Contextual factors can be defined as any situations, forces or circumstances that may exist within or outside a nursing school and has to probability of influencing the school and the different programs. These factors are divided into two group’s internal and external factors. The internal contextual factors are those that originate within the institution such as history, philosophy, culture, finance, programs, and the schools infrastructure. External contextual factors are those that originate outside the school and have the ability to affect the curriculum.
Some factors are demographic, professional standards and trends, social-politico economic, health care and culture. (Iwasiw, Goldenberg, & Andrusyszyn, 2009). One of the contextual factors that influence a curriculum is finance. As to be expected in schools with curriculum development, when there is a lack of resources it becomes a major concerns to all stakeholders. the development of curriculum may possibly be affected by financial resources than any other contextual factors((Iwasiw, et al. , 2009).
Those planning and designing the program has to have knowledge of how much money the school has and the cost of running the school and how much has to be allocated and to where.
One has to look at other resources such as technology, staffs, books and space (Fostett, n. d). The development of any new program has to be financed from existing available resource, therefore before a new curriculum can be devised or for the revision of previous curriculum the committee has to look at what and how much it is going to cost for this to be implemented successfully.
It would be better for the committee to know in advance if and to what extent can the curriculum be revised, than to start only to find out midway or at the end that it cannot be completed due to lack of financial resources(Iwasiw, et al. , 2009). Another very important and crucial factor that can have major influence on the development of curriculum is the infrastructure; this refers to the many essentials that form the makeup of the nursing school and educational institution.
Human resources are a major category that falls under this area. The faculties which make up part of the human resources and, a vital part of the infrastructure are a key to the curriculum development and for successful implementation(Iwasiw, et al. , 2009). It is essential that this process be managed by faculty, because they share a major responsibility in teaching students and their learning so greatly depend on the quality of the curriculum (Wolf, Hughes & Baron-Nixon, 2007).
All the different members that make up the faculty should be considered, whether they are clinicians, preceptors, guest speakers or support staffs, because of their involvement, perspectives and contributions that they may have regarding curriculum development. These staffs are essential, because they aid in the smooth day to day function of the school and the program. Students are vital because without them there would be no need for a nursing school and thus no curriculum.
The physical resources must also be considered, because the space for classroom, technological aids, and library resources must be sufficient so that the needs of the students are matched with the curriculum (Iwasiw, et al. , 2009). Prior to the revision, or development of any curriculum, the curriculum developers must carefully consider several factors in order to have a successful outcome.
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