The purpose of this study was to determine appropriate content objectives for a human anatomy and physiology course for associate degree nursing students. To accomplish the purpose,of the study, it was necessary to achieve the following goals: 1. Starting with an initial set of objectives for a course in human-anatomy and physiology for associate degree nursing students, obtain the opinions of three groups of nurse educators in regard to the importance value of each objective. 2. Rank order the objectives according to mean value of importance, based on the ratings given by each group of nurse educators. 3. Determine the extent of agreement of ranking across the three groups of nurse educators. 4. Use the mean ratings of the objectives produced by the three groups of nurse educators to make recommendations concerning the selection of objectives for a course in human anatomy and physiology for associate degree nursing students. / Ed. D.

Nurse educators make decisions regarding the inclusion or exclusion of non-nursing courses in a curriculum. The current literature lacks research regarding which courses have the most impact on first-time nursing licensing examination pass-rates. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to investigate if there is a specific combination of courses that enhance first-time licensing examination pass-rates, using 161 randomly selected accredited associate degree nursing programs. General systems theory applied to nursing education was the framework for the study. ANOVA and independent t-tests were used to address the questions of non-nursing courses or discipline-specific set of non-nursing courses' impact on first-time licensure pass-rates. The ANOVA and independent t-tests analyses did not yield any significant non-nursing courses or discipline-specific sets of non-nursing courses. The findings indicate that non-nursing courses are not a significant subsystem in nursing education when the sole outcome used is NCLEX-RN pass-rates. Nursing faculty can use the results of this study as evidence that the inclusion or exclusion of one non-nursing course over another will likely not be detrimental to their program. This study can lead to positive social change through increasing the evidence-based knowledge from which faculty can base their curriculum.