Nurse Educator Tips for Teaching

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 a...

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 stu...

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...

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...

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, p...

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 s...

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 t...

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 b...

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 course...

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, imp...

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 integra...

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 impac...

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 demo...

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 pivo...

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...

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, Alison Pittman, Chelsey Rosen, and Susan McKee present teaching strategies to improve students' tolerance for uncertainty and their decision-making confidence. These strateg...

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 teachin...

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 ar...

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 po...

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 mak...

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 Bridg...

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 thi...

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.