| Course | NU 635 Curriculum Development and Evaluation |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 1 |
| Paper type | Curriculum philosophy statement |
| Length | About 780 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Herzing University |
| Program | MSN Nurse Educator |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NU 635 Unit 1
Curriculum Philosophy Statement: An Online RN-to-BSN Program for Working Nurses in a Rural Region
Student Name
Department of Nursing, Herzing University
NU 635: Curriculum Development and Evaluation
Instructor Name
January 23, 2026
Curriculum Philosophy Statement: An Online RN-to-BSN Program for Working Nurses in a Rural Region
The Program
This statement belongs to a composite online RN-to-BSN program, 30 nursing credits completed in 12 to 20 months, admitting registered nurses with an associate degree or diploma. Most students work full time in community hospitals, long-term care, home health, and clinics across a largely rural region, where many will remain after graduation. The faculty adopted this philosophy to guide the curriculum revision now under way. Each belief is followed by the design commitments it produces and the choices it rules out.
What We Believe About Our Learners
Our students are practicing nurses, not beginners. They arrive with clinical knowledge, habits, and questions from their own work, and they learn best when new content connects to problems they face on their units, a principle long established in adult education (Knowles et al., 2015). They are also working adults with families and shift schedules, and many live far from any campus.
Design commitments: every course includes at least one assignment carried out in or about the student's own workplace; courses are fully asynchronous within weekly deadlines, with no required live sessions; prior learning, such as certification in a specialty, is recognized through a published review process.
What this rules out: required synchronous class meetings; content taught as if students had no clinical experience, such as basic assessment skills; and assignments built around hypothetical hospitals when students could study their own.
What We Believe About Teaching
Teaching in this program means helping experienced nurses see their practice in a wider frame: the population behind the patient, the evidence behind the policy, and the system behind the shift. A national study of nursing education called for teaching that integrates knowledge with clinical reasoning and practice rather than covering content in isolation (Benner et al., 2010). Faculty therefore act as guides for inquiry into practice, not as primary sources of clinical content.
Design commitments: course assessments are applied projects, papers, and presentations rather than content examinations; faculty give individual written feedback on every major assignment within seven days; each course includes structured peer discussion in which students compare practice across settings.
What this rules out: courses built mainly around recorded lectures and multiple-choice testing; and grading approaches that reward recall over application.
What We Believe About the Practice Our Graduates Enter
Our graduates will practice in rural and small-town settings with fewer specialists, older populations, longer distances to care, and small nursing teams in which a BSN-prepared nurse is often the one expected to lead quality improvement, coordinate care across settings, and bring evidence into practice. The national call to increase the proportion of nurses with baccalaureate degrees rested on the expectation that these nurses would be prepared for community-based care, leadership, and evidence-based practice (Institute of Medicine, 2011), and the current national competencies for professional nursing education include population health, systems-based practice, and leadership among their domains (American Association of Colleges of Nursing [AACN], 2021).
Design commitments: population health, leadership, and evidence-based practice form the core of the curriculum; practice experiences take place in the student's own community, such as a county health department, a school, or a long-term care facility, rather than in acute care settings students already know; rural health is a thread in every course, not a single elective.
What this rules out: an acute-care clinical course that repeats associate degree content; and a curriculum designed around urban academic medical centers.
What We Believe About Evaluation
A program should be judged by what its graduates do in practice, not only by course grades. Design commitments: the program surveys graduates and their employers one year after graduation about specific practice behaviors, such as leading an improvement project or using evidence in a policy change, and uses the results in curriculum review. What this rules out: evaluating the program only by course completion and student satisfaction.
How the Faculty Will Use This Statement
When a curriculum decision is disputed, such as whether to add a proctored examination or a required live session, the faculty will ask which belief the proposal serves and which commitment it would break. A proposal that contradicts this statement is not automatically rejected, but it requires either a revision to the philosophy, made openly, or a clear reason for the exception. The statement will be reviewed every three years alongside the program outcomes, and sooner if the region's practice changes, for example if a new rural hospital network changes where graduates work. Students and two employer representatives from the program's advisory board will be invited to comment on each revision, since the beliefs about learners and practice are claims they are in a position to test.
References
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2021). The essentials: Core competencies for professional nursing education. American Association of Colleges of Nursing.
Benner, P., Sutphen, M., Leonard, V., & Day, L. (2010). Educating nurses: A call for radical transformation. Jossey-Bass.
Institute of Medicine. (2011). The future of nursing: Leading change, advancing health. National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/12956
Knowles, M. S., Holton, E. F., III, & Swanson, R. A. (2015). The adult learner: The definitive classic in adult education and human resource development (8th ed.). Routledge.
Reading the NU 635 Unit 1 instructions
Unit 1 asks you to write a curriculum philosophy for a nursing program, stating beliefs about learners, teaching, nursing practice and evaluation, and showing how those beliefs shape the curriculum. Expect to describe the program, state each belief clearly, connect beliefs to design decisions and support them with literature or national reports. Many versions ask whether a named theorist is required; usually it is not, though grounding in sources such as Benner or the AACN Essentials strengthens the statement. A composite program is usually acceptable, though some sections want a real one. A philosophy is most useful when it can settle a real disagreement, so write beliefs specific enough to rule something out. Avoid generic statements about caring and lifelong learning that any program could adopt.
Inside the NU 635 Unit 1 example
The statement opens with the program in a short paragraph: who it admits, how long it takes and how it is delivered. Each belief section begins with a sentence of belief and ends with one or more design commitments that follow from it, such as assignments built from the student's own workplace. That pairing is what turns a philosophy into a working document. The learners section treats students as experienced nurses. The teaching section focuses on widening their frame from patient to population. The practice section describes rural settings honestly. The evaluation section commits the program to tracking graduate practice, not only grades. The final section shows the statement in use, explaining how faculty will test a disputed proposal against it.
Where the points sit in the NU 635 Unit 1 rubric
Herzing's rubric for a curriculum philosophy usually covers the description of the program, beliefs about learners, teaching, nursing and evaluation, the link between beliefs and curriculum design, the use of literature and writing. Belief criteria reward clear, specific statements rather than slogans. The link to design is what separates strong statements: graders look for each belief carried into a concrete commitment the curriculum must honor. Literature points go to national reports and educational scholarship cited accurately, such as Benner and colleagues' call for transformation. Some rubrics add a row on consistency with the parent institution's mission. Writing points cover concise organization and a professional voice. The APA 7 list should include the AACN Essentials and the Institute of Medicine's Future of Nursing report.
Common NU 635 Unit 1 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Philosophy statements in Unit 1 usually lose points through generic beliefs, such as we believe in caring and lifelong learning, that could belong to any program. Another frequent problem is beliefs that never reach the curriculum, so the statement floats above the design. Students often write about learners as if they were new to nursing, which misfits an RN-to-BSN program. Evaluation is commonly left out or reduced to grades. Literature is cited without connection to any belief. Statements run long with history the assignment does not ask for. Finally, show how the statement would be used, because graders reward a philosophy that can settle an actual curriculum decision rather than one that only describes values.
Get a NU 635 Unit 1 example written to your instructions
Send the Unit 1 instructions and the rubric from your NU 635 classroom, and name the credential the statement sits behind. We write a custom example with beliefs stated so they can be argued with, each one traced to a feature of the program, and the ruled-out choices named. Returned in 24 to 48 hours, first custom sample free.
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NU 635 Unit 1 questions, answered
Does the statement need a named theorist?
Only where the instructions ask for one. What earns credit is coherence: if a learning theory is adopted, the beliefs that follow have to behave as that theory would predict, and the program features named later have to match. Borrowing vocabulary from two incompatible traditions inside one document is more visible than most writers expect, and a reader who knows both will find the seam.
Can the example be written about a real program?
In many sections that is preferred, since a philosophy anchored to an existing credential and a real clinical partner has something to constrain. Keep internal documents you were not given permission to circulate out of the file, describe faculty by role rather than by name, and say plainly where you are describing the program as you would design it rather than as it stands.
Is the opening unit always the philosophy piece?
There is no dependable pattern. No public index exists of what any given Herzing unit will require, and sections differ from one term to the next. Courses in curriculum design commonly begin by settling the commitments that later work has to obey, which is why this example takes the form it does, but the instructions loaded in your own classroom are the only authority on what gets submitted.
Where can I find a free NU 635 Unit 1 sample paper?
The whole NU 635 Unit 1 RN-to-BSN philosophy statement is free on this page, every belief paired with its design commitment. If your program is pre-licensure or graduate, a custom statement can be written for it instead.
What goes in a nursing curriculum philosophy statement?
Beliefs about learners, teaching, the practice graduates enter and evaluation, each tied to a design commitment. This sample treats RN-to-BSN students as practicing nurses and commits the program to assignments built from their own workplaces.