NURSING AND THE HEALTH
PROFESSIONS
1ST EDITION
• AUTHOR(S)JUDITH A. HALSTEAD;
DIANE M. BILLINGS
TEST BANK
1
Reference
Ch. 1 — Introduction to curriculum development
Stem
A nursing program is revising its curriculum to better reflect its
institutional mission emphasizing community-based care and
health equity. As a faculty member on the curriculum
committee, you must prioritize changes that will produce
graduates who enact that mission. Which approach best aligns
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,curricular content and structure with the institutional mission
while ensuring coherent student learning experiences?
A. Add a stand-alone community health course and leave the
rest of the curriculum unchanged.
B. Map program outcomes and competencies to existing
courses, identify gaps, and integrate community-based threads
across courses.
C. Replace an advanced medical-surgical course with more
community content without reviewing outcome alignment.
D. Shift clinical placements to community sites for final-year
students only.
Correct answer
B
Rationales
Correct: Mapping outcomes and competencies, identifying
gaps, and threading community-based content across courses
ensures curriculum alignment with mission and promotes
coherent progression of learning—consistent with curriculum
design principles that favor integration over isolated fixes. This
approach supports longitudinal skill development and
assessment across the program.
A: A single course isolates community care and risks
marginalizing the mission; integration across the curriculum is
preferable.
C: Replacing a course without outcome mapping may create
misalignment and unintended gaps in competencies.
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,D: Concentrating community exposure in a single year limits
progressive learning and fails to embed mission across the
curriculum.
Teaching point
Map outcomes and integrate longitudinal curricular threads for
mission alignment.
Citation
Halstead, J. A., & Billings, D. M. (2025). Getting Started in
Teaching for Nursing and the Health Professions (1st Ed.). Ch. 1.
2
Reference
Ch. 1 — Faculty role and responsibilities in curriculum
development
Stem
During a curriculum revision meeting, faculty disagree about
which assessment methods will validly measure a new
competency in clinical reasoning. As the course lead, you must
recommend an assessment plan that balances validity,
feasibility, and program-level measurement. Which plan best
meets those needs?
A. Use only multiple-choice exams because they are efficient
and psychometrically strong.
B. Implement an OSCE for every student each semester to
capture clinical reasoning across contexts.
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, C. Combine workplace-based assessments, case-based written
tasks, and targeted MCQs mapped to the competency.
D. Rely on end-of-program faculty global ratings to determine
competence.
Correct answer
C
Rationales
Correct: A mixed assessment strategy triangulates evidence—
workplace assessments and case-based tasks evaluate applied
clinical reasoning in context, while MCQs provide sampled
knowledge checks. Mapping each method to the competency
supports validity and program evaluation.
A: MCQs alone sample cognitive dimensions but fail to capture
applied reasoning in clinical contexts.
B: OSCEs are valid but implementing them every semester is
often infeasible and may duplicate assessment unnecessarily.
D: End-of-program global ratings lack formative data and may
be unreliable without mapped assessments throughout the
curriculum.
Teaching point
Triangulate assessments and map them to competencies for
valid program measurement.
Citation
Halstead, J. A., & Billings, D. M. (2025). Getting Started in
Teaching for Nursing and the Health Professions (1st Ed.). Ch. 1.
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