Nurse Educator Tips for Teaching

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

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.