Difference of integrated and block curriculum

zoe92 · Sep 4, 2012

I hope this can answer what you are trying to ask: integrated means the class has a mix while block means time is specifically spent on one format. Confusing? Here is the example for integrated vs. block at my school. My A&P class is integrated. The teacher chooses how long lecture will be and how long lab will be. Class is 3 hours, so she can choose which we do first, how much time we spend on it etc. My chemistry class was block. So for 3 hours a week we had specific time for chemistry lecture. Then, once a week we showed up to a different classroom, possibly another instructor, and worked ONLY on chem lab stuff. I hope this is helpful.

Stephalump · Sep 4, 2012

Block: Each area of nursing is broken up into separate courses. You'll take a medical/surgical class, a maternal class, a mental health class, a nursing fundamentals class, and so on and so forth. You learn all about one thing and move on.

In an integrated program everything is combined and broken up into concepts instead.

My program is integrated and the best way to explain it is by imagining a patient. In our first semester, our patient is well. We focus on basic nursing concepts and assessment, health promotion and disease prevention, and what constitutes "normal.". In second semester, the patient is a little ill, but nothing life threatening. Third semester the patient would probably be hospitalized, and the fourth semester the patient would be critically ill. One semester builds on the next, and we study mental health, maternal, peds, and med Surg EVERY semester.

nanicy123 · Sep 5, 2012

Thank you for giving me simple examples to understand :)

katpickard · Feb 8, 2017

Because most community college ADN programs only allow a student to fail and then retake one class for the entirety of the program, it is much easier to fail out of a block curriculum since it has more classes to fail. Before choosing a program, ask about the student retention rate and the rate of students that pass the NCLEX. My community college system offers both styles. But the retention rate in the integrated programs is better. The NCLEX pass rate is only slightly better in the block curriculum. An example is the block curriculum I was in had only 10-12 students graduate on time out of the 50 that started.

Apple-Core, ASN, BSN, RN · Feb 8, 2017

Very interesting! I know that the college I hope to be accepted into has "nursing blocks" but I didn't realize that thst defined a teaching style! I thought it just meant a set length of classes. Huh.... think I'll contact the college and get some more info on this! Thanks for asking the question... it's something I haven't even considered before now!!