Learning Lab RN

🎙️Cracking the Code: A Fundamentals Fluid & Electrolyte Escape Room In this episode of the Learning Lab RN podcast, Martha chats with Hannah Pope, a fundamentals nursing educator, to talk about the realities of active learning and the creative journey that led her to build a highly engaging fluid and electrolyte escape room for her classroom. They discuss the trial-and-error process of designi...

🎙️Active Learning in Action: How to Gamify a Clinical Day In this episode of Learning Lab RN, host Martha welcomes an old friend, Mary Jadin, a BSN educator, DNP student, and soon-to-be mom of three, to talk about balancing work and life while still bringing innovation to the classroom and clinical. Mary shares how her journey through teaching and graduate school has fueled her passion for active...

🎙️Building Community with Ice Breakers the First Day (and beyond!) In this episode, Martha Johnson is joined by Dr. Natasha Nurse Clarke, assistant professor at Lehman College and founder of the Online Nurse Educator community. Together, they explore the importance of building meaningful connections in nursing education, especially in online spaces where community can be hard to create. Natasha sh...

🎙️Emotional Intelligence is a Clinical Skill I’m joined by Dana Smith, the founder of the EQ Nurse Movement. Dana is diving deep into an aspect of nursing education that often gets overlooked: emotional intelligence (EQ). In this conversation, we explore how EQ shows up in both our classrooms and our clinical settings, and why it’s just as critical as mastering pathophysiology or med math. We talk...

🎙️Teaching Through Play: A Sherlock Holmes Activity This week on Learning Lab RN , I’m joined by Kim Anderson, an innovative educator in a practical nursing program who’s redefining how we approach active learning. We dive into the benefits of team teaching, the magic of game-based learning, and how sensory experiences can deepen understanding. From “Red Light, Green Light” vital signs to laminate...

🎙️How to Run an Amazing Race Review Activity: Endocrine Adventure In this episode of Learning Lab RN , Martha Johnson sits down with Christine Elling to explore a creative, low-tech, high-engagement strategy for reviewing content: an Amazing Race Activity . Christine shares exactly how she structures this multi-step, small-group challenge to reinforce clinical reasoning, safety, and teamwork in th...

🎙️Clinical Judgment from Day One: Supporting First-Semester Students We’re kicking off Season 2 with a conversation that re-centers our attention on where clinical judgment begins, in the fundamentals classroom. In this episode, Martha is joined by Kim Reid, a fundamentals instructor who developed a simple yet powerful question-driven activity that helps first-semester nursing students learn to th...

🎙️Building Bridges: Teaching Cultural Competence Through Active Learning In this final episode of season one, Martha sits down with Dr. Tracy Long, founder of Bridges for Health, to explore how cultural competence can be taught in a way that is immersive, meaningful, and aligned with the principles of active learning. If you’ve ever felt unsure how to incorporate cultural competency into your curr...

🎙️ Clear Mind, Calm Classroom: Why Every Nurse Educator Needs a Second Brain Episode Summary: In this solo episode of Learning Lab RN , Martha Johnson shares how creating a “second brain” transformed the way she manages teaching, business, clinical prep, and daily life. Adapted from Tiago Forte’s popular productivity system, this digital framework helps nurse educators capture ideas, organize proj...

🎙️ Cardiac Rhythm Escape Activity: How to Use Storytelling + Movement to Power a Active Learning In this episode of Learning Lab RN , we look into the design of an escape room activity with Texas-based educator Kristie Buchanan. Kristie shares how she uses low-cost materials, physical movement, and clever narrative progression to keep nursing students engaged while reinforcing clinical content. Wh...

🎙️ The Game of Loss: A Gentle Way to Teach Empathy in Nursing In this episode of Learning Lab RN , I talk with Julie Robertson, an OB instructor and bereavement counselor, who shares how she teaches empathy through an activity called The Game of Loss . This 45-minute interactive experience is designed to help nursing students practice perspective-taking by imagining life with a chronic illness, no...

🎙️ The OB Blitz: Hands-On Mastery in One Day In this episode of Learning Lab RN , we talk with Dr. Laura Dana, a simulation coordinator in Colorado, who shares her innovative solution to an OB nursing class at risk of failure: the OB Blitz Day . This immersive, all-day simulation event ensures every student experiences the key components of OB care, from hands-on delivery practice to neonatal asse...

🎙️ It’s Snowing at the Picnic: Teaching the Clinical Judgment Model Without Medical Content In this episode of Learning Lab RN , we talk with Victoria Deardorff, an emergency department nurse educator who developed the Prioritization Picnic , a delightfully nonclinical activity that breaks down the clinical judgment model in its simplest form. Initially created for a pre-nursing class, this activi...

🎙️ Using Clinical Loitering Tickets to Boost Engagement In this episode of Learning Lab RN , Brianne Conley shares a clever idea to shift students from “hiding in the charting room” to fully engaging in clinical: clinical loitering tickets . These simple slips help students stay present, focused, and accountable during their clinical shifts. We talk about how she introduces the tickets, how studen...