Nurse Educator Tips for Teaching

Although clinical compliance requirements are similar for each hospital, each institution requires students to complete their education materials, resulting in unnecessary repetitive training and time lost gaining valuable clinical experience. Academic and hospital leaders in Maryland implemented a statewide, standardized prelicensure nursing compliance program accessed by nursing programs through a repository for students to complete before their first clinical experience and then annually. This ensures consistent learning and reduces inefficiencies by streamlining compliance processes and operations, resulting in saving time and resources. In this podcast and article, Drs. Crystal DeVance-Wilson, Jennifer Zipp, and Matt Rietschel describe their Universal Onboarding processes and challenges, and share advise with listeners.

Dr. Logan Camp-Spivey describes a simulation they developed that focuses on care of a transgender patient in an emergency situation. The simulation was created to address gaps in nursing students' exposure to transgender patient care and provide practice for students in responding to a code. As part of the simulation, students review the medical records, assess the patient, and respond to a code situation that requires CPR. The feedback from students has been overwhelmingly positive. Learn more about the simulation in their article.

The need to better prepare nursing graduates with essential competencies for beginning practice led to the creation of a unique nursing program that uses an apprenticeship model. In this program, second-degree students are paired with a nurse mentor who serves as their clinical educator for the length of the program. The health care systems employ students as nurse apprentices, provide wages and benefits, and are responsible for their tuition, books, and fees. In this podcast and article, the authors describe the program and curriculum, and share outcomes for students, the school, and the participating health care systems.

This podcast with Drs. Bethany Gilbert and Kimberly Budisalich explores how focused simulation enhances nurse practitioner competence in clinical case presentations. The authors discuss designing realistic scenarios, providing structured feedback, and using deliberate practice to improve clarity, diagnostic reasoning, and interprofessional communication. Outcomes include increased confidence, improved presentation structure, and better readiness for real-world patient care settings.

Alcohol use is common worldwide. Faculty constructed a learning experience for students at a Latino Festival to help them and festivalgoers understand the differences in alcohol content in a variety of Mexican beers. The learning experience engaged students and community members in a fun activity to help them develop an awareness that "Not all beer is equal," with an overarching theme of the impact of alcohol use and misuse and of making wise decisions when consuming alcohol. This podcast with Dr. Sooksai Kaewbua (and article) discusses how the engaging activity was planned, conducted, and evaluated.

Workplace violence is an ever-present problem in the clinical setting. This podcast presents a simulation experience that enables students to assess patient-centered scenarios involving patient verbal incivility. Students learn to assess and respond appropriately to de-escalate a scenario within an effective communication framework. The simulation further enables students to make decisions at pivotal points during the simulation within a safe environment to manage the situation.

Nurses consistently encounter uncertainty in clinical practice, which impacts decision-making. Uncertainty can lead to self-doubt and inaction, particularly in students and novice nurses. In this podcast, Drs. Wendy Greenwood, Alison Pittman, Chelsey Rosen, and Susan McKee present teaching strategies to improve students' tolerance for uncertainty and their decision-making confidence. These strategies incorporate interactive, color-coded clinical scenarios for students to demonstrate clinical reasoning in the face of uncertainty. Learn more about these innovations for your teaching in their article.

Effective artificial intelligence (AI) prompting is essential for students to use AI to enhance critical thinking and clinical decision-making skills. Dr. Zeigler shares a framework she and a colleague developed for effective prompting: the CARE (Context, Action, Role, Expectation) Prompt Engineering Framework. The CARE framework provides a systematic outline for nurse educators to use in teaching students clinical decision-making skills and to ensure that effective AI prompts are used.

Dr. Abby Gramlick-Mueller and Mrs. Casey Olson describe the Academy of Clinical Essentials (ACE) model, an innovative academic-practice partnership. The ACE model includes structured immersion and pairing student cohorts with RN clinical instructors to provide direct patient care. ACE students report higher satisfaction and perceived support than traditional students. The model and its outcomes are described in their article.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can act as a virtual nursing preceptor, providing students with a safe place to practice thinking like a nurse practitioner (NP) before working with real patients. It can present realistic patient scenarios and ask guiding questions, such as which information is most important, which possible diagnoses are most likely, and what is the best plan of care. As students make decisions, the AI can give immediate feedback—pointing out strengths, gaps, and more evidence-based options. This podcast and article discuss how AI is used as a tool to complement actual human interaction to prepare NP students for practice.

The first day of clinical practice can be an anxiety-provoking experience for students. Nursing faculty can be proactive in reducing anxiety by engaging them in a role-play scenario about what to expect during clinical. Role-play is a proven teaching strategy that helps students learn in a safe environment under faculty guidance and with well-defined boundaries. Dr. Sonique Sailsman discusses this role play in the podcast and teaching tip.

In this podcast with Dr. Morgan Yordy, you will learn about her 2-hour elective course, titled Animal Assisted Therapy, that explores the human-animal bond, the roles of animals in communities, and their impact on health and wellness. The course is open to all majors and is especially popular among pre-health care students. One assignment of students is a field trip to a local farm, which provides equine programming for children with physical, emotional, and psychological needs.

Neurodiversity is an umbrella term that describes a wide range of variation in cognition, learning, and behaviors. In this podcast and article, Drs. Cummings and Serembus share inclusive and engaging teaching strategies for neurodivergent students. The strategies incorporate principles of Universal Design for Learning, support social-emotional learning, and provide a sensory-friendly environment that improves learning outcomes of all students.