Nurse Educator Tips for Teaching

Active learning develops students' critical thinking and communication skills, ensuring a safe learning environment. Incorporating principles of practice testing in active learning promotes student learning. This podcast with Drs. Genevieve Elrod and Kellie Riley presents a teaching strategy to promote student-centered learning using gaming as a framework. The outcomes of this strategy is a reduction in stress prior to an exam and enhanced ownership of learning and application of content and concepts.

Dr. Valerie Seney discusses a teaching strategy she developed to enhance the empathy of nursing students when caring for patients with substance use disorder (SUD). Learn about this strategy, what inspired Dr. Seney to develop it, and how you can use it in your own courses not only for teaching about SUD but also for other patient conditions.

Dismantling racism in health care and education is predicated on our ability to increase diversity in the health care workforce, particularly in nursing. Yet, the lack of nurses from historically and systemically excluded groups persists. Stress and trauma can be impediments to academic success for students historically excluded from nursing. In this podcast Drs. Najjar and Noone discuss the implementation of a trauma-informed approach to help students learn within a culture of mutual trust, respect, and collaboration, and one that embraces diversity.

Dr. Mary Ann Dugan and Ms. Chelsea Lebo describe an  innovative teaching strategy they developed for nurse practitioner (NP) students. Each student manages care of a patient for 3 consecutive episodic visits in a telehealth simulation using Zoom and standardized patients. Each visit is 20 minutes in length. After students complete a visit, they write a subjective, objective, assessment, and plan (SOAP) note and make a call to a pharmacist for a prescription (audio submission). They describe the strategy in their article.

DNP-prepared faculty entering an academic role are expected to maintain a clinical practice, teach/advise students, and fulfill service obligations, often leaving minimal time to build a program of scholarship. Dr. Jayne Dunlap, Dr. Tracy Brewer, and Dean Rosalie Mainous describe a new model they developed to provide external mentorship for DNP-prepared faculty to facilitate their scholarship. This model builds on the archetype of external mentors for PhD researchers.

Read their article in Nurse Educator: it is Open Access.

In this podcast Dr. Beth Phillips, Nikita Khalid, and Nicole Zapparrata describe ATI's Engage Fundamentals. This is an online interactive educational program that can be used in place of textbooks for nursing students. Be sure to also read their article in Nirse Educator: "Benefits of an online interactive educational program over traditional textbooks." The article is open access so you can read it for free.

Effective communication is essential to foster relationship-centered nursing care. Students should learn to adapt communication techniques within context and address sensitive topics. This includes competency with therapeutic communication techniques such as empathy, paraphrasing, and asking clarifying questions. This podcast with Dr. Seibert, Ms. Davis, and Dr. Carter presents a teaching strategy that actively engages students in a role-play scenario to promote effective communication in a foundation nursing course.

Free riding, characterized by a lack of equal contributions to a group assignment, poses a significant challenge to the equitable distribution of credit and recognition in assigning a grade for a group project.  Such behavior may generate frustration and resentment among diligent students. This podcast with Dr. Margaret Jeanne Calcote and Dr. Candon Garbo presents 3 teaching tips to prevent free-riding when students are engaging in group work.

The “Wellness Wheel” recognizes the multifaceted approach that is an effective way to work toward mental well-being. It is a visual tool that helps understand the factors (emotional, intellectual, physical, social, environmental, financial, and spiritual) that affect mental health. The Wellness Wheel prompts introspection, self-reflection, and should lead to goal setting. This podcast with Dr. Catherine Stubin discusses how the “Wellness Wheel” strategy helps prepare students for nursing practice

Over the last 5 years, evidence about the common practice of assigning learners to the observer role in simulation has proliferated. The majority of evidence supports that there is no significant difference in cognitive knowledge outcomes between participant and observer roles in simulation when observers have direction and clear objectives. This podcast with Dr. Brandon Kyle Johnson and Dr. Mary Fey presents a strategy in which observers take active and engaging roles in simulation. The podcast focuses on a “Fiction Contract” to prepare students for a real-life simulation scenario. Learn more by reading their article.