Creating a contemporary caring and nursing science curriculum with a lens toward global health: Challenges and Opportunities in the 21st Century and beyond.

Introduction
Contemporary nursing in the US took shape as a discipline in the 1970s and 1980s. A recent shift to competency-based education, whereby students are held accountable to the mastery of competencies deemed critical for nursing occurred. Nursing education for the 21st century incorporates contemporary trends and values to prepare students to shape the future workforce. These trends include 1) diversity, equity, and inclusion; 2) four spheres of care; 3) systems-based practice; 4) informatics/technology; 5) academic-practice partnerships; and 6) career-long learning. Shifting U.S. population demographics, health workforce shortages, and health inequities necessitate the preparation of nurses able to address these trends. Demands on nursing curricula towards a global workforce may prepare graduates who contribute to the improvement of access and care quality for all.
Goals
As part of a major curriculum revision in a baccalaureate nursing degree program in the US, faculty were charged to develop a curriculum to meet the healthcare challenges of the new century. By incorporating AACN Essentials Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education (2021), creating opportunities for active discussion/feedback from practice partners and local community, expert nurse consultants, student recommendations, faculty buy in, and health data trends, a Caring Science and Concept-Based Curriculum was created and implemented in fall 2020.
Results
The ability to gather data from multiple key stakeholders, expert nurse consultation, and national guidelines proved to be beneficial. Student and faculty feedback led to the development of a service-learning course, elective courses, shift from public health to global/population health, and a capstone course to synthesize prior learning of concepts to meet competencies resulted.
Conclusions
Students embraced learning through active engagement, service-learning opportunities and a competency-based curriculum; blending caring and science despite challenges with faculty buy-in. Students were proficiency in providing compassionate care in acute and community settings while focused on lifelong learning upon graduation.