Nurse Educator Tips for Teaching

Loneliness, hopelessness, depression, and suicidal ideology are mental health problems globally. Nursing students often juggle work, family, and school responsibilities that may predispose them to overwhelming anxiety and perhaps depression. Dr. Ronda Mintz-Binder presents strategies that nursing programs can use to assess students who are at risk for depression and suicide.

Nurses and nursing students may care for transgender and gender non-binary patients. Dr. Amie Koch explains how to ask a person about pronouns to use and shares examples. She also provides strategies if you use the wrong pronouns with a transgender or non binary person or witness it.

Faculty may be reluctant to fail a nursing student with a disability, or they may have difficulty in differentiating disability from inability or a knowledge deficit. Dr. Leslie Neal-Boylan discusses the concept of "failure to fail" with regard to nursing students with disabilities.

Gen Z  students (born between 1995 and 2009) are now in nursing programs. Important key differences with Gen Z’s worldview include familiarity with technology, diversity, and economics. This generation has seen historic events such as legislation for same sex marriage, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the fight for transgender rights, which has led them to focus on a “We” view of the world as compared to “Me.” This podcast with Dr Melissa Owen presents strategies that nurse educators can use to promote learning in Gen Z students.

In this podcast you will learn about using affirmations for teaching in nursing and how faculty implemented affirmations in their online course. Drs. Lewandowski, Mathew Joseph, and Schaefer explain this strategy to listeners.

Orientation to the faculty role is a challenge to novice faculty members, especially nurses who are making a career transition from the clinical setting to academia with little to no experience teaching nursing students. This podcast with Dr. Julia Rogers presents effective orientation strategies that are based upon an integrative review of the literature in nurse orientation. The podcast focuses on topics such as academic culture, teaching strategies, scholarship, service, and mentorship.

A healthy work environment in an academic nursing setting is achieved when there is a culture that is positive, supportive, safe, collaborative, empowering, motivational, respectful, caring, and satisfying. This podcast presents strategies that nursing faculty and administrators can use to integrate these into the program mission, vision, and curriculum to promote optimal program outcomes. In this podcast, Dr. Jana Saunders emphasizes actively listening, effective or “true" communication, collaboration, and the importance of self-care.

Once the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, mitigating measures to control the virus were quickly implemented. The measures created significant disruption to personal, professional, and academic lives. This podcast with Dr. Tina Antill Keener presents the results of research that addresses the impact of the unprecedented pandemic on the quality of life for faculty and students. There is a focus on strategies to promote resiliency among faculty and students.

Test item construction and analysis requires ownership of all school of nursing faculty to ensure test integrity and achievement of program outcomes. This podcast (Part 2) with Dr. Lisa Jones presents how one school of nursing implemented a stand-alone committee to help faculty develop and analyze blueprinted test items. The podcast addresses the process of reviewing item and test psychometrics and suggestions for nursing faculty exploring the creation of an exam-writing or testing committee.

Test item writing and analysis are always a challenge for nursing faculty. Having a committee devoted solely to this topic helps faculty to develop test items within a collaborative environment. Dr. Lisa Jones discusses the structure and function of her school’s exam writing committee, the importance of ongoing faculty development in test item writing, and tips to help ensure testing integrity to avoid student cheating. Tune in for Part 2 of this podcast on test and item analysis on 2-10-21.