Responding to demands to change nursing education: use of curriculum mapping to assess curricular content.

Nurse educators are endeavoring to assess and revise their undergraduate curriculum for a variety of reasons. Legislation passed in California mandates that universities must offer more seamless associate degree-to-baccalaureate of science in nursing degree programs and must ensure that course content in their programs is not redundant across program types. A nursing education consortium, including a university, two community colleges, and four hospital partners, formed a working group to assess all undergraduate curricula. This working group included faculty from all three academic institutions and nurse educators from area service provider partners. This article describes the use of curriculum mapping using a tool formed based on the American Association of Colleges of Nursing's Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice to assess the three curricula and the outcomes and implications of the assessment. Copyright 2011, SLACK Incorporated.