NURS 619 Week 4 Curriculum Plan Part II: Program Learning Outcomes and Competency Statements Example

Reviewed by Rachel Stanton, MSN, RN · Liberty University · Updated

This NURS 619 Week 4 example is a complete Part II of a curriculum plan, writing five end-of-program learning outcomes and five competency statements for the composite Cedar Hill Christian College BSN program, each traced to the mission and philosophy from Part I and mapped to domains of the 2021 AACN Essentials. Liberty University NURS 619 assigns Part II in Module/Week 4 for 100 points, the week of the first practicum log, as MSN nurse educator students return to Billings and Halstead on curriculum outcomes; the section adds to the plan that will reach seven to ten pages when complete. The sample explains the difference between an outcome and a competency, shows how each was written to be measurable, and draws on 2026 accounts of backward design and tiered competency assessment.

CourseNURS 619 Nurse Educator III: Curriculum Development (NURS619)
Module/Week4
AssignmentCurriculum Plan Part II: Program Learning Outcomes and Competency Statements
Paper typeCurriculum plan part (program outcomes and competencies)
Lengthabout 768 words, 3 double-spaced pages plus title page and references. Course guide: the second section of the curriculum plan, giving five end-of-program learning outcomes and five competency statements for the identified school, with recent peer-reviewed support
FormatAPA 7 student paper
Points100
SchoolLiberty University Online
ProgramMSN
Where it sitsModule/Week 4 in Liberty's published NURS 619 course guide; current sections can differ
UpdatedOctober 2026

Free sample paper for NURS 619 Week 4

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Curriculum Plan Part II: Five Program Learning Outcomes and Five Competency Statements Traced to the Mission and the AACN Essentials

 

[Student Name]

School of Nursing, Liberty University

NURS 619: Nurse Educator III: Curriculum Development

Curriculum Plan: Part II

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

 

Cedar Hill Christian College is a composite school continued from Part I; write outcomes for the school your course asks you to identify.

Why this part earns its pointsThe title states exactly what Part II contains and how it is aligned, which tells the reviewer the section builds on Part I and on the Essentials.
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Curriculum Plan Part II: Five Program Learning Outcomes and Five Competency Statements Traced to the Mission and the AACN Essentials

Outcomes and Competencies: The Distinction

Billings and Halstead (2016) describe program outcomes as statements of what graduates are expected to achieve, written so that they can be assessed and used to guide every level of the curriculum. Competency statements are narrower: they describe specific, observable performances that show an outcome has been met. In this plan, each competency is linked to one outcome, so that faculty know exactly what evidence will demonstrate it.

How the Outcomes Were Written

The outcomes were written using backward design, beginning with the end of the program. Weltin and Crawford (2026) described a college of nursing that redesigned its graduate practice programs this way, defining outcomes first, identifying the knowledge required, and then organizing concepts into a scaffolded curriculum, a process that faculty strongly supported as a way to implement competency-based education. The Cedar Hill faculty followed the same sequence: they asked what a graduate serving rural communities must be able to do on the first day of practice, wrote those abilities as outcomes, and only then began to plan courses, resisting the temptation to start from the courses they already knew how to teach.

Program Learning Outcomes

Program learning outcomeMission or philosophy elementAACN Essentials domain
1. Use clinical judgment grounded in nursing science to provide safe, person-centered care to adults and families across the lifespan.Safe, evidence-based careDomain 2, Person-Centered Care
2. Promote the health of rural populations by addressing social determinants and access to care in partnership with communities.Rural communitiesDomain 3, Population Health
3. Apply quality improvement and safety principles to reduce risk to patients and staff.Safe careDomain 5, Quality and Safety
4. Collaborate with interprofessional teams and use health information technology to coordinate care.Evidence-based careDomains 6 and 8
5. Demonstrate professional, ethical and spiritually informed practice that respects the dignity of every person.Faith integration and dignityDomain 9, Professionalism

Each outcome names one thing a graduate will do, and each can be traced back to a phrase in the mission, so no outcome exists without a reason.

Competency Statements

Each competency statement describes an observable performance that will serve as evidence for one outcome.

  • Competency 1, for Outcome 1: Given an assigned patient in clinical practice, the student prioritizes care using assessment data and explains the rationale, with no unsafe actions, as rated on the program's clinical judgment rubric.
  • Competency 2, for Outcome 2: The student completes a community assessment of a rural county, identifies two social determinants affecting health, and proposes one partnership-based intervention judged feasible by the community partner.
  • Competency 3, for Outcome 3: The student identifies a safety risk on a clinical unit, analyzes its causes with a structured tool, and proposes an evidence-based improvement presented to unit staff.
  • Competency 4, for Outcome 4: In simulation and clinical practice, the student communicates patient information to an interprofessional team member using SBAR and documents care accurately in the electronic health record.
  • Competency 5, for Outcome 5: The student assesses a patient's spiritual needs using a recognized tool, responds respectfully regardless of the patient's beliefs, and reflects in writing on an ethical dilemma encountered in practice.
Why this part earns its pointsEvery competency includes an observable action, a context and a standard of judgment, which is what distinguishes it from a restated outcome.
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How the Outcomes Will Be Assessed

Competency-based outcomes require assessments built for them. A doctoral nurse practitioner program described by Chitwood et al. (2026) arranged its assessments in tiers, each tier aimed at an end-of-program competency the Essentials require, so that every assignment had a defined place in the climb toward that outcome. Sak et al. (2026) described clinical checkpoints, mapped to the Essentials and assessed with validated formative and summative tools, that gave faculty consistency and clarity in an accelerated BSN population health practicum. Following their example, each Cedar Hill competency will be assessed at checkpoints in the second, third and fourth years, with the final checkpoint in the capstone confirming that the outcome has been met.

Leveling the Outcomes Across the Program

An end-of-program outcome describes the graduate, but students reach it in stages. For that reason, each outcome will be written at three levels in Part III: an introductory level in the second year, a developing level in the third year and a mastery level in the fourth. Outcome 1, for example, begins as prioritizing care for one stable adult patient with guidance, develops into prioritizing care for two or three patients with changing conditions, and reaches mastery when the student manages a full assignment with the independence expected of a new graduate. Leveling keeps the outcomes honest: a sophomore cannot be expected to meet the same standard as a senior, but each level must clearly lead to the next. It also helps clinical faculty and preceptors, who will know which level of performance to expect from the student in front of them, and it gives students a visible path from where they are to where the program expects them to finish. The concept-mapping approach adopted in the Part I philosophy will be used to draw these leveled paths for every outcome.

Why this part earns its pointsLeveling each outcome across the program shows how the end-of-program statements will become course-level expectations, which prepares the ground for Part III.
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Continuity With Part I and Part III

The outcomes carry the mission's commitments forward: rural service appears in Outcome 2, safety in Outcomes 1 and 3, and faith integration in Outcome 5. In Part III, the curriculum design will show where each outcome is introduced, reinforced and mastered across the four years. Proverbs 16:3 counsels, "Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established" (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016), and the faculty's hope is that outcomes written with care will establish a curriculum that serves students and the rural communities they will join.

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References

Billings, D. M., & Halstead, J. A. (2016). Teaching in nursing: A guide for faculty (5th ed.). Elsevier.

Chitwood, H. R., Hampton, D., Falls, C., Ewen, J. Z., Scott, L., Tovar, E., Stith, H., Makowski, A., Grubbs, A. B., Clemmons, J. M., & Melander, S. D. (2026). Model for structuring competency-based education assessments for nurse practitioner students in a Doctor of Nursing Practice program. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1097/JXX.0000000000001342

English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)

Sak, H., Davis, R., Harty, A., Luksan, M., Jessen, J., & Genua, J. A. (2026). Advancing competency-based education in nursing: Faculty-driven innovation for transforming population health. Journal of Professional Nursing, 66, 28-35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2026.05.018

Weltin, A., & Crawford, D. J. (2026). Using backward design to create a new graduate nursing curriculum. Journal of Professional Nursing, 66, 104-107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2026.06.003

What the NURS 619 Week 4 instructions ask

Part II of the NURS 619 Curriculum Plan asks for five end-of-program Program Learning Outcomes and five competency statements for the school of nursing identified in Part I. Students submit the section in Module/Week 4, the same week as the first practicum log, when the reading returns to Billings and Halstead's chapter on curriculum design and outcomes. Because each part builds on the last, the outcomes should follow visibly from the mission and philosophy, and they will in turn shape the curriculum design in Part III and the syllabus in Part IV. Most programs now align outcomes with the 2021 AACN Essentials, so showing that alignment strengthens the section.

How this NURS 619 Week 4 example is built

The part opens by distinguishing the two required elements: program learning outcomes name the abilities a graduate carries out of the program, while competency statements describe observable performances that show an outcome has been achieved. The five outcomes are presented in a table with the mission element and Essentials domain each addresses. The five competency statements follow, each tied to one outcome and written as an observable behavior with a standard. A short section explains how the outcomes were written using backward design and how they will be assessed. Recent reports of competency-based redesign support the approach.

NURS 619 Week 4 grading rubric: where the points go

Part II is commonly graded on outcomes that are measurable, appropriate to the end of a baccalaureate program and consistent with the mission and philosophy; competency statements that are observable and clearly linked to the outcomes; alignment with professional standards such as the AACN Essentials; continuity with Part I; scholarly support; and APA style. Graders check verbs first, since outcomes written with "understand" or "appreciate" cannot be measured. They also look for a clear relationship between outcomes and competencies rather than two unrelated lists. Explaining how outcomes will be assessed shows that the plan is ready for the design work in Part III, where each outcome must find a home in specific courses.

NURS 619 Week 4 help: mistakes that cost points

Common problems in Part II are outcomes that describe what faculty will teach rather than what graduates will do, verbs that cannot be measured, and competency statements that simply repeat the outcomes in other words. Some students write ten outcomes when five are required, or outcomes that could belong to any program. Others forget to connect outcomes to the mission or to the Essentials. Start from the mission and philosophy, write each outcome with one measurable verb at the level of a graduating nurse, write each competency as a specific observable performance with a standard and a setting, show the alignment in a table, and cite recent work on competency-based design, then read each outcome aloud to check that it describes a graduate rather than a course.

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NURS 619 Week 4 questions, answered

What is NURS 619 Curriculum Plan Part II?

The second section of the curriculum plan, worth 100 points in Module/Week 4, in which students write five end-of-program learning outcomes and five competency statements for their identified school of nursing.

Where can I find a free NURS 619 Week 4 sample paper?

The NURS 619 Week 4 Part II with five program outcomes, five competency statements and the alignment table, plus references, is shown here free of charge.

What is the difference between a program outcome and a competency?

A program outcome names an ability every graduate must have on leaving the program, while a competency statement describes an observable performance, with a standard, that shows the outcome has been achieved.

How do you write measurable program learning outcomes in nursing?

Use one action verb that can be observed or measured, describe the performance at the level expected of a graduating nurse, and connect it to the program's mission and professional standards.

What are the AACN Essentials domains?

The 2021 Essentials sort professional nursing education into ten domains, ranging from the knowledge base of practice and care centered on the person to population health, safety and quality, informatics and professionalism.

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