The Construction Of Professional Curriculum Resources Sharing System For Nursing Postgraduates―an Action Research

AimsThe specific aims of this study were to understand the situation of resources scarcityand waste in nursing postgraduates'professional curriculum and its reasons; to find out thepostgraduates'satisfaction to their professional curriculum resourcesï¼›to seek the pathwayto solve the problems of professional curriculum resources scarcity and waste; to explorean effective model of professional curriculum resources sharing and its operationmechanismï¼›to implement the model and solve the problems rising during implementation;to evaluate the operating efficiency of the modelï¼›to explore the effects of the model forsolving the resources scarcity problem of professional curriculum.MethodsAn action research approach which included5stages was applied in this study. In thefirst stage the problem of resources scarcity and waste in nursing postgraduates'professional curriculum was raised from the educational practice of nursing postgraduates.Using theoretical research method, the researcher defined the core concepts of this study;In the second stage, literature review and investigation were conducted to confirm thebreadth of the problem, analyse the reasons of the problem and possible way to solve theproblem. Through this process of research, the researcher pointed out that the best way tosolve problem is resources sharingï¼›In the third stage, the researcher used educationeconomics and education equality theories to explain why resource sharing is the best wayto solve the problem. And through the research on educational resources sharing theory andpractice, the researcher raised a construction plan of nursing postgraduats'professionalcurriculum resources sharing systemï¼›In the forth stage, three nursing schools in Shanghaiarea were chosen to form the resources sharing system, and expert meeting method wereused to discuss and solve the problem during system construction. After that, a two yearssystem operation was conducted, and observation, interview methods were used to collectthe information and find the problems, reflection and expert meeting were used to analysisand solve the problems; In the fifth stage, students interview and meeting records analysiswere used to find the effects of the operation of the system. Participants in the study covered the postgraduate education directors and postgraduate affair managers of eachschool, the teachers of each sharing curriculum and those pastgraduates who attended thesharing curriculum. Data were collected by observation, interview, investigation, expertmeeting and literatures review.ResultsScarcity and waste of nursing postgraduates' professional curriculum resources is acommon phenomenon. Resources scarcity means small quantity, low quality and can't meetthe graduate student's learning needs; Waste of resources means that the number of thestudents taking the course is small, even can't reach the minimum class scale. The reasonsof this phenomenon are that the nursing postgraduate education in China is still at thebeginning stage, the nursing discipline is weak; the quantity of teachers is insufficient; thediscipline investment is insufficient; and recruit students number is small. At the same time,as the training objectives of nursing postgraduates are still unclear, there is no standardprofessional curriculum system to direct the schools to develope their curriculum.As the fundamental reasons can't remove quickly, education resource sharing is themost effective way to solve the problem. High quality professional curriculum resourcessharing can increase the supply of curriculum for nursing postgraducates, and as the recruitstudent number increased, the efficiency of the resources also improved.In the process of education resources sharing, resources complementary, competitionand cost factors are the main factors to influence resources sharing. The relationshipbetween participating institutions is whether cooperation or collaboration can also affectthe degree of the sharing. A"consortium" model which is often used in American is helpfulto build a collaboration relationship. In addition, credit transfer also has referencesignificance for curriculum resources sharing.Under the work of action group, three universities in Shanghai signed an agreement toestablish the nursing postgraduates' professional curriculum resources sharing system. Amanagement committee and a management office were built. The former is responsible fordecision-making, the latter is responsible for the operation management. Through systemoperation, the researcher solved the problems such as shared course selection criteria,selection method, sharing document system establishing, information transmission, creditauthentication, network platform construction, teaching management and so on. A sharedcourse system which includes five high quality courses was formed. A set of sharing system management regulation was built. The researcher also summarized the keyfactors of the formation of the sharing system, which provided beneficial experiences forother schools.So far, sharing system has already operated for three years.180postgraduates tooksharing courses of other schools. The postgraduates valued the model very much, theythink that they not only learned knowledge for the courses, but also found the differencesbetween schools, teachers and students. The sharing system also provided them theopportunity to knew each other and help them to sharing other information on research andlearning. The study also found that, sharing also brought development to the courses,teachers and the nursing discipline.ConclusionConstruction of nursing postgraduates' professional curriculum resources sharingsystem is an efficient way to solve the problem of resources scarcity and waste. The systemcan provide more high quality courses for the students, and helps to realize the qualitativeequality in regional nursing postgraduate education. It can promote the teachers teachinglevel, improve the course construction level and ultimately affect the overall constructionof nursing discipline. The system also helps to integrate regional resources, develop newcourses. The close collaboration between the participating schools will also drive and leadthe postgraduate education reform in this region, and will have great impact on nursinghigher education in China. The operation of the system will last for a long period. With thedevelopment of the system, further problems such as incentive mechanism construction,related policies and legal issues, sharing culture construction, operation of networkplatform all need the researcher group to continue their study.