Open Doors and High Stakes: Aligning an Associate Degree Nursing Curriculum With a Community College's Open-Access Mission
Student Name
Master of Science in Nursing Program, Aspen University
N584: Curriculum Development, Implementation and Evaluation
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Open Doors and High Stakes: Aligning an Associate Degree Nursing Curriculum With a Community College's Open-Access Mission
A composite county community college states its mission in one sentence: to provide open, affordable access to education that prepares the people of the county for work and further study. Its associate degree nursing program, however, admits about one in four qualified applicants, ranks them almost entirely by prerequisite grade point average, offers classes only on weekdays and dismisses students after a single failed nursing course. The program's licensure pass rate is strong, but its graduates look less like the county than the college's other students do, and faculty have begun to ask whether the nursing curriculum reflects the institution it belongs to.
In its catalog entry for N584, Aspen expects future educators to analyze the relationship of nursing curriculum to the parent institution's mission and philosophy. This paper examines that relationship for the composite program: why the relationship matters, where the program's current design departs from the college's mission, and how admission, sequencing, academic support, progression and scheduling could be redesigned to express the mission while protecting the standards that nursing licensure requires.
Why the Parent Institution Matters
A nursing curriculum does not stand alone. It sits within an institution whose mission, philosophy, resources and policies shape what the program can and should be. Keating and DeBoor (2018) describe the parent institution's mission and philosophy as foundational inputs to curriculum development, alongside the program's own philosophy, the needs of the community and professional standards; a curriculum that contradicts its institution's mission is likely to face conflict over resources, admissions and policies, and to lose the support that sustains it. Accrediting bodies also expect nursing programs to show that their mission and outcomes are congruent with those of the parent institution.
For a community college, the mission usually centers on access, affordability, workforce development and service to the local community. Those commitments have direct implications for who a nursing program admits, how it supports students, how it schedules instruction and how it treats students who struggle.
Where the Program Departs From the Mission
Four features of the current program sit uneasily with the college's mission. Admission by grade point average alone favors applicants who could afford to take prerequisites full time and repeat courses to raise their grades, and disadvantages working adults, parents and first-generation students, who are a large share of the college's enrollment. A weekday-only schedule excludes those who cannot leave full-time jobs. A one-failure dismissal policy provides no path for students who struggle once, often because of a family or financial crisis rather than ability. And the curriculum has no structured bridge to the baccalaureate degree, even though further study is part of the college's stated mission and many employers prefer or require it.
None of these features is unreasonable on its own. Programs adopted them to protect licensure pass rates and to manage limited clinical placements and faculty. The question is whether the same standards can be protected by means that fit the mission better.
Redesigning to Express the Mission
Admission is the most visible lever. Holistic admission considers academic metrics alongside applicants' experiences, attributes and potential contributions to the profession and community. Jung et al. (2021) described a state university's implementation of holistic admissions for prelicensure nursing, designed to reflect its institutional mission and goals and to create a more inclusive learning environment, and noted that changing admission procedures required approval from both university and state stakeholders. For the community college, a holistic rubric could give weight to prerequisite science grades, a standardized entrance examination, healthcare work experience, bilingual ability and residence in the county, while maintaining a minimum academic threshold linked to success.
Curriculum sequencing and support are the second lever. Placing a structured study skills and pharmacology math module in the first semester, embedding peer tutoring in the highest-attrition courses and monitoring early examination scores for students who need help would reduce failures without reducing rigor. The third lever is progression: replacing one-failure dismissal with a policy that allows one repeat of a failed nursing course, with a required learning plan, keeps the standard for passing while offering the second chance the college's mission implies. The fourth is scheduling: an evening and weekend cohort, even a small one, opens the program to working adults. The fifth is articulation: a formal agreement with a regional university for smooth progression to the baccalaureate degree expresses the college's commitment to further study.
Protecting Standards
Faculty are right to worry that access without support could lower licensure pass rates, which would harm graduates and the program. The redesign therefore pairs every access change with a support or accountability measure. Holistic admission retains a minimum academic threshold. The repeat policy requires a learning plan and permits only one repeat. Early alerts and tutoring target students at risk. Designing and evaluating curriculum with both access and outcomes in view is one of the nurse educator's core competencies (Halstead, 2019). The program should track licensure pass rates, attrition by semester and student demographics together each year, so that it can see whether it is admitting a more representative group of students and graduating them at the same standard.
The redesign should also be tested before it is adopted in full. The program could pilot holistic admission with one cohort while tracking the same outcomes for students admitted under the old method, and introduce the evening cohort as a small trial with dedicated advising. Faculty who teach the evening cohort should receive the same support and preparation as those on weekdays, since part-time faculty are often assigned to evening sections without it. Advisory board members from local hospitals can help evaluate whether graduates from the redesigned pathways perform as well in their first year of practice, which is the ultimate test of whether access and standards have been balanced.
Conclusion
A nursing curriculum should express the mission of the institution it belongs to. For a community college committed to open, affordable access and to serving its county, a program that admits by grade point average alone, teaches only on weekdays and dismisses after one failure is out of step with that mission, even if its pass rates are strong. Redesigning admission, support, progression, scheduling and articulation can bring the curriculum into line with the college's purpose without lowering the standards licensure requires. Aligning curriculum with mission is not a matter of wording in a handbook; it is visible in who is admitted, who is supported and who graduates.
References
Halstead, J. A. (Ed.). (2019). NLN core competencies for nurse educators: A decade of influence. Wolters Kluwer.
Jung, D., Latham, C., Fortes, K., & Schwartz, M. (2021). Using holistic admissions in pre-licensure programs to diversify the nursing workforce. Journal of Professional Nursing, 37(2), 359-365. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2020.04.006
Keating, S. B., & DeBoor, S. S. (Eds.). (2018). Curriculum development and evaluation in nursing education (4th ed.). Springer Publishing.
How this N 584 Module 1 example is structured
Aspen does not publish N584 module prompts, so check your classroom for the exact instructions. This example describes a misaligned program, explains why the parent institution's mission shapes curriculum, identifies four departures from the mission, proposes five redesign levers with evidence, pairs access with safeguards for standards, and concludes.
N584 Module 1 questions, answered
What does N584 Module 1 usually ask for?
Aspen's N584 description includes analyzing the relationship of nursing curriculum to the parent institution's mission and philosophy, so an opening paper on that relationship for a real or composite program is a typical first assignment. Check your classroom for the exact prompt.
Why does the parent institution's mission matter to a nursing curriculum?
Because the mission shapes admissions, resources, policies and support, and accreditors expect the program's mission and outcomes to be congruent with those of the institution.
What is holistic admission?
An admission process that considers applicants' experiences, attributes and potential contributions alongside academic metrics, usually with a minimum academic threshold, to build a class that reflects the program's mission.
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