Nurse Educator Tips for Teaching

Although the numbers of nurses from historically underrepresented ethnic and racial populations are increasing in the workforce, the distribution of nurses in the US is still not representative of the population. In this podcast and article, Dr. Joanne Noone and Ms. Adriana Valenzuela Martinez present their program that improved the underrepresented nursing student population from 11% to 33%.

Dr. Erika Janssen and Dr. Lindsay Morgan explain the Dunning-Kruger effect and how it influences self-assessment of cultural competence in nursing students. Their research revealed that students with no direct care experience in LGBTQ+ communities were more confident in their communication skills and culturally congruent care than those who had been exposed to sexual minorities in clinical settings. In this podcast, learn more about how knowledge of the Dunning-Kruger effect can help nurse educators continuously improve curricula and guide students to develop greater self-awareness of gaps in competency in delivering culturally congruent care.

Learn more about this research in their article.

In this podcast, Dr. Karen Mihelich describes the impetus behind development and implementation of experiential education focused on food insecurity in her local community. She integrated community-engaged service, implicit bias education, teamwork and communication, budget management, and essential DNP competencies into a community-engaged practicum and service project. Listen to her story and learn how her students and community partners responded, and find out how she and her students and colleagues sustained this community project.

Dr. Mihelich provides more details in her article.

Exposure to workplace violence (WPV) is common in health care, and little is known about nurse practitioner (NP) students' experiences during their graduate nursing clinical education. In this podcast, Drs. Kristin Gigli and John Gonzalez describe the findings from their study on WPV experienced by NP students. A total of 334 NPs responded. More than a quarter (27%) of these students experienced WPV during their graduate program: preceptors were the most reported perpetrators (44%). In this podcast, the authors describe relevant federal policies and share strategies that schools of nursing can use to reduce student exposure to WPV.

Read the full study in their article.

Faculty in a Family Nurse Practitioner program integrated entrustable professional activities (EPAs) that aligned with the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Essentials and National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties Core NP Competencies into their clinical assessment tool. Student performance expectations at different points in the program were outlined. Students documented each time they performed an EPA during clinical experiences. Drs. Angel Anthamatten and Courtney Pitts discuss this initiative and outcomes in the podcast.

Read the full article (it is open access).

The integration of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT into nursing education marks a transformative advance in personalized learning and interactive engagement. Variability in faculty's experience with AI outputs highlights the need for well-crafted prompts that align with educational objectives, maximize learning outcomes, and ensure contextual relevance. Effective prompting is a key to eliciting accurate, relevant responses from AI, fostering a dynamic learning environment that bolsters student comprehension of complex topics. Learn more about prompt engineering in this podcast with an expert, Dr. Grace Sun. She explains this further with many other examples in her article.

Nursing students should learn how to communicate effectively in their written assignments. Good writing skills are an indication of how the student processes information. Poor writing skills may impact patient care. This podcast with Miriam Bowers-Abbott discusses ways nurse educators can improve interrater reliability in the evaluation of students' written work. Learn more about using Minimum Standards in her article.

Metacognitive exam review tools, also called exam wrappers, are a promising intervention to address the problem of poor exam performance. Tools of this kind have been shown to positively impact student learning, confidence, and exam performance across multiple disciplines and levels of education, but little is known about the use of exam wrappers in nursing education. In this podcast, Jessica Gay presents the results of a research study about the efficacy of exam wrappers as a student success strategy. Be sure to read their article too.

Dr. Kateryna Metersky uses poetry as a teaching strategy in her courses.  She describes the process she uses to teach through poetry, strategies for implementing poetry in a variety of nursing courses, and positive outcomes of this teaching approach. She also shares challenges she has encountered. A special part of this podcast is Dr. Metersky reading her own poetic expression for listeners.

Digital simulations, such as computer-based and virtual reality (VR)-based, have been increasingly supported as simulation modalities in nursing education. This podcast presents a VR experience for students to promote communication, critical thinking, and clinical reasoning in a prelicensure nursing program. Drs. Willett, Chung, Adelman-Mullally, and Ng, authors of the article, share lessons learned as they implemented VR in their program.