Accreditation Journey Issue - April 2024

Thinking about assessment at the Universidad del Norte nursing program before ACEN could be like the traditional process: an exam, a grade, and whether the student passes or not.

The nursing program of the Universidad del Norte has 49 years of existence and is located in the Colombian Caribbean region, specifically in Puerto Colombia. It is integrated into the organization chart of the Health Sciences Division, as a Department and grants the title of NURSE (A). It is an academic program of 8 semesters, which has 164 credits in its curriculum. It currently has 207 students and more than 1500 graduates.

Its mission is the integral formation of nurses characterized by exercising quality care, based on ethical values and scientific principles. This comprehensive training is supported by a curriculum that promotes a humanized education, with a high sense of professional and social responsibility, as well as the encouragement of student participation in extension and research activities that complement their training and allow them to pursue graduate studies.

As a nursing program, we have lived a very enriching experience in the process of transforming our way of assessing, which allowed us to achieve the accredited status and keeps us in continuous improvement and maintenance of this condition. It has been a demanding journey, which undoubtedly has allowed us as a program to objectify our promise of value in terms of the graduate profile, which has been transformed and refined to what is defined today with six learning outcomes:

1. To structure health promotion and disease prevention plans from a social approach, in accordance with public policies.
2. To provide integral and humane nursing care according to the health-disease process and the evolutionary cycle.
3. Communicate in a clear and professional manner in the different contexts of health care.
4. Manage knowledge for the development of their professional life, in a self-regulated manner.
5. Manage nursing care, taking into account health policies and national and international regulations in force.
6. Demonstrate a professional conduct that considers the disciplinary regulations and the differential approach.

Achieving the attainment of each learning outcome is a great commitment. Aware of this, Universidad del Norte through the Quality and Academic Projects Office (DCPA) with the support of the Center for Teaching Excellence (CEDU), has embraced and implemented the strategy of Institutional Assessment and Monitoring of Learning (VISA), with the nursing program being a pioneer in the appropriation of this.

The VISA strategy has made it possible to align each learning outcome through a curriculum map that makes visible the relationship of each subject with each outcome, marking specific moments in the curriculum that allow to activate, strengthen, and achieve each outcome. This led to the creation to a system of assessment and monitoring of learning structured in seven phases: alignment of program objectives with the institutional mission, definition/revision of the graduate profile of the nursing program, curriculum mapping, design of assessment instruments for expected learning outcomes (ELOs), expected learning outcomes constructive alignment, expected learning outcomes assessment and feedback on the curriculum.

The above is a general overview, however, it is necessary to sharpen the focus to achieve each learning outcome. A commitment from each subject is required, reflected in how it will be evaluated and considering the teaching-learning activities required for this purpose. The need to evidence the achievement of each learning outcome from the subjects has led us to be more objective and standardized in our evaluation processes, develop rubrics, checklists, skills cards, among others. Hence, the correct and frequent functioning of different committees, such as curriculum, evaluation, among others, has become a part of our culture as a program.

There is no discussion that these processes would not be worthwhile without our main beneficiaries, the students, who have actively participated in all these processes, expressing their opinions and issuing suggestions. Also, our trajectory with ACEN has allowed us to empower our students, being participants in these quality processes, has led us to generate mechanisms that demonstrate this, such as the procedure for requests, complaints, and claims created specifically within the framework of accreditation with ACEN.

The impact of the achievement of learning outcomes has a transversal impact on different processes, in our case we have shown positive influence on the results of the Colombia state test, Saber Pro, which all higher education students take after completing 75% of their curriculum, and its presentation is a requirement to achieve their degree as professionals.

ACEN's requirements with its Standards and Criteria make the nursing programs maintain a culture of quality in their processes, considering the necessary and non-negotiable resources to train competent professionals worldwide.