Nurse Educator Tips for Teaching

Nursing programs teach many psychomotor skills that are not practiced enough for students to achieve mastery, leading to skill decay. Teaching fewer psychomotor skills could improve skill performance, yet there is no consensus about which skills are most essential. In this podcast and article, Dr. Mike Aldridge discusses the psychomotor skills most essential for new graduate nurses in medical-surgical nursing based on the results of a study using the Delphi methodological framework.

Expert clinicians who enter academia are often unprepared to function in the role of nursing faculty due to a lack of academic preparation for teaching roles. This gap in readiness can lead to challenges in delivering effective instruction, mentoring students, and meeting academic expectations. Drs. Abby Suarez and Rebecca Lane describe their orientation program for novice nurse educators and how they are using it in their own nursing programs.

As nursing education continues to transform, nursing schools are seeking intentional strategies to ensure clinical experiences are meaningful and support students' development of clinical reasoning and judgment. Traditional post-clinical assignments, such as care plans and concept maps, have served as tools to evaluate undergraduate learners' understanding of patient care.  This podcast with Dr. Katie Parris and article present a high-impact clinical teaching strategy to help students to engage in critical thinking with competency-based education as a framework.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a rapidly growing concept in today's world, and healthcare is no exception. Nurses who lack the ability to engage with AI risk exacerbating biases and causing patient harm. This podcast with Drs. Kate Bayan and Asma Taha and their article describe how an innovative strategy using generative AI can be used as both the subject and the tool for transformative learning, simultaneously addressing digital literacy, critical thinking, cultural humility, and evidence-based practice.

Pre-rounding, reviewing patient data from the electronic medical record to formulate preliminary management plans, is an essential professional behavior for nurse practitioner students. To develop this clinical skill and promote metacognition, students design a personalized data collection template in a clinical seminar, identifying which data elements they will review and how they will organize the information.

Harm reduction approaches are well-established public health interventions that can reduce mortality associated with substance use. Concepts related to harm reduction and overdose prevention have been virtually absent in the nursing education literature. This study by Dr. Brayden Kameg and colleagues evaluated changes in nursing students' perceptions toward people who use drugs and knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes about overdose prevention following an opioid overdose prevention workshop using simulation. A total of 569 students participated in the workshop. Competence and readiness to manage an overdose increased among participants (P < .01).

Extensive clinical hours and prior health care experience are widely believed to enhance new graduate nurse practice readiness, yet supporting evidence is limited. Dr. Ryan shares an important study that examined these assumptions. Using data from 189 students from 8 BSN programs, Dr. Ryan and colleagues found no significant associations between practice readiness and total clinical hours, between practice readiness and percentage of simulation hours, or between practice readiness and prior health care employment.

Effective nurse-physician communication is essential for patient safety and care coordination. Communication failures are a leading contributor to sentinel events, highlighting the need for interprofessional communication training in healthcare education. Yet many nursing and medical students have limited opportunities to practice structured, real-time communication with future colleagues. This podcast presents a simulation experience that integrates a school of nursing and a medical school to help students embrace interprofessional communication.

Advanced practice nursing programs face a critical shortage of preceptors to guide the translation of education to clinical practice. Preceptors face barriers to mentoring students, including inadequate training and orientation, and a lack of benefits and time.  This podcast with Dr. Kala Christopherson and article present the results of a study for improving the education, retention,  professional development, and recognition of preceptors within the Portal to Precept Model. The Model focuses on academic-practice partnerships and can be applied to all levels of nursing education.

Nurse educators are critical in advancing evidence-based practice (EBP) in academic and clinical settings. However, limited research exists on how doctoral education influences their EBP beliefs and implementation behaviors. Dr. Tara O'Brien discusses their study that evaluated changes in EBP beliefs and implementation among Doctor of Nursing Education students over time. She emphasizes the importance of focusing on nurse educators, not only students and clinicians, when it comes to EBP. You can read the full study here.

Enhancing graduate students' scholarly writing skills remains a consistent challenge in nursing education. While generative artificial intelligence (AI) offers promising support, faculty often wonder how to guide students in using these tools effectively and ethically. One successful strategy used in an entry-level graduate nursing course involved creating a customized GPT-based virtual writing tutor. Unlike standard, open-ended generative AI chats, this personalized GPT was intentionally programmed by faculty to align with course expectations. The tool was embedded with the assignment rubric, faculty-preferred writing standards, and clear guidelines for its interaction with students. This podcast with Dr. Crystal Paunan discusses how ChatGPT can be used to promote scholarly writing.

Nurse educators seek teaching methods and modalities that effectively prepare nursing students for practice in the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains of learning. One tool is virtual reality simulation. Virtual reality simulation is an interactive, immersive technology that replicates real-world clinical scenarios for users.  In this podcast, faculty discuss the results of a research study comparing students' perception of learning and psychological safety in virtual reality and live simulation experiences.

New graduate nurses often lack the skills necessary to care for clients at the end of life. Essential to designing an end-of-life course is awareness of the potential psychological impact of the content and providing students with appropriate support resources. An online, asynchronous end-of-life course was integrated into an undergraduate nursing curriculum. Weekly modules provided specific wellness tips that encouraged students to use them in caring for their clients and supporting their own well-being.

Intensifying demands on nurses have led to burnout and workforce instability. Dr. Stubin describes her study that examined nursing alumni perceptions of how effectively their undergraduate curriculum prepared them to manage workplace burnout. She conducted focus group sessions with 55 alumni, all of whom had less than 5 years of experience as registered nurses. Participant responses included feeling overwhelmed and emotional shock during transition, inadequate preparation for managing burnout and mental health challenges, and desire for institutional change. Dr. Stubin share strategies to build into the curriculum to enhance retention, prevent early-career burnout, and foster a more sustainable nursing workforce. You also might be interested in reading Dr. Stubin's earlier study: Promoting Nursing Student Mental Health Wellness: The Impact of Resilience-Building and Faculty Support

Inclusive education benefits all students, including neurodivergent and disabled learners, and reduces reliance on individually awarded accommodations. Dr. Megan Arbour provides a practical framework for embedding inclusive practices into nursing education. This framework  integrates Transparency in Learning and Teaching, Universal Design for Learning, and Competency-Based Education. With this approach, the educator anticipates diverse learner needs, promotes access, and strengthens student success and workforce readiness. More details are provided in their article.

Death and dying within the broader scope of end-of-life care causes anxiety in most students. Escape rooms in an online learning environment enable engagement among participants in a safe environment. Students assess and implement nursing measures to provide comfort to patients and families at the end of life. This podcast with Drs. Rebecca Clark and Jodi Fry (and their article) showcases how students apply critical thinking, clinical reasoning, and collaboration through the simulation, and highlights the importance of reflection and debriefing.

Ask Me 3® was designed to empower patients to better understand their health, prompting patients to ask: What is my main problem? What do I need to do? Why is it important for me to do this? By flipping the framework, faculty created a tool nursing students can use to better understand complex content, guide their study habits, and enhance critical thinking. This podcast (and article) showcases how the Ask Me 3® Institute for Healthcare Improvement tool can be used in diverse contexts to promote critical thinking, clinical reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making through progressive reflection and engagement.

Although clinical compliance requirements are similar for each hospital, each institution requires students to complete their education materials, resulting in unnecessary repetitive training and time lost gaining valuable clinical experience. Academic and hospital leaders in Maryland implemented a statewide, standardized prelicensure nursing compliance program accessed by nursing programs through a repository for students to complete before their first clinical experience and then annually. This ensures consistent learning and reduces inefficiencies by streamlining compliance processes and operations, resulting in saving time and resources. In this podcast and article, Drs. Crystal DeVance-Wilson, Jennifer Zipp, and Matt Rietschel describe their Universal Onboarding processes and challenges, and share advise with listeners.

How do students learn physical assessments most effectively and transfer these skills to clinical practice? Traditionally, students learn to conduct a complete assessment over several weeks and demonstrate their competence by performing assessments under the observation of a faculty member. However, this standard approach may result in students merely memorizing the steps to pass the assessment, potentially leading to difficulties in transferring these skills to real clinical situations. To address this issue, the faculty implemented a video technology method, allowing students to record themselves while assessing a peer partner. Using Swivel® technology (https://www.swivl.com), students capture their assessments on video and complete a self-evaluation before submitting their videos for grading. In the podcast and article, Dr. Delanie explains the teaching strategy.

Dr. Logan Camp-Spivey describes a simulation they developed that focuses on care of a transgender patient in an emergency situation. The simulation was created to address gaps in nursing students' exposure to transgender patient care and provide practice for students in responding to a code. As part of the simulation, students review the medical records, assess the patient, and respond to a code situation that requires CPR. The feedback from students has been overwhelmingly positive. Learn more about the simulation in their article.

The school of nursing and affiliated medical center partnered to align the Nurse Residency Program with an undergraduate elective course in nursing leadership. This enabled associate degree nurses (ADN) to earn academic credit (3 credits) when they matriculate into the school's  RN to BSN program. Dr. Hallowell explains in the podcast and article that this initiative is designed to acknowledge the educational merit of structured transition-to-practice programs, encouraging academic advancement among ADN-prepared nurses. By granting academic credit for experiential learning, the model reduces redundancy, fosters leadership development, and supports lifelong learning.

The need to better prepare nursing graduates with essential competencies for beginning practice led to the creation of a unique nursing program that uses an apprenticeship model. In this program, second-degree students are paired with a nurse mentor who serves as their clinical educator for the length of the program. The health care systems employ students as nurse apprentices, provide wages and benefits, and are responsible for their tuition, books, and fees. In this podcast and article, the authors describe the program and curriculum, and share outcomes for students, the school, and the participating health care systems.

Graduate education in nursing presents challenges and opportunities for growth. Dr. Gray shares her qualitative study on the experiences of nurses during their first semester of graduate school. Reflections of 23 students were analyzed by nursing faculty using qualitative descriptive methods. Five main concepts were identified by students: academic performance, challenges, emotions, linking coursework to future role, and support.

This podcast with Drs. Bethany Gilbert and Kimberly Budisalich explores how focused simulation enhances nurse practitioner competence in clinical case presentations. The authors discuss designing realistic scenarios, providing structured feedback, and using deliberate practice to improve clarity, diagnostic reasoning, and interprofessional communication. Outcomes include increased confidence, improved presentation structure, and better readiness for real-world patient care settings.

Dr. Lydia Lau, Deputy Head, describes the undergraduate curriculum at Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, National University of Singapore (NUS). In this podcast, she walks us through the prelicensure curriculum, which is based on Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs). All of the nursing programs in Singapore now use these EPAs. Faculty use case based learning and have intentionally integrated modules in the curriculum to build students' resilience and promote their self-care.

Alcohol use is common worldwide. Faculty constructed a learning experience for students at a Latino Festival to help them and festivalgoers understand the differences in alcohol content in a variety of Mexican beers. The learning experience engaged students and community members in a fun activity to help them develop an awareness that "Not all beer is equal," with an overarching theme of the impact of alcohol use and misuse and of making wise decisions when consuming alcohol. This podcast with Dr. Sooksai Kaewbua (and article) discusses how the engaging activity was planned, conducted, and evaluated.

Podcasts are a popular educational tool that can be used to deliver content in asynchronous online education. Creating the content and accompanying learning activities, however, can be time consuming for faculty. Dr. Becky Carson has an innovative podcast, The Peds NP, that delivers content via microlearning podcasts on focused topics. She discusses a project she completed with colleagues to demonstrate that this podcast series can be used in a flipped classroom paired with learner-centric activities to address curricular gaps and deliver graduate nursing competency-based education. If interested in developing educational podcasts, be sure to access evidence- based standards to guide podcast production.  

Workplace violence is an ever-present problem in the clinical setting. This podcast presents a simulation experience that enables students to assess patient-centered scenarios involving patient verbal incivility. Students learn to assess and respond appropriately to de-escalate a scenario within an effective communication framework. The simulation further enables students to make decisions at pivotal points during the simulation within a safe environment to manage the situation.

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.