nearly 90% of
academic leaders believe their nursing students are fully prepared to provide safe and
effective care, compared with only 10% of hospital and health system nurse executives”
as evidenced from the New Graduate Nurse Performance Survey (Berkow, Conway,
Stewart, & Virkstis, 2008). The 2010 Carnegie Foundation report “Educating Nurses: A
Call for Radical Transformation” Benner, Day, Leonard, and Sutphen (2010) is calling
for: improving the education competencies of nursing through changing the teaching of
abstract knowledge to more concrete thought processes where students can think
contextually and act deliberately in situations where patients needs are concerned,
integrating classroom education with clinical experience, and shifting from critical
thinking to clinical reasoning in patient care (Hansen, 2014). Changes to nursing school
curriculum from a passive learning environment to an active learning environment is
imperative to help reduce the preparation-practice gap (Baron, 2017; Benner, Day,
Leonard & Sutphen, 2010). Redesigning nursing education will support current nursing
practice with an emphasis on safe, team-based, patient centered care.

Our University, in alignment with HRSA, believes that all nurses should practice to the
full scope of their license. Concept-based curriculums will prepare nurses to keep pace
with an evolving health care system that faces the current challenges in the healthcare
environments including chronic illness, the opioid crisis, and an increasing, aging
population. Our University will plan, develop, train, implement, and evaluate a concept-
based curriculum revision for current faculty and staff over a five-year period.
Due to the complex nature of the healthcare environment, it is imperative that new
graduate nurses are prepared with clinical experiences that provide readiness to practice
upon graduation. Academic-practice partnerships are essential in the development of this
preparation. Our university will implement a multidisciplinary preparation-practice gap
concept-based curriculum review committee that includes three hospital clinical site
nursing leadership, and nurse educators to collaborate on both a needs assessment, and
develop objectives that align with hospital workforce expectations based on the
competencies developed on the New Graduate Nurse Performance Survey. By creating
this alignment with our clinical sites, the curriculum review will align with current
evidence for education reform, and meet the hospital workforce expectations.

It is expected that a concept-based curriculum will be implemented within the first year
of this proposal. Faculty will receive expert instruction, and transition their teaching
practices to align with the new concept-based curriculum. Students will meet the learning
outcomes, and developmental objectives set forth in the concept-based curriculum, and
both formative and summative evaluation will monitor the progress and success of this
curriculum revision. It is expected that graduate nurses will have improved readiness to
practice scores as evidenced by improvements on the competencies outlined on the New
Graduate Performance Survey provided to both university educators and hospital nurse
leadership.

University Nursing School is a private, accredited university. Our department Faculty are
highly qualified, masters, and doctoral level prepared educators, with experience in
curriculum revision. As project team leader I have thirty years of nursing experience, and
four years experience as a Clinical Research Coordinator.

As described above I am requesting $500,000.00 in Grant funding to complete this five-

year concept-based curriculum revision for the University Nursing School. Faculty and
staff salary, and time invested comprise the bulk of direct costs, however our university is
able to provide in-kind contributions towards facility use, equipment, supplies, and
training materials. We have a state of the art simulation lab that we will offset the need
for excess grant money. Our facilities will provide the necessary tools for a successful
transition to a concept-based curriculum.

On behalf of University Nursing School I would like to thank you for this opportunity for
funding for our concept-based curriculum revision proposal. I welcome the opportunity to
submit a full proposal. If you have any questions, or require any further supportive
documents you can contact me directly at 917-555-1212 or
joconnor@universitynursingschool.edu

Sincerely,

Jean O’Connor BSN, RN

University Nursing School.
 References

Baron, K.A. (2017). Changing to concept-based curricula: the process for nurse

educators. The Open Nursing Journal 11, 277-287. DOI:

10.2174/18744334601711010277

Benner P., Day, L., Leonard, V., Sutphen M. (2010). Educating nurses: a call for radical

transformation. Stanford, CA: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of

Teaching.

Berkow, S., Conway, L., Stewart, J., & Virkstis, K. (2008). Assessing new graduate nurse

performance. The Journal of Nursing Administration 38(11), 468-474.

Hansen, J. (2014). Nurse residency programs: why now? Journal for Nurses in

Professional Development 30(1), 47-48. Retrieved from

https://www.nursingcenter.com/journalarticle?Article_ID=1655516&Journal_ID=

54029&Issue_ID=1655091

National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice. (2010). Addressing new

challenges facing nursing education: solutions for a transforming healthcare

environment. Retrieved from

https://www.hrsa.gov/advisorycommittees/bhpradvisory/nacnep/Reports/eighthre

port.pdf