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1. DNP 837 Curriculum Needs Assessment Paper
DNP 837 Curriculum Needs Assessment PaperDNP 837 Curriculum Needs Assessment
PaperThroughout the course, you will design a curriculum unit to address an area of
educational need identified in your practicum setting. Conduct a needs assessment to
identify an instructional goal for students. In a paper of 750-1,000 words:Summarize the
results of your curriculum needs assessment and how it drives the content your curriculum
unit will cover.Identify the instructional goals for your curriculum unit and the possible
resources you can use or provide to students.Describe the population of learners and the
learning environment where the curriculum unit will be delivered.Prepare this assignment
according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success
Center. An abstract is not required.ORDER NOW FOR CUSTOMIZED, PLAGIARISM-FREE
PAPERS2014, 36: 422–429 A novel approach to needs assessment in curriculum
development: Going beyond consensus methods CAROL L. GONSALVES1, ROLA AJJAWI2,
MARC RODGER1 & LARA VARPIO1 1 University of Ottawa, The Ottawa Hospital, Canada,
2University of Dundee, UK Abstract Background: Needs assessment should be the starting
point for curriculum development. In medical education, expert opinion and consensus
methods are commonly employed. Aim: This paper showcases a more practice-grounded
needs assessment approach. Methods: A mixed-methods approach, incorporating a national
survey, practice audit, and expert consensus, was developed and piloted in thrombosis
medicine; Phase 1: National survey of practicing consultants, Phase 2: Practice audit of
consult service at a large academic centre and Phase 3: Focus group and modified Delphi
techniques vetting Phase 1 and 2 findings. Results: Phase 1 provided information on active
curricula, training and practice patterns of consultants, and volume and variety of
thrombosis consults. Phase 2’s practice audit provided empirical data on the characteristics
of thrombosis consults and their associated learning issues. Phase 3 generated consensus
on a final curricular topic list and explored issues regarding curriculum delivery and
accreditation. Conclusions: This approach offered a means of validating expert and
consensus derived curricular content by incorporating a novel practice audit. By using this
approach we were able to identify gaps in training programs and barriers to curriculum
development. This approach to curriculum development can be applied to other
postgraduate programs. Background Practice points Needs assessment is a cornerstone of
the curriculum development process but approaches have to date largely been based on
expert opinion alone. Practice audit enables identification of physician competencies
grounded in daily practice, which may not be consistently identified through consensus

2. methods. The pocket cards developed for the audit are transportable, time efficient and
easy to use. DNP 837 Curriculum Needs Assessment PaperThe mixed methods approach
facilitates the identification of non-medical expert CanMEDS roles, as well as the gaps in and
barriers to curriculum development. 20 14 Needs assessment is a foundational process for
curriculum development. It is cited throughout the medical education literature as a critical
stage in the complex process of curriculum design (Dunn et al. 1985; Grant 2002; Lockyer et
al. 2005; Hauer & Quill 2011). Identifying the required abilities of graduates from medical
programs is considered a primary step in the development of competency-based curricula
(Harden et al. 1999; Frank et al. 2010; Hauer & Quill 2011). Needs assessment provides
direction for (1) determining the competency standards by which trainees should be
assessed, and (2) how a curriculum should be delivered. Collecting this evidence requires a
broad-scoped approach to the identification of needs (McDonald 2005). However, needs
assessment methods that go beyond the popularly employed expert- and consensus-based
approaches have not been widely reported. While these methods are widely used to
develop curricula, our literature searches found no reports indicating if they remain valid in
the face of the widespread changes in medicine and the increasing subspecialization of
physicians. Furthermore, the process of the consensus methods used to derive curriculum
competency standards is not often explicitly described. The majority of consensus
approaches rely on perceived needs – those of the trainees involved, of educators in the
field, and/or of national experts. It is cautioned, however, that needs assessment should
involve objective measures that can be performed regularly to be maximally effective for
improving learning (Norman et al. 2004). DNP 837 Curriculum Needs Assessment
PaperExamples of objective needs assessment methods include physician self-assessment
via a log book documenting learning issues pertaining to consults (Perol et al. 2002), and a
comparison of trainee and faculty perceived curriculum needs (Peets et al. 2008). However,
these tools have limitations. The former focuses on improving the ability of physicians to
identify their personal learning needs more effectively, not on curriculum design. The latter
relies Correspondence: Dr Carol L. Gonsalves, University of Ottawa, Ottawa Blood Disease
Centre – The Ottawa Hospital, 501 Smyth Road, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L6, Canada. Tel: (613)
737-8899; E-mail: cgonsalves@ottawahospital.on.ca 422 ISSN 0142-159X print/ISSN 1466-
187X online/14/50422–429 ß 2014 Informa UK Ltd. DOI: 10.3109/0142159X.2013.877126
Needs assessment in postgraduate training on a list of expert-derived, pre-generated items.
Another curriculum design method that seeks to identify and assess competencies in
postgraduate medicine is Ten Cate’s (2005) entrustable professional activities model which
also relies on opinion leaders to identify critical professional activities. Closed and open-
ended questions were created for these areas and piloted with local consultants. Minor
amendments were made as suggested (see Supplementary material available at
informahealthcare.com, 1 for survey tool (Appendix 1)). Participants Aim A combination of
expert, consensus-derived data, and objective, observation-based data would be a more
comprehensive strategy for ensuring that curricula are up-to-date, sufficient in scope, and
relevant in today’s dynamic practice environment. Such a process would also facilitate
stakeholder buy-in and content validity (i.e. the degree to which the elements of an
assessment instrument are relevant to and representative of a particular construct like

3. curriculum (Haynes et al. 1995)). In taking such factors into account, needs assessment
should allow educators to identify: DNP 837 Curriculum Needs Assessment Paper(1) what
currently exists for training in a particular area; and (2) what is currently expected of a
proficient clinician working in that area. This paper presents a tested approach that
incorporates consensus- and practice audit-derived data to create an evidence base from
which to achieve these goals. Methods, results, discussion of Phases 1, 2, and 3 A three-
phase, mixed-methods approach for needs assessment was constructed, incorporating
expert and consensus tools (survey, focus group and modified Delphi technique), as well as
a practice audit technique. It was piloted with the Canadian thrombosis medicine
community, involving local and national expert consultants and trainees. The needs
assessment is described as three individual phases – complete with methods, results and
discussion for each phase. Ethics approval was obtained by the Ottawa Hospital Research
Ethics Board. Each phase provided unique data that informed subsequent phases. Taken
together as a whole, they represent a comprehensive needs assessment for curriculum
development in Thrombosis Medicine tested by the study team. Phase 1: Survey of
practicing thrombosis consultants across Canada Methods Survey tool An online survey was
developed using SurveyMonkey (SurveyMonkey Inc., Palo Alto, CA) to gather information in
three key areas: (a) Current status of available training programs; (b) Background training
and practice patterns of current specialists; and (c) Volume and variety of thrombosis
consultations. Forty-two practicing Canadian thrombosis consultants were identified as
potential participants through their membership in known national and international
thrombosis organizations. Participants were contacted via email. DNP 837 Curriculum
Needs Assessment Paper