Nurse Educator Tips for Teaching

Clinical judgment is a cornerstone of safe, effective nursing practice and a critical competency for prelicensure nursing students. Despite its importance, there remains a significant gap in how clinical judgment is assessed in real-world clinical settings. In this podcast, the authors (Drs. Lisa Jacobs, Michelle Bussard, Emily Niedzwiecki, and Kathie Lasater) discuss their research involving the use of the Lasater Clinical Judgment Rubric to assess clinical judgment development in a prelicensure nursing program. Their article is OPEN ACCESS: read and share widely.

Nurses consistently encounter uncertainty in clinical practice, which impacts decision-making. Uncertainty can lead to self-doubt and inaction, particularly in students and novice nurses. In this podcast, Drs. Wendy Greenwood, Allison Pittman, Chelsea Rosen, and Susan McKee present teaching strategies to improve students' tolerance for uncertainty and their decision-making confidence. These strategies incorporate interactive, color-coded clinical scenarios for students to demonstrate clinical reasoning in the face of uncertainty. Learn more about these innovations for your teaching in their article.

When talking to students and faculty as part of a new student success initiative, self-care and time management were identified as 2 pressing concerns. Dr. Brittany Nettles shares a strategy she developed for students to create a personalized time management system that allows time for their self-care.

Effective artificial intelligence (AI) prompting is essential for students to use AI to enhance critical thinking and clinical decision-making skills. Dr. Zeigler shares a framework she and a colleague developed for effective prompting: the CARE (Context, Action, Role, Expectation) Prompt Engineering Framework. The CARE framework provides a systematic outline for nurse educators to use in teaching students clinical decision-making skills and to ensure that effective AI prompts are used.

Dr. Nadine Wodwaski discusses how she scaffolded emotional intelligence throughout the curriculum in a traditional undergraduate program. This strategy prepares students to navigate difficult conversations throughout their professional careers.  Learn more in her article.

Dr. Abby Gramlick-Mueller and Mrs. Casey Olson describe the Academy of Clinical Essentials (ACE) model, an innovative academic-practice partnership. The ACE model includes structured immersion and pairing student cohorts with RN clinical instructors to provide direct patient care. ACE students report higher satisfaction and perceived support than traditional students. The model and its outcomes are described in their article.

Virtual simulation enables NP students to use critical thinking, clinical reasoning, and problem-solving to manage complex problems in diverse populations. This podcast with Drs. Camp and Knight and article describe use of an unfolding case study in which learners make decisions about care based on evolving data. Learners develop competencies by making the best or correct decisions at strategic points, as well as by making incorrect ones.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can act as a virtual nursing preceptor, providing students with a safe place to practice thinking like a nurse practitioner (NP) before working with real patients. It can present realistic patient scenarios and ask guiding questions, such as which information is most important, which possible diagnoses are most likely, and what is the best plan of care. As students make decisions, the AI can give immediate feedback—pointing out strengths, gaps, and more evidence-based options. This podcast and article discuss how AI is used as a tool to complement actual human interaction to prepare NP students for practice.

High attrition rates in Health and Illness and Pharmacology courses led the authors to develop a mid-curricular summer bridge program for students to develop their self-regulated learning (SRL) and to reduce attrition in these courses. Dr. Avallone and Samantha Tucker in this podcast and article describe their Bridge Program and its effectiveness: students developed their SRL skills, and the Bridge Program significantly reduced attrition rates.

The first day of clinical practice can be an anxiety-provoking experience for students. Nursing faculty can be proactive in reducing anxiety by engaging them in a role-play scenario about what to expect during clinical. Role-play is a proven teaching strategy that helps students learn in a safe environment under faculty guidance and with well-defined boundaries. Dr. Sonique Sailsman discusses this role play in the podcast and teaching tip.

Novice students struggle to apply complex concepts to patient care. The Gallery Walk is a strategy that engages students, promotes critical thinking and clinical reasoning, and helps students prioritize in patient care. In this podcast and article, Kathleen McAdory presents the Gallery Walk that is used with novice students but can be used conceptually in any teaching context.

In this podcast with Dr. Morgan Yordy, you will learn about her 2-hour elective course, titled Animal Assisted Therapy, that explores the human-animal bond, the roles of animals in communities, and their impact on health and wellness. The course is open to all majors and is especially popular among pre-health care students. One assignment of students is a field trip to a local farm, which provides equine programming for children with physical, emotional, and psychological needs.

Climate and planetary health shape the environments in which people live and, therefore, are central to nursing's mission to protect health and reduce inequities. Climate change drives heat-related illness, extreme weather, poor air quality, shifting infectious diseases, and food and water insecurity—all of which increase disease burden and disproportionately harm vulnerable populations. Nurses are often the first and most trusted professionals to encounter these impacts, but they frequently lack formal preparation in this area. In this podcast and article, Dr. Heide Cygan discusses the need for faculty development on climate and planetary health to thread these areas into the curriculum to prepare graduates to care holistically of patients.

Neurodiversity is an umbrella term that describes a wide range of variation in cognition, learning, and behaviors. In this podcast and article, Drs. Cummings and Serembus share inclusive and engaging teaching strategies for neurodivergent students. The strategies incorporate principles of Universal Design for Learning, support social-emotional learning, and provide a sensory-friendly environment that improves learning outcomes of all students.

NurseKind AI (nursekindai.com) transcribes and analyzes real audio recordings of nursing student interactions and gives scored feedback on empathy, therapeutic communication, and clinical judgment in about 90 seconds. Simulation tools cover clinical knowledge through text-based scenarios. NurseKind AI covers the other side: how students actually talk to patients, whether they listen, and whether empathy comes through in the conversation. Built by a psychiatric nurse practitioner and nursing faculty member, NurseKind AI is a solution for programs dealing with faculty shortages and limited assessment time. A free pilot is available, up to 100 assessments, with no commitment. You can contact the developer at hi@nursekindai.com.  

Dr. Sotos Djiovanis and Donna Ramos developed a series of AI-assisted formative assignments for in-class group learning in a health assessment course, guided by Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences. The goal was to develop learners' knowledge of course material and learn best practices for using AI generators to create study aids. The in-class work focused on written, pictorial, and video AI-generated content in different weeks. Groups were assigned different topical objectives to develop study aids for. In their article they explain how they integrated the Multiple Intelligences theory into the group work. The interactive Padlet™ collaborative system was used for groups to share and interact in class.

The educational experiences of current nursing students, shaped by unprecedented access to advanced technologies, have made face-to-face communication and therapeutic relationship-building more challenging. Drs. Nelson and Serratt describe their qualitative study on the effectiveness, usability, and trustworthiness of a generative AI tool in helping nursing students improve communication in emotionally intense situations. The study demonstrated AI's potential to support therapeutic communication practices as long as there is faculty training and oversight to maximize pedagogical value.

Dr. Cassie Moffitt created a private Instagram account where students can anonymously ask clarifying questions related to class content. Since most students already use Instagram, the platform was an accessible choice. Each day, the faculty member posts a story with a question box. Students submit questions anonymously, which are answered in the order received through follow-up stories. To ensure continued access, responses are saved as permanent reels. Dr. Moffitt provides other examples of the strategy in her article.  

Ethical principles are difficult concepts for students to grasp. In this episode and article, Dr. Valerie Wright discusses an innovative strategy she developed using art as a means to engage students and promote active learning in a leadership course. 

The focus on self-care and self-advocacy in nursing is particularly significant for students in advanced practice nursing (APN) programs given the high rates of burnout among APNs. Drs. Davis, Lysaght, and Mullins designed and implemented coursework to prepare graduate nursing students in their APN program for the demands of clinical practice. One of their assignments used a 2-part interactive case study to explore self-care and personal well-being of an APN working in a busy primary care setting. The case study was designed to reflect real-world challenges faced by APNs to encourage students to critically assess workplace stressors and recognize the significance of self-advocacy in sustaining a fulfilling professional career. Learn more about the case study in their article.

Compassionate care is essential for positive patient outcomes and nurse well-being. Current models are largely practice-focused and not integrated into a nursing curriculum. Thus, new nurses are often unprepared to deliver compassionate care. In this podcast and article, Dr. Lori Brodie discusses a strategy to nurture compassion as a professional identity.

Dr. Kelly Pruden shares her innovative "Build Your Dream Unit – Nurse Recruitment Challenge," where students design an innovative clinical unit and then compete to recruit peers to work there. In this activity, small groups design a specialty unit (eg, ICU, Labor & Delivery, Medical-Surgical) incorporating evidence-based principles of healthy work environments, nurse well-being, and recruitment strategies. Dr. Pruden believes nursing students deserve to practice leadership long before they inherit it on the job.

The Know, Want, Learn, Apply, and Question (KWLA+Q) strategy is an effective tool for fostering student engagement in online discussion threads. KWLA+Q not only enhances student participation and collaborative learning but also supports faculty in creating a responsive and dynamic online learning environment. Drs. Pascucci and Michaels describe the strategy and give examples of its use in online discussions. They provide more detail in their article.

Unconscious bias refers to attitudes and beliefs about certain people or groups of people that affect understanding, decisions, and actions. Early-semester nursing students are perfectly positioned to learn about unconscious bias and strategies to mitigate it. In the podcast and article, Dr. Natasha Morris shares a simple exercise she developed for students to highlight these biases. During a post-clinical conference, students are presented with a scenario where the world is ending, and a shelter can accommodate only 7 individuals to survive. After students make their selections, they critically examine their decision-making processes.

Dr. Deborah Sikes describes the Veteran to BSN Pathway initiative designed to help military veterans transition into professional nursing through a BSN program. The program builds on veterans' prior military training, healthcare experience, and leadership skills. She discusses how they evaluated and translated these into academic credit, advanced placement, and targeted support services.

Interruptions can increase risks for errors. The Stay SAFE interruption management strategy aims to mitigate errors. Dr. Ginger Schroers describes her multisite study to determine nursing students' interruption management behaviors before and at multiple assessments after learning Stay SAFE. Four study sites (and 60 students) were included. Data were collected over 10 months via direct observation, self-report, and semi-structured interviews. Prelicensure nursing students independently completed 8 simulated scenarios with embedded interruptions. Interruptions occurred during medication administration and handoff. A majority (93-100%) of the students used Stay SAFE in the posttests. This is an intervention we should be teaching in all of our schools of nursing. The article on Stay SAFE is  open access: read and share with your faculty and health system colleagues. You also can read more about the development of Stay SAFE in other articles by Dr. Schroers available at her website.

Students and faculty at a large public university identified a gap in advanced practice nursing education and created a course focused on structural racism and its impact on health outcomes. In this podcast and article, Lisa Mihaly, Linda Stephan, Denisse Porter, Cara McGuinness, and Dr. Alicia Swartz explain the development of the course: Racism, Health Care, and Social Justice. The authors discuss challenges and benefits of teaching this course remotely. Their article includes a table with the course description and objectives and a link to an appendix with weekly content, objectives, readings, and learning activities. You might be interested in another article by the authors on antiracist education for APNs. 

Transitioning to competency-based education in nursing simulation education requires a systematic approach to curriculum assessment. Using the University's Online Simulation System, 2 experts selected American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) behavioral performance indicators that best matched behavioral outcomes associated with simulation student roles in 5 scenarios. In this podcast and article, Dr. Anita Stephen describes the 3-phased approach they used to align cognitive simulation objectives to competencies identified in the AACN behavioral performance indicators. This approach can be used by faculty in other schools. 

Dr. Teresa Conklin discusses the shift toward competency-based education and shares strategies that graduate nursing educators can use to provide proficiency-centered experiences for NP students. In her article she describes the role of an Accessibility Committee to apply the  Americans with Disabilities Act standards to universal design of digital materials. 

Nursing education programs across the US continue to face ongoing shortages of nursing faculty. This study examined salary differences between nursing faculty and other nurses using 2022 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses data and identified specific factors contributing to these disparities. The adjusted annual salary of nursing faculty was $18,346 less than staff nurses, $19,863 less than charge nurses, and $27,526 less than front-line managers. Persistent salary disparities between nursing faculty and other nursing roles discourage nurses from pursuing academic careers. This article is OPEN Access: download the article and share widely.

Research indicates that compassionate teaching (CT) positively correlates with professional quality of life among RN to BSN students and can enhance student resilience and well-being.  Faculty who integrate CT into the learning environment help students prepare for practice in stressful healthcare settings. In this podcast and article, Dr. Lisa Ruth-Sahd discusses the outcomes of a mixed-methods research study that nursing faculty can use when teaching RN-to-BSN students. Trauma-informed teaching is emphasized.

In today's technology-driven world, nurse educators face the challenge of creating engaging learning experiences. Using 360-degree camera technology, interactive videos were developed with academic, hospital, health department, and rehabilitation partners. In this podcast and article, Drs. Sue Owens, Lenna Westerkamp, Pam Smyth, and Shannon Love discuss this initiative and the impact of this technological approach on student learning.

Dr. Rebecca Davis describes the clinical evaluation tool that faculty developed to assess clinical competencies based on the AACN Essentials. The tool is structured as a developmental rubric, allowing documentation of each learner's progress toward independence in clinical practice. Faculty identified challenges, however, when assessing competency with a one-size-fits-all clinical evaluation tool, particularly in specialty courses with unique populations and limited clinical practice. This led to the development of course-specific clinical evaluation tools. Learn more about these tools in her article, where she also shares examples of tools with readers.

First-semester nursing students often struggle to connect health assessment and skills lab content with clinical expectations. To bridge this gap, Dr.  Pendergraft-Horne and Cory Smith implemented structured entry and exit tickets in labs, guided by the Transparency in Learning and Teaching framework and Bloom's higher-order thinking skills. These tools fostered accountability, clinical application, and inclusive practice. In this podcast and article, they describe this innovative strategy.

Peripheral intravenous catheter (PIVC) insertion is an essential skill for nurses. Students, however, face challenges in learning PIVC insertion due in part to limited opportunities for hands-on practice with real patients. Traditional training methods with low-fidelity task trainers lack variability and depend on costly consumable products. To address this gap, Dr. Jeremy Jarzembak and his team developed a bimanual haptic feedback mixed reality IV simulator. This technology simulates IV needle insertion under diverse conditions. Their article explains the development of this new technology and reports findings on students' improved confidence and success rate.

Nursing students need to develop strong documentation skills. In this podcast and article, Lacy Hester describes an interactive classroom activity she developed that immerses students in a realistic legal scenario where they need to defend their own clinical documentation. Using de-identified notes from students' previous simulations, skills labs, and patient care assignments, students critically review the notes and rewrite entries using correct terminology and format. Students learn to justify their documentation choices and consider the legal implications of their wording.

Generation Z health professions students often struggle to stay engaged with large volumes of assigned readings, especially when the reading involves dense academic texts or unfamiliar vocabulary. Rather than relying solely on independent, out-of-class reading, consider incorporating guided in-class readings as an active learning strategy. Break readings into manageable segments and structure your class to alternate between brief reading periods (5-10 minutes) and guided discussion. This approach helps students process material in real time. Learn more about this classroom strategy from Dr. Kristopher Jackson in this podcast and teaching tip.

Nursing faculty teaching in a prelicensure nursing program implemented a unique way to engage alumni by hosting them as guest instructors during Open Lab experiences. Karen Schofield, Christelle Isaac, and Dr. Bryce Catarelli discuss challenges and benefits to implementing this innovative concept. Additional information can be found in their article.

Nurse Practitioner Residency Days addresses the disconnect between classroom education and real practice. Implementing NP Residency Days into practicum courses gives students real-word clinical challenges and scenarios reflecting the role of the first-year NP. Dr. Emily Lee describes NP Residency Days in this podcast. Read more in her article in Nurse Educator.

Nurse educators interact with multiple generations of learners and colleagues. Each generation is unique, which can create divides. In this podcast and article, Dr. Jennifer Chicca shares strategies educators can use to bridge these generational divides.

Despite playing an important role in patient care and advocacy, nurses are consistently underrepresented and quoted in health care media coverage. To address this, Dr. Rachel Malloy developed a media training program for doctoral students based on the 10 published media competencies for nurses. In this podcast and article, she explains why media training for nurses is important, describes the training program, and reports on the outcomes of the program.

In this podcast and article, Drs. Susan Seibert and Stephanie Rexing describe an innovative teaching strategy with nursing and occupational therapy (OT) students. The students were paired in interdisciplinary dyads – one OT student and one nursing student. The nursing students taught and demonstrated key clinical skills (the accurate measurement of blood pressure, radial pulse, respiratory rate, and pulse oximetry) to the OT students. In turn, the OT students provided instruction on assessing range of motion and gross motor strength. Drs. Seibert and Rexing emphasize the need for students to learn about interprofessional practice when they start their nursing and OT programs.

Traditional methods used to teach health assessment skills and diagnostic reasoning in an advanced health assessment and differential diagnosis course limit skill acquisition and personalized feedback. Integrating small-group learning, online simulations, and reflective practice may improve competency outcomes. Drs. Rashmi P. Momin and Kala Christopherson describe a multimodal intervention –  the Small-group Learning, Mega Skills Lab, Online Escape Rooms, and Reflection (SMOR) Toolkit – that they developed to enhance students'  competencies in health assessment, diagnostic reasoning, and clinical documentation. They share the toolkit and other resources in their article.

Resilience supports nursing students as they transition into professional practice, yet limited evidence describes how resilience evolves over time. Dr. Randall and colleagues explored facilitators and barriers to resilience in nursing students as they transition from school to clinical practice (described in their article). In this podcast, Dr. Randall discusses new graduate nurse resilience and the use of photovoice and virtual focus groups to collect these data.

Dr. Tonya Anthony developed an intervention for beginning nursing students to develop their emotional intelligence (EI). She describes this intervention, which included a presentation by two experts in EI, role play, video clips, and other active learning strategies. Dr. Anthony explains how she integrated the intervention in the course and reviews the outcomes with listeners.

If you are looking for a new approach for team teaching, this podcast is for you! Often, teaching teams distribute the course content and then function independently to teach and grade their assigned content. Drs. Cori Heier and Kristin Ashley describe their new model for team teaching. Two faculty members are responsible for the lecture component of the class, and a third faculty member creates and facilitates in-class activities (every 15 minutes) for the content.

Many nursing programs have high rates of students who fail or do not complete their program for other reasons. Retention is a problem when nurses are critically needed. This podcast with Drs. Hanwook Yoo, Xuechun Zhou, and Beth Phillips presents the results of a research study that showcases the importance of assessing academic readiness prior to admission to a nursing program. This article is OPEN ACCESS so read and share widely.

Nursing education focuses on the development and demonstration of clinical judgment, which includes creating plans of care that meet the needs of the intended patient, family, or population. Innovation is a logical next step in nursing practice, filling the gaps left by a lack of evidence or products. During a curricular redesign, a new required course on health care innovations was added to the undergraduate curriculum. This podcast with Dr. Sarah Llewellyn and Edward Zepeda presents a teaching strategy that helps students prepare for advanced or expanded roles in practice to address real-world problems. Be sure to read their article.

Dr. Lori McElroy begins this podcast by describing the effects of trauma on nursing students' academic progression and well being and explains why using a trauma-informed approach (TIA) in nursing education is important. Along with Dr. McElroy, Dr. Stacy King and Dr. Valerie Eschiti discuss some practical strategies faculty can use to create a trauma-informed learning environment for students. They also share the outcomes of their scoping review on literature related to a TIA in nursing education.

Holistic admissions in nursing education consider a range of criteria. In this podcast and article, Stephanie Wood and Andrea Smith discuss the implementation, evaluation, and revision of the holistic admissions process in their nursing program, which led to an increase in the number of underrepresented students admitted to the program.

Doctoral students often face challenges when attempting to write a quality literature review. The process may feel overwhelming to students as they may struggle to organize and synthesize large amounts of literature. In this podcast and article, Dr. Kristy Chunta and Nicole Smith-Rencewicz discuss a checklist they developed to ensure that all sections of the chapter are addressed, including structure, content, and mechanics. This checklist is a helpful tool that can improve doctoral student writing.