Nurse Educator Tips for Teaching

Learn how one prelicensure course in community and population health helps students develop empathy in marginalized populations and practice trauma-informed care with all patients. Dr. Jennifer Forbush describes a collaboration with local teachers to facilitate social and emotional learning in at-risk highschoolers. Find out more about her teaching strategy in her Nurse Educator article.

Feedback alone does not satisfy the need for structured debriefing, which is part of good simulation. In this podcast, Ashley McMath explains how she used Socratic questioning during debriefing to help students uncover their thinking behind their actions and foster an environment of open dialogue and reflection. Read more about the debriefing strategy in her article Nurse Educator.

In this podcast and article, Dr. Megan Jester describes an innovative learning activity in which  students share photographs (taken as part of class) that represent the mental health continuum. The activity begins with a faculty-led lecture introducing the mental health continuum. In groups, students walk around campus, taking photos of objects that reflect the continuum. Groups then create and share a PowerPoint slide featuring their selected object and write a social media statement. Dr. Jester explains how this activity can be adapted for other courses including those offered online.

Drs. Pamela Miller and Theresa Marcotte designed an in-class exercise to help students understand the differences between an article summary and a synthesis of information from several articles. Using a PICOT question, students perform a critical analysis of specific content in 3 journal articles. This activity is a competency-based strategy that could be employed in entry-level and graduate courses.

The transition from clinical practice to graduate studies can be daunting to some practicing nurses. It is well documented that graduate nursing students lack academic preparation for rigorous scholarly work. Drs. Kimberly Douglas and Edmund Pajarillo describe a national onboarding consortium of graduate nursing faculty that uses a model onboarding program to address graduate students' academic preparedness. The program is easily adopted to support students from various backgrounds and regions within the United States. The onboarding program was evaluated initially in a pilot study, which became the foundation for the national program to be customizable. You can learn more about the program and national consortium in their article.  

Did you know that 17% of individuals in the US live with substance use disorder (SUD)? Nursing curricula may not adequately address SUD, and stigma can impact patients' care. Their project measured stigma toward people with SUD among prelicensure nursing students. Students with personal experience had lower stigma scores than those without this experience. In this podcast, Drs. Jennifer Crook and Sarah Febres-Cordero explain the importance of preparing students to care for patients with SUD and how to do this in the curriculum. Learn more about this project and strategies you can use in your own programs. You can read the full article (it is open access): share with colleagues!

This podcast with Drs. Leslie Lopez and Melissa Nunn presents a learner-led clinical simulation to improve communication-specific developmental screening skills of nurse practitioner students. The simulation prepares students to care diverse patients with an emphasis on the pediatric population.

Transitioning current curriculum to the 2021 AACN Essentials, or redesigning curriculum to align with the competency-based Essentials, can be challenging. A group of nurse educators created a crosswalk between the QSEN graduate competency statements and the Essentials to support this transition. Learn more in this podcast and their article about how you can access their crosswalk tool that shows an increase in complexity of expectations for contemporary nursing practice.

Teaching nursing students how to conduct a human-centered design project fosters their creative self-efficacy and cultivates design thinking.  In this podcast, Dr. Jeana Holt describes how she implemented experiential learning based on a human-centered design approach to solving patient care problems. More details about her project and future directions for work in human-centered design are explained in her article.

A tabletop simulation, called Triage Tabletop, was developed by Dr. Laura Liggett and Brandi Snow to offer acute care nurse practitioner (NP) students an opportunity to experience clinical decision-making when triaging patients in the hospital setting. They join us in this podcast to explain this teaching strategy. During an on-campus clinical immersion, students were divided into groups of 4 to 5 each to act as rounding hospitalist NPs with a census of 8 patients. The students worked together to determine the order in which they would visit their patients based on acuity while keeping other responsibilities in mind, such as attending scheduled interdisciplinary rounds. The students also received unexpected pages about changes in patients' conditions. Interested in developing this triage tabletop simulation? Read more about this sim in their teaching tip.

Nurses play a critical role in reducing health inequities in people experiencing homelessness (PEH), a key social determinant of health. The authors developed and validated competencies; associated knowledge, skills, and attitudes; and concepts, content, and learning activities to serve as an educational framework in providing care for PEH. Learn more about these competencies in this podcast with Rachel Richmond, Joanne Noone, Heather Voss, Aina Hale, and Marilyn Gran-Moravec. Be sure to read their article and visit their website with learning activities and resources you can use in your courses.

Interprofessional team training (IPTT) prepares students from health care professions for team-based care. In this podcast with Dr. Allison Shorten, you will learn why IPTT is important. In their study with 866 students from 11 professions, they compared in-person and online delivery of IPTT: both groups improved, but the in-person delivery resulted in the greatest improvement. However, as Dr. Shorten explains, advantages from in-person delivery should be weighed against online logistical advantages. You can find more detail about the study in their article.   

With the explosion of artificial intelligence (AI), nurse educators are harnessing its impact in education. The most recent trend of AI usage has been with lecture slides. In this podcast, Dr. DeAnna Gapp explains how she uses AI to facilitate her work as a faculty member and presents strategies for using AI in preparing lectures. More examples are provided in Dr. Gapp's teaching tip.

In this podcast, Dr. Chelsea Mellett explains the relationships among professional identity, hope, and job satisfaction. Improving nurses' professional identity can lead to higher job satisfaction and ultimately reduce nurse turnover. Learn about their study on the intersections between career motivation, professional identity formation, and belongingness in prelicensure nursing students and strategies you can use to improve students' professional identity formation.

Allowing students to select from a variety of assessment strategies gives them an opportunity to create their own learning environment and choose their preferred pathway to academic success. Listen to this podcast to learn how Lisa Brennan used the VARK (visual, auditory, reading/writing/kinesthetic) framework to foster a sense agency to students in the assessment process. Read her article describing how you can use a similar strategy approach to assessment, or view her video if you prefer to engage with content visually.

Nurse Educator is celebrating its 50th year of publishing articles addressing faculty and students' teaching and learning needs. This podcast presents the increasing need for males to select nursing as a profession from the personal perspective of Dr. Harrell Jordan, Dean, School of Nursing, Chamberlain University. Dr. Jordan discusses his experiences as a male in nursing and the continued need to recruit more males, including males of color, into the profession.

Nursing students are at risk for developing secondary traumatic stress (STS) while completing their clinical training. Kristen Oakley synthesized the research on the prevalence, severity, and experience of STS and its associated factors in prelicensure nursing students. Findings from their review of 25 studies revealed a range of STS symptom severity levels and associated factors; however, measurement is hampered by researchers' use of other concepts, like compassion fatigue.  

Dr. Curry Bordelon describes the integration of AI into a graduate nursing informatics course. Students used AI in each of the modules of the course.

Nursing students often have online experiences and various media interests that may influence their learning experience. Digital audio technology, such as podcasts, can be used as an adjunct to traditional teaching strategies to incorporate a variety of learning mediums. Faculty may produce podcasts or use artificial intelligence (AI). In this podcast and article, Dr. April Folgert and Kerry DeGroot present an engaging learning activity using AI to promote critical thinking.  

Guidelines on how to sustain the outcomes of simulation training and evaluate training programs are limited. Dr. Jane Paige describes their study of the impact of a professional development workshop for individuals responsible for developing, sustaining, and evaluating simulation educator training programs. They used a longitudinal exploratory design, guided by the New World Kirkpatrick Model. Significant changes in knowledge, confidence, and commitment were observed over time. This is a good example of sustaining the training of simulation leaders and educators through intentional processes that support, reinforce, monitor, and reward efforts.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to prepare health professions admissions applications is increasing. These tools can improve writing but raise ethical concerns about application authenticity. Drs. Jill Brennan-Cook and Stephanie Gedzyk-Nieman share the results of their scoping review on the use of AI by applicants applying to nursing and other health professions programs and by admission reviewers. AI tools can enhance the efficiency of the admissions review process, but clear guidelines are needed by schools to address ethical issues.

A school of nursing employed a nurse informaticist in its simulation laboratory to address the complexities of technology usage and aid in data analytics. Mr. Eric Hall describes his role as an informaticist in the simulation setting. Eric and Dr. Jo Ellen Holt share benefits and outcomes of this new role in simulation. Read more in their article. 

When nurse educators foster a growth mindset, they help students understand that mindset and attitudes are developed through dedication and practice, rather than fixed traits. One strategy to address this challenge is to modify our language to use words that foster continuous growth. In assessments where students are at the practice level, the terminology of pass or fail can be replaced with pass or practice. By using this terminology, students view practice as a constructive avenue for growth instead of inadequacy. In this podcast and teaching tip, Dr. Alison Hamner discusses how she promotes growth mindset in her courses.  

Faculty workload models related to DNP projects have not kept pace with increasing enrollment and program expectations. Dr. Sara Hubbell explains a new faculty workload that was developed related to DNP projects to reflect a more equitable and realistic model. The faculty developed the Collaborative Section-Based Faculty Workload Model that resulted in increases in faculty satisfaction, retention, and student mentorship, while maintaining DNP project rigor. You can learn more about this new Workload Model in their article.

Unfolding case studies help students apply their knowledge to real life patient scenarios. Traditional methods of presenting case studies in asynchronous online courses often include using written or video discussion boards, which require waiting for instructor feedback. This podcast with Dr. Michelle Neuman presents an innovative strategy to engage students in critical thinking and problem-solving activities using unfolding case studies in an asynchronous online learning environment. You can learn more about this strategy in her article.

For many undergraduate nursing students (64%), burnout begins during their educational program. Resilience is a known protective factor to buffer against stress exposure that leads to burnout, but a lack of formal resilience training for undergraduate nursing students persists. Equine-assisted learning interventions promote resilience and decrease stress and burnout in a diversity of populations. In this podcast (and article), Dr. Shannon Burleson describes an equine-assisted learning intervention to reduce students' stress in school and practice after graduation.

Moral distress is a phenomenon with known negative effects for health care professionals, including nurses. Moral distress is thought to occur when an individual knows the morally right thing to do but is unable to do it, based on internal and external constraints. This podcast with Dr. Kathy Forte (and their article) presents a simulation experience for prelicensure students to help them experience a real-life ethical scenario from an ethical perspective.

Dr. Lisa Bailey and Ms. Jourdan Scoggins explain the core idea behind the “Declare Yourself” leadership process and how it builds trust between students and educators. They use the “Declare Yourself” process in their clinical courses and share their experiences. Learn more about this strategy and how you can use it in your courses in this podcast and article.  

Health inequities across the United States, particularly in rural and medically underserved communities, are fueled by disparities in education, poverty, and social determinants. The shortage of accessible primary care providers exacerbates health inequities, leading to adverse outcomes and perpetuating disparities. Drs. Jannyse Tapp and Shannon Cole discuss a partnership model to prepare nurse practitioners to reduce health disparities in rural underserved communities. Read their article (it is Open Access) and share it with your colleagues.

The FNP program includes a series of clinical courses: Primary Care I, II, and III, with Primary Care III occurring the semester of graduation. Dr. Elizabeth Phenneger and other FNP faculty incorporated a self-evaluation for students taking Primary Care III at the end of the semester and identified gaps in students' competencies. Faculty created an improvement plan tailored to address these deficits that included : (1) a 7-hour in-person clinical skills intensive day incorporating multiple case-based learning activities, standardized patient case simulations, clinical skills practice on task trainers, and unfolding case studies, and (2) a series of physiology cascade assignments threaded throughout the course. Surveys and faculty assessment revealed significant improvement in students' competencies.

The End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) provides an online course to develop graduate-student competencies related to palliative care. In this podcast, four graduate-level nurse educators (Drs. Theresa Jizba, Elena Prendergast, Carrie Cormack, and Lindsay Iverson) describe how the ELNEC curriculum improved self-perceptions of confidence in essential communication and symptom management skills in practice. In the authors' article and this podcast, you will learn more about how you can implement the ELNEC course in nursing program curricula and help students develop competence and improve their self-confidence in palliative care.

The introduction of generative artificial intelligence (genAI) has had significant implications for nursing education. The role of AI extends beyond teaching strategies to preparing students to critically engage with these technologies in their practice. Dr. Emily Tomlinson discusses the need for clear guidelines on implementing genAI tools in nursing curricula and explains how the faculty in her School of Nursing embedded genAI-based learning activities across each year of the nursing program. These activities were designed to support students' development of AI literacy. Details about learning outcomes for students related to AI are provided in their article.

Simulation has grown exponentially in nursing to help students and nurses in practice engage in teamwork to think critically, problem-solve, and enhance clinical proficiency and patient care within a safe environment. Low-fidelity manikins have been integral to nursing education for many years. The emergence of high-fidelity manikins and complex technologies in the past 20 years has enabled educators to engage students in complex scenarios and prepare them for practice. Nurse Educator has published many articles on simulation that address diverse educational and clinical contexts. Today's podcast on virtual reality with Greta Mitzova-Vladinov, DNP, CRNA, CHSE, APRN, celebrates simulation as a high-impact teaching strategy and the educators who prepare the scenarios.

Expert modeling videos (EMVs) have shown promise in improving students' performance in simulation. Using a quasi-experimental design, students in a medical surgical nursing course (n = 160) viewed either an expert model demonstration video (experimental) or expert model discussion video (control). Students who viewed the demonstration video performed at a higher level of competency in 11 of the 18 behaviors on the Creighton Competency Evaluation Instrument. Dr. Tracy Dodson shares the results of this study and discusses implications for teaching in nursing.

Nursing programs strain to develop instructional tools that are efficient and effective, without undo time commitments by faculty. One way to enhance clinical reasoning skill development is to create case-based learning events that focus on developing and measuring clinical judgment skills. In this podcast and teaching tip, Dr. Bev Wilgenbusch presents a teaching tool that faculty can use to promote critical thinking, clinical reasoning, and clinical judgment in their students.

Varying the situational context in a patient case scenario allows nursing students to demonstrate critical thinking during a routine skills demonstration. In this podcast, you'll hear how a team of nurse educators (Drs. Amy Jauch, Sandy Mulholland, and Jennifer Nieves) used video recordings to capture observable evidence of undergraduate students' critical thinking processes. The instructors used the videos to provide students with opportunities to reflect on their performance of skills in different patient-care scenarios and articulate the reasoning behind their actions. Read the article describing how you can use a similar strategy to assess psychomotor skills and clinical judgment while guiding student reflection on their learning progress.

Technology is pivotal in nursing education, but persistent barriers hinder technology's full integration in nursing programs. Drs. Will Brewer and Ann-Marie Irons discuss barriers and facilitators to the use of technology in nursing education. They surveyed 1,761 nursing faculty members in prelicensure programs about their views on technology, barriers, training needs, and importance of technology in the classroom and simulation. Faculty highlighted financial support, commitment, and administrative support as critical for technology adoption. Additionally, time in the classroom was noted as a significant barrier. Overcoming financial constraints and enhancing faculty buy-in are essential for successful technology integration. Learn more about their survey and methodology in their article.

A Clinical Assistant Program at West Virginia University School of Nursing helps prepare senior-level BSN students for leadership in nursing and increases nursing students' awareness of the rewards inherent in the nurse-educator role. In this podcast, four faculty members (Dr. Stacy Huber, Amanda Kitzmiller, Tonya Thompson, and Amber Ziese) describe the design and implementation of their Clinical Assistant Program in which senior nursing students work side-by-side with a clinical nurse educators who are instructing sophomore-level students. The authors explain how the program was developed and share the feedback they received from the clinical educators and students. Find resources to support sound design of a Clinical Assistant Program in their article.

Dr. Heather Hawk and Michael Coriasco describe an innovative guided learning activity they developed in which students used a chatbot to answer a clinical question. An analysis of student reflections demonstrated 4 themes: surprisingly familiar, the importance of critical thinking and external validation, a good summary but lacking depth and nuance, and cautious optimism. Two subthemes were also identified: validation is time-consuming and a new perspective. Learning activities using AI influence students' knowledge and attitudes and instill critical awareness of the advantages and limitations of this technology. Learn more about this learning activity and study findings in their article.

A nurse educator (Miriam Abbott) and a Psychology major at Kansas State University (Wyatt Abbott) explain what prompted them to study word patterns in AI-generated text to find out whether they could recognize similar patterns in writing submissions by nursing students. Their findings suggest that the presence or absence of specific words may provide clues to whether a student writing submission was generated by AI. Listen to the presenters as they discuss concerns many nurse educators share about the evolving AI landscape, and learn more about their perspectives on issues related to academic integrity in this podcast and their article.

Artificial intelligence (AI) pedagogies are increasingly common in health care education, but limited information guides their application in didactic nursing environments. Drs. Michele Gerdes, Andrew Bayne, Jennifer Wessol, Ellen Stephenson King, Kristina Henry, and Professor Allison Vance describe the current state of AI–based pedagogies used in didactic nursing education. Based on their scoping review, most articles addressed use of generative AI and pairing AI with other pedagogical strategies. You can learn more about this review in their article.

Drs. Tomeka Dowling and Crystal Toll discuss the need to integrate concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and social determinants of health (SDOH) into nursing curricula. RN to BSN students were surveyed to assess their perceptions of DEI-SDOH curricular threads and impact on nursing practice. Students indicated that DEI-SDOH curricula promoted self-examination, critical analysis of health care systems, and development of DEI-SDOH competence. You can learn more about their curriculum development process and assessment in their article.

Nursing students experience significantly more stress compared to non-nursing peers, which increases their risk for poor mental health and academic outcomes. MINDSTRONG, an evidence-based cognitive behavioral program focused on resiliency, prepares students to cope with stressors and adopt healthy lifestyles. Dr. Jacqueline Hoying describes the MINDSTRONG program and findings from her study on outcomes in undergraduate nursing students who completed the program (learn more in her article). She shares information with listeners about how to access program resources for implementation in this podcast.

Faculty should provide guidance to help new students embrace challenges and adapt to the rigor of the nursing curriculum. Mindset training may be a key to increase academic success. Dr. Ashley Carter developed a series of 10 lessons as 5-minute pearls throughout a semester-long introductory nursing course using short video clips. These lessons introduce the concepts of fixed versus growth mindset, neuroplasticity, and self-efficacy and include evidence-based strategies to support students' success and role development. You will enjoy this podcast and learn more in her teaching tips article.

Dr. Cathleen Evans created 3 tabletop board games as formative assessments for prelicensure students to develop their situational decision-making skillls: Ready Responder, Clinical Case Competency, and Decisions at the Point of Care. The games, adaptable to specific client types, care environments, and contexts, have vetted multiple-choice and client case answer keys. In this podcast and article, you will learn how she developed and uses these games for formative assessments.

Durable learning reflects the teaching/learning methods that result in retained knowledge that can be transferred to practice. There is limited research on durable learning in nursing education. Dr. Crista Reaves explored how nursing students acquired and retained knowledge. Thematic analysis revealed (1) learner- and instructor-initiated techniques that promoted durable learning and (2) techniques that were not effective in the classroom, clinical practice, and simulation. Learn about the research in their article.

Self-reflection is a key component of simulation debriefing that helps students describe their development of clinical judgment skills. Drs. Michelle Bussard and Lisa Jacobs asked students what they learned about themselves and what changes they plan to make to their nursing practice based on observation of their own performance during simulation in a video recording. Their qualitative study revealed findings about communication, body language, safety, and other AACN essential competencies that might have been overlooked in traditional methods of assessment in simulation. Learn more about how video-recorded simulations help students get the most out of debriefing after simulation in their article.

Student course evaluations are the primary way faculty receive feedback on their teaching. The challenge is in getting meaningful, actionable feedback from students that can be used to make improvements to instruction. Drs. Michelle Stubbs and Julie Reis share their recommendations for improving the quality of feedback students provide, including use of continuous feedback processes that go beyond surveys and Likert scales. In this podcast, you'll hear specific steps you can take to collect meaningful feedback and implement a dynamic and responsive instructional improvement cycle. Learn more about their work in their article.

Dr. Leigh Montejo used Taboo AI to create an engaging, interactive, and effective online learning environment for students. Gaming supports active learning and increases learner engagement. Learn more about Taboo AI in this podcast and Article and how to use it in your course.

The need for learners to engage in deep learning and develop a spirit of inquiry to lead change requires RN to BSN programs to create new models to prepare learners for new or expanded practice roles. In this podcast with Ms. LaNeigh Harkness, Dr. Ellarene Duis Sanders, and Dr. Patricia Francis-Johnson, you will learn how the faculty reinvigorated their RN-to-BSN program, preparing learners for expanded roles. They developed an innovative Application Practice Model to enhance learners' critical thinking, problem solving, self-direction, and communication skills to address practice issues needing improvement. Also read their article.

A diverse nursing faculty is critical to recruiting, educating, and supporting a diverse nursing workforce. Dr. Kumhee Ro and Dr. Joshua Villarreal present their BOLD Framework, which was derived from a series of qualitative semistructured interviews from nursing Faculty of Color (FOC). The BOLD framework begins with an assessment of the institution's organizational culture, capacity for critical reflection, and perceptions of FOC as individuals. These areas of assessment are visualized as encircling the 4 steps that guide administration through opportunities to engage faculty: Be genuine, be Open to the art of inquiring, Listen deeply to the voices from our culture, and Do by lending action to words. Having completed the 4 steps the final action, Facilitate the Power of Networks, provides ongoing sustained support for FOC. Learn more in their article.