Examinations have long been used in nursing education. Of concern is the fairness to students in the class when a student takes an examination after the originally scheduled date. Students who take examinations late may benefit from additional time to study resulting in an improvement in their score. In this podcast, Briauna Cole and Kelly Lovan-Gold discuss the findings to a study comparing scores between students who took examinations on time and those taking make-up examinations.

Find out if it makes a difference in scores in the podcast and by reading the article.

Clinical elective courses provide additional specialty knowledge for prelicensure nursing students; however, it is unknown how these courses impact nurses' clinical practice after graduation. Drs. Lisa Lewis and Michelle Hartman describe their study on the impact of these electives on new graduates' clinical practice. Half of the new graduates worked in clinical  areas that were the same, or related to, the elective they took. Graduates felt that taking the elective improved their confidence in the clinical setting and provided increased knowledge that put them at an advantage over their peers. Practice partners also reported benefits for their agency.

Learn more about these clinical elective courses in their article.

Faculty awareness of and responses to nursing students’ psychological distress may decrease their experience of negative mental health well-being. Drs. Stubin and Ruth-Sahd describe their exploratory mixed-methods study with 989 undergraduate nursing students from across the U.S. Students’ resilience strategies and supportive faculty actions were predictors of lower depression, anxiety, and stress in students. In this podcast, you also will learn about supportive strategies you can use with students.

Read their article for more specifics about the study.

In this podcast and article, Drs. Karen Weeks, Elizabeth Herron, and Holly Buchanan explain how they link simulation, class, and clinical practice to competencies in their new model of simulation-based educational experience. Not only did they evaluate the outcomes among prelicensure students, but they followed students into practice as new graduates to examine the impact of this model. 

Self-reflection is a valuable method that nurse educators can use to develop clinical judgment skills among prelicensure nursing students. Little research exists on improving clinical judgment in second-degree nursing students in the clinical setting. In this podcast and article, Dr. Jennifer Maffucci presents how shared reflective practices in the clinical setting show promise for increasing clinical judgment and supporting a competency-based curriculum.

Dr. Valerie Eschiti shares her strategy and framework for fostering success in writing and publication for faculty through a writing community of practice.  Hear how she started the community of practice and how she sustains it by providing faculty with knowledge, skills, and community support necessary for scholarly productivity. Find out how you can start your own writing community of practice and encourage nurse experts who are new to writing for publication.

Read her article to learn more.

Dr. Fidel Lim and Dr. Eda Ozkara San discuss their narrative review on methods in which transgender health is taught in undergraduate nursing programs. Didactic lecture is used most widely, followed by role-play simulation, use of film and video, guest presentation, and high-fidelity and standardized patient simulation. They also discuss facilitators and barriers in integration transgender health into nurse education with practical suggestions for faculty interested in incorporating transgender health into the nursing curriculum.

They review key findings in their article.

If you teach in a DNP program, this podcast is for you! Dr. Mary Stachowiak connected 5 phases of the DNP project to the AACN Essentials based on her analysis of the sub-competencies. She also discusses barriers to DNP students completing a robust project and strategies for educators to promote experiential learning during the project journey.

Learn more in her Article

Dr. Rachel Cox Simms describes learning activities she developed for her prelicensure courses using generative AI technology. Learn more about 3 of these stratgies in her article.

Faculty and administrators often struggle to process and understand student course evaluation data. Drs. Stephen McGhee and Dianne Morrison-Beedy explain how data visualization techniques can be used to analyze course evaluation data, identify patterns, and highlight potential areas for course revision. Learn more about this in their article.