Lippincott Spark

What if the real barrier to learning isn't the content to cover, but the confidence to engage? Nursing programs move fast, cycling through skills checkoffs, clinical rotations, and simulation labs with little room to slow down. There's a lot to cover and not much time. But can students fully step into nursing education before they truly believe they belong?

That's the question at the center of this episode of Lippincott Spark: Illuminating Nursing Education, where host Dr. Kelly Dries speaks with Dr. Kathryn Shaffer of Jefferson College of Nursing. Drawing on more than 30 years as a nurse and over 20 years as an educator, Dr. Shaffer makes a case that's both simple and quietly radical: belonging isn't something students earn after they've proven themselves. It's what makes learning possible in the first place.

Why does belonging matter before students build nursing skills?

Dr. Shaffer draws a clear line between inclusion and transformational belonging. Inclusion offers students a seat at the table. Transformational belonging widens the table, because every student's background, perspective, and lived experience make nursing stronger. When that shift happens, something changes in the classroom. Students stop asking whether they're good enough and start asking how they can contribute. That's where professional identity begins, and where clinical judgment takes root.

One redesigned assignment. Unexpected student reflections. In her Introduction to Nursing course, Dr. Shaffer saw how quickly a student's sense of self and purpose can shift when they finally see themselves in the profession. Hear what she changed and what her students shared.

How can nursing educators build belonging from day one?

Dr. Shaffer shares low-cost, practical strategies, including humor, classroom contracts, and calling students "future nurses," to build psychological safety without asking students to earn it. Her approach connects the science of how people learn with the reality of what nursing students carry through the classroom door.

And the conversation goes deeper than classroom culture. Dr. Shaffer talks about preparing students for the moral complexity of real practice, not by shielding them from it, but by helping them find their footing inside it. She revisits the American Nurses Association (ANA) Code of Ethics in a way that reframes self-care not as a wellness trend, but as an ethical obligation. Her approach to a nurse’s well-being connects directly to the kind of healthy work environments students will one day help build.

At the heart of this conversation is identity. Skills can be taught. But educators who invest in belonging help students decide not just what to do, but who they want to become as nurses.

Listen to the full episode for practical ways to make belonging part of learning from day one. Subscribe to Lippincott Spark for more conversations on teaching, belonging, and leadership in nursing education.

For more information and resources:
https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/lippincott-nursing-faculty

The future of nursing education isn’t just about using AI. It’s about learning how to supervise it.

In this episode of Lippincott Spark, host Dr. Kelly J. Dries welcomes back Dr. Judy Herman, Senior Clinical Content Specialist in nursing at Wolters Kluwer and an expert in brain-based learning. Together, they explore how nurse educators can use AI to deepen learning, strengthen clinical judgment, and keep human thinking at the center of safe patient care.

How can AI support deeper learning in nursing education?

Students are already using AI, but they may reach for it to get a quick answer rather than work through a problem. Judy explains how intentional AI use can support the retrieval, repetition, and reflection that meaningful learning requires.

She shares practical strategies, including asking students to critique AI-generated mnemonics, identify inaccuracies, and add unexpected clinical twists to case studies. These activities keep students actively engaged rather than passively consuming information. She also makes the case for handwriting as a powerful brain-based learning tool in a digital world.

For more ideas, explore AI in nursing education: Promise, pitfalls, and possibilities, Ignite active learning in your classroom, and Immersive virtual reality transforming nursing education.

What should students do with AI?

The goal isn’t simply to use AI. It’s to use AI intentionally. Design activities that ask students to question assumptions, apply clinical judgment, evaluate evidence, and explain their reasoning. When students critique and validate AI output instead of accepting it at face value, they develop stronger judgment and deeper understanding. Treat AI as a delegatee, not the decision-maker, and keep educators and students accountable for every output.

Lippincott Nursing Education can help you put these ideas into practice. Listen to the full Lippincott Spark episode with Dr. Judy Herman for practical strategies to help nursing students question, critique, and lead in an AI-driven world.

For more information and resources:
https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/lippincott-nursing-faculty

The most powerful tool a nurse carries isn't a device, a policy, or a clinical model. It's their voice. In this episode of Lippincott Spark, host Dr. Kelly J. Dries sits down with Rosa Hart, a stroke nurse navigator, podcast host, and author whose work reaches more than 100 countries. Together, they explore what it really means for a nurse to have a true seat at the table, not simply a spot on the menu.

Nurses do more than deliver care. They connect, interpret, and translate information across patients, families, and healthcare teams. They turn a patient's needs into language a physician can act on, then turn complex medical terms into words a family can actually understand. That everyday act of translation gives nurses a strategic leadership perspective, allowing them to see patient needs, system gaps, and downstream effects others may overlook.

Rosa makes the case that this perspective belongs in more than one room. Nursing is the most trusted profession, which uniquely positions nurses to shape care, guide public health conversations, and improve the health of whole communities. When a nurse stays quiet, whether by holding back a solution or hesitating to ask a question, patients and organizations lose valuable insight.

At the heart of this conversation is a powerful idea: speaking up is a skill, not a fixed personality trait. It can be taught, practiced, and strengthened from the first day of nursing education. Rosa offers a simple anchor for anyone who feels unsure: it isn't about being the loudest voice in the room. It's about the patient. That fierce, protective advocacy helps even reserved nurses find their voice when it matters most.

A few practical shifts make a real difference:

1. Model confident communication. Lean into your own expertise, and don't let imposter syndrome hold you back.
2. Name the potential you see. Telling a nurse what you notice in them can change their entire trajectory.
3. Start now. Nurses don't need a title, promotion, or perfect confidence to advocate for patients and influence change.
4. Delight in questions. The only unhelpful question is the one no one asks.

Advocacy grows from the bedside outward, to boardrooms, city councils, and state legislatures. Rosa shares real examples of nurses who co-authored laws and turned everyday observations into meaningful change.

Ready to help nurses find and use their voice? Listen to The Nurse's Voice: At the Table, Not on the Menu for practical strategies that empower nurses to advocate, influence decisions, and shape the future of healthcare.

For more information and resources:
https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/lippincott-nursing-faculty

Burnout rarely walks through the door and introduces itself. It shows up quietly: a trusted nurse who's gone silent, a team that's stopped pushing back, a leader running on empty and calling it normal. In this episode of Lippincott Spark, host Dr. Kelly Dries sits down with Lauren Spigelmyer, co-founder of Five Ives framework, to reframe what's really happening, and to challenge a hard truth: building resilient nursing teams may have far less to do with resilience training than you think.
 
At the center of the conversation is the Five Ives framework, a continuum mapped to the nervous system that helps nursing leaders name exactly where they and their teams stand right now. Instead of asking "who's the problem," it asks a more useful question: what state are we operating from, and what would it take to move up? None of these states is a failure. That shift in perspective can change how you deal with a struggling unit, and how you respond to the people you can't afford to lose.
 
Then Lauren introduces the idea that quietly reshapes everything else: your team doesn't just hear you, they experience you. Walk into a meeting rushed, reactive, and stretched thin, and that state spreads across the floor. Walk in grounded, and something different happens. She makes a compelling case that nervous system regulation deserves a place right alongside strategy, communication, and clinical judgment as a core leadership skill, because when you're depleted, you lose access to the creativity, the hard conversations, and the sound decisions that strong patient care depends on. For leaders measured on outcomes, engagement, and stability, the implication is significant: the state of the leader often becomes the state of the team.
 
Here's the part that makes this practical rather than aspirational: real change doesn't require a system-wide overhaul or a bigger budget. Lauren shares small, repeatable shifts you can put to work this week to help address burnout, settle a tense meeting, steady your own reactions, and signal safety to a strained team. They're simple enough to try before your next huddle yet grounded in how the nervous system actually works. Under relentless pressure, those small shifts are often what create the momentum everything else builds on.
 
Dr. Dries and Lauren Spigelmyer also dig into why so many attempts to address burnout fall short, what it looks like when your strongest people go quiet, and how to shift from reactive leadership toward the kind of stability that keeps skilled nurses at the bedside. It's an honest, generous conversation for anyone leading a team while giving it everything they have and wondering how to make that sustainable.
 
If you've ever led a well-intentioned self-care initiative or wellness program and wondered why nothing really changed, this episode offers a different starting point. Self-care matters, but Lauren makes clear it can't carry the full weight of a strained system. You'll discover a new lens for understanding team dynamics and practical structural tools you can apply immediately, helping you address the conditions that drive burnout, disengagement, and turnover.
 
Ready to see where you and your team land on the continuum, and what to do next? Listen to the full Lippincott Spark episode with Lauren Spigelmyer to hear the complete framework, the science behind it, and her practical tools for building lasting workforce stability.

For more information and resources:
https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/lippincott-nursing-faculty

In this episode of Lippincott Spark, host Dr. Kelly Dries sits down with Dr. Annette Severson, critical care nurse, educator, and author of the medical suspense novel Forced Errors, to explore how storytelling can help nursing students move beyond checklists and develop stronger clinical judgment. 

Dr. Severson believes the biggest gap in nursing education isn't a lack of knowledge or technical skills. Instead, it's helping students interpret complex clinical situations as they unfold. In practice, patient care is constantly changing, and nurses must reassess information, recognize patterns, and adapt their decisions in real time. That's where storytelling comes in. Through narrative immersion, students become active participants in realistic clinical situations that challenge them to ask deeper questions: What is really happening here? What assumptions am I making? What clues might I be missing? 

Like a suspense novel, clinical practice often requires nurses to follow the most likely explanation while remaining open to new information that could change their understanding. The conversation also highlights the importance of systems thinking. Rather than viewing errors as isolated mistakes, Dr. Severson demonstrates how workflow pressures, communication challenges, hierarchy, organizational culture, and even everyday tools such as electronic health records can influence patient outcomes. By exploring these dynamics through story, learners strengthen clinical judgment, build emotional intelligence, and better understand how systems influence patient outcomes. 

For educators, narrative immersion offers a flexible teaching strategy that can complement existing approaches such as simulation, case studies, and reflection activities. Dr. Severson shows that even a single chapter or short narrative can spark meaningful discussion, helping students connect leadership, communication, and clinical reasoning to real-world practice. Her closing advice to nurse educators is simple: give students more opportunities to sit with curiosity before rushing to the answer. Developing sound clinical judgment requires more than knowing what to do. It requires learning how to make sense of uncertainty. For nurse educators looking to move beyond memorization and task completion, storytelling offers a powerful way to help students think, question, and reason like nurses before they enter practice. 

Listen to the full Spark Podcast episode with Dr. Annette Severson to discover how storytelling and narrative immersion can help students strengthen clinical judgment, navigate uncertainty, uncover hidden contributors to error, and think more deeply about patient safety.

For more information and resources:
https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/lippincott-nursing-faculty

What if the key to transforming intentional course design in online nursing education isn't more content, but more purposeful learning experiences?

On the latest Lippincott Spark Podcast, host Dr. Kelly J. Dries talks with Dr. April D. Matthias, professor of nursing at UNC Wilmington and certified nurse educator with more than 25 years of experience, about a deceptively simple idea: in online learning, course design is teaching.

For Dr. Matthias, design determines everything: how learners connect with you, with each other, and with the material. She builds her approach on two structures. The first is alignment, the foundation that keeps content, activities, and assessments tied to intended learning outcomes. When students see that clear path, adult learners stay motivated and engaged. The second is engagement, built on three pillars: learner to content, learner to educator, and learner to learner. 

Together, these pillars close the isolation gap that so often undermines nursing student success in online programs. Design done well doesn't just look good. It works. Dr. Matthias shares what she learned during a five-year journey to Quality Matters certification, including how her team tackled accessibility and standardized templates without sacrificing academic freedom. She explains why every resource, from PDFs to videos, should be accessible to all learners, and how consistent navigation frees students to focus on building the clinical judgment they'll carry into practice. 

She also connects course-level choices to the bigger picture. Strong nursing education alignment, where course objectives map to program outcomes and professional standards, turns a collection of individual courses into a coherent, outcomes-focused experience. That's the difference between fragmented learning and learning that prepares students for real-world nursing practice. 

The episode is packed with practical strategies you can apply right away, from welcome videos and structured peer review to backward design that starts with the end in mind. If you're rethinking how your online courses run, these are the tools that support both student success and satisfaction. To put this thinking into action, explore Lippincott nursing education solutions built to support intentional, outcomes-focused design. 

Listen to the full conversation with Dr. April D. Matthias to discover practical strategies for designing engaging, outcomes-focused online nursing courses.

For more information and resources:
https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/lippincott-nursing-faculty

What if the most powerful way to strengthen clinical judgment begins not in the classroom or simulation lab, but in the first five minutes at the bedside?

On this episode of the Spark Podcast, host Dr. Kelly J. Dries sits down with Dr. Dana Schardt to explore one of the biggest challenges in nursing education: helping students develop clinical judgment in nursing education and think like nurses in real clinical environments.

While many students enter clinicals with foundational skills, applying those skills under pressure is a different story. Dana unpacks why novice nurses often experience cognitive overload the moment they step onto a busy unit, and how fear, distractions, and task-focused thinking can prevent them from recognizing what matters most for patient care.

In this episode, the conversation dives into practical, evidence-based strategies faculty can use to make clinical reasoning visible and teachable, without adding more paperwork or taking valuable time away from patient care. Dana shares a simple five-step bedside framework, Look, Listen, Trend, Check, Act.  This approach helps students organize their thinking, identify priorities, and build the pattern recognition that supports sound clinical judgment.

Kelly and Dana also discuss quick, high-impact teaching techniques faculty can use during everyday clinical moments, including asking the right-thinking questions, normalizing uncertainty, partnering with staff nurses, and using brief clinical judgment huddles to strengthen decision-making in real time.

Most importantly, Dana explains how these small, intentional teaching moments shape more than a student's performance for the day. They help build confidence, professional identity, and the ability to recognize and respond when a patient's condition begins to change.

Through real-world examples and actionable takeaways, this episode highlights how educators can transform routine clinical experiences into powerful learning opportunities that prepare future nurses to think critically, advocate effectively, and keep patients safe.

Tune in to discover how everyday clinical interactions can become power opportunities for developing clinical judgment, confidence, and patient-centered decision-making.

For more information and resources:
https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/lippincott-nursing-faculty

The transition from expert clinician to nurse educator is not always easy. While new faculty bring valuable clinical knowledge and real-world experience to the classroom, many quickly experience what is often described as academic shock as they discover that teaching involves far more than sharing what they know. From developing curriculum and designing assessments to navigating accreditation requirements and engaging today's learners, the learning curve can be steep.

In this episode, host Dr. Kelly J. Dries welcomes nurse leader Dr. Anne Brett for a conversation about one of the most effective ways to support new educators: intentional mentoring.

Drawing on more than 40 years of experience in nursing education and academic leadership, Dr. Brett explores why many new faculty struggle during the transition to academia and how mentoring can help bridge the gap between clinical expertise and teaching success. She shares practical examples of both formal and informal mentoring approaches, highlighting how strong relationships can build confidence, reduce feelings of isolation, and create a foundation for long-term growth.

The discussion also examines the broader impact of mentoring on nursing programs. As faculty shortages continue to challenge nursing programs, supporting new educators from day one is essential to program stability, faculty well-being, and student success. Dr. Brett explains how effective mentoring not only benefits new faculty, but also strengthens teams, improves retention, and helps create healthier academic environments for everyone involved.
 
Whether you are stepping into academia, mentoring a colleague, or leading a nursing program, this conversation offers practical insight, encouragement, and strategies you can put into action.
 
Listen now to hear why mentoring matters, what effective support looks like, and how nursing programs can help new educators thrive from the very start.

For more information and resources:
https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/lippincott-nursing-faculty

Could emotional intelligence be the most overlooked clinical skill in nursing? In this episode of Lippincott Spark, Dr. Kelly Dries sits down with nurse leader and educator Dr. Pamela Stokes to explore how emotional intelligence builds trust, reduces burnout, strengthens teams, and improves outcomes across nursing practice and education. 

Drawing on more than two decades of clinical, academic, and executive experience, Dr. Stokes breaks down what emotional intelligence actually looks like at the bedside, in the classroom, and on the unit. She's candid about the personal cost of environments where it's missing, and she makes a compelling argument for why nurses, educators, and leaders can no longer afford to overlook it.

The conversation goes beyond definition. Dr. Stokes tackles the hard topic of incivility in nursing, explores what it takes to build psychologically safe teams, and shares why emotional intelligence may be the most underused tool leaders have for reducing burnout and strengthening interprofessional collaboration. Dr. Kelly Dries, host of Lippincott Spark, adds her own practical tools to the mix, including a one-minute daily reflection that can reset how you show up for your patients, your team, and yourself. Emotionally intelligent nurses earn greater trust, navigate conflict more effectively, and help create stronger unit cultures.  

But perhaps the most important thing Dr. Stokes wants you to walk away knowing is this: emotional intelligence isn't a personality trait you either have or don't. It's a skill. It's teachable. And it belongs in every nursing curriculum, every leadership strategy, and every clinical environment.

Listen to discover practical strategies for building emotional intelligence and learn why this often-overlooked skill may be one of the strongest predictors of nursing success.

For more information and resources:
https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/lippincott-nursing-faculty

What does it really mean to become a nurse—not just in skills, but in identity?

On the Lippincott Spark: Illuminating Nursing Education podcast, Dr. Kelly J. Dries sits down with Dr. Marlo Robinson, Dean and Vice President of Purdue Global School of Nursing, to explore the role of professional identity in shaping today’s nurses.

Together, they discuss why identity matters, how it evolves over time, and what educators and leaders can do to intentionally support that growth, helping nurses become confident, purpose-driven professionals.

In this episode, you’ll gain insight into:

- Why professional identity is foundational to nursing practice
- How it influences confidence, decision-making, and leadership
- Ways mentorship and learning environments can shape who nurses become

From early training through lifelong practice, identity is what connects what nurses do to who they are. Listen now to discover how to better support nurses in growing into their full professional identity.

For more information and resources:
https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/lippincott-nursing-faculty