Preparing New Clinical Educators: 10-Year Outcomes of a Hybrid Program.

BACKGROUND: Recruitment and retention of new clinical educators is of urgent concern as it coincides with a growing need for qualified RNs. One solution is to provide intensive training experiences for expert clinicians who can become educators. METHOD: This mixed-method research reports on 10-year outcomes of one hybrid program and the improvements made to align with best practices in learning in an online environment. RESULTS: From 2012 to 2021, a total of 264 participants completed the program, with 71% taking teaching positions in 21 of 26 Maryland nursing programs. Aggregate data from surveys and focus groups revealed a need for improvements in the organization of program materials, strategies to help participants manage the program's pace, and further efforts to create an ongoing sense of community. CONCLUSION: In the past 10 years, the Faculty Academy and Mentorship Initiative of Maryland has recruited, educated, and inspired clinicians for educator roles while using data to drive change and improve the participant experience. [J Nurs Educ. 2023;62(12):701-705.].

Using Toolkits to Improve Students' Skills in Advocacy.

BACKGROUND: Advocacy is widely recognized as a nursing responsibility. Speaking up, a form of advocacy, is known to benefit patient safety and quality of care yet research shows that nurses are hesitant to speak up and face multiple barriers when deciding to do so. METHOD: A toolkit that included web-based learning modules and simulation experience with a standardized patient was developed to enhance advocacy skills in baccalaureate nursing students. Student perceptions of the efficacy of this approach were used to revise and improve toolkit materials. RESULTS: There were 131 participants over four semesters. Students reported the toolkit helped them understand how to use advocacy skills (87%), allowed them to use critical thinking (97%), and practice advocacy (94%). CONCLUSION: Educational experiences like this promote development of students' advocacy skills in a safe environment and can be used to bridge the gap between expectation and practice. [J Nurs Educ. 2022;61(10):599-602.].

Increasing the Number of Faculty With CNE® Certification: A Statewide Initiative.

ABSTRACT: This article describes outcomes of a statewide initiative to increase the number of faculty with the National League for Nursing's Certified Nurse Educator (CNE®) credential. After offering CNE preparation workshops and creating a certification award, data were collected on perceived workshop effectiveness, readiness to test, certification pass rates, and characteristics of award recipients. The number of certified faculty increased by 92.3 percent, representing 24 of 28 nursing programs. Maryland faculty were awarded $625,000 through the Academic Nurse Educator Certification award.

Nurse Faculty Shortage: Voices of Nursing Program Administrators.

BACKGROUND: The nurse faculty shortage has impacted current and future nursing workforce needs and health outcomes. What has not been expansively reported is the perspective of nursing program administrators as they grapple with the nurse faculty shortage and its effect in their schools. PURPOSE: The purpose was to explore nursing program administrators' perspectives of the nurse faculty shortage. METHOD: Administrators from 8 community colleges and 8 universities representing undergraduate and graduate nursing programs in the mid-Atlantic region participated in semistructured interviews pre-coronavirus disease (SARS COVID-19). Researchers used a 7-stage Heideggerian hermeneutic analysis. FINDINGS: Twenty-four interviews elicited 4 themes: onboarding and integration; "elephant in the room"; making do: getting by; and changing expectations. CONCLUSIONS: Administrators faced increasing faculty workloads, academic/practice pay disparities, and staffing challenges-a stark contrast to their goal of teaching excellence, quality student outcomes, and faculty satisfaction. An unexpected finding was a deterioration in workplace climate and its untoward effects on meeting workforce needs.

Advocacy, Collaboration, and Conflict Management: Teaching Core Skill Sets in Mental Health Nursing.

Caring for individuals with mental illness requires a core set of skills: knowledge of various disorders; therapeutic communication; collaboration with the multidisciplinary team; proficiency as an advocate whether for individuals, families, groups, or populations; and conflict management. In the current study, students completed toolkits with standardized patient experiences (SPEs) to practice core skill sets. Growth occurred in students' therapeutic communication and their ability to care for standardized or simulated patients with complex mental health issues. Proficiency in interprofessional collaboration, advocacy, and conflict management was also noted. Providing students with opportunities to apply leadership skills to care for individuals with complex mental illness may not always be possible in "real world" settings. Use of SPEs and toolkit activities can bridge the gap between classroom/clinical and real world settings and were highly effective in helping students meet core skill sets in mental health settings. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 59(9), 26-29.].

"Learning How to Teach" in Nursing: Perspectives of Clinicians After a Formal Academy.

BACKGROUND: The nursing faculty shortage is expected to persist throughout the next decade. Understanding what influences transition from clinician to educator and retention can improve approaches used in nursing programs for those aspiring to careers in nursing education. PURPOSE: This qualitative study elicited the experiences of participants who completed a structured program to prepare clinicians to become clinical faculty for prelicensure students. METHODS: Focus groups uncovered participant perspectives on "learning how to teach." RESULTS: Using interpretive phenomenological analysis, the themes (1) I'm not sure I can do this, (2) changing perspectives-learning to teach, and (3) instilling confidence emerged. CONCLUSIONS: Novice educators reported benefitting most from exposure to multiple teaching methods, simulated teaching encounters, and group debriefing as they learned to become educators.

Waging the War on Clinical Grade Inflation: The Ongoing Quest.

This study examined the presence of grade inflation in clinical courses 9 years after implementing strategies to improve grading precision. A comparison of clinical grades for cohort I (1997-2002) with cohort II (2009-2016) showed statistically lower grades in 2 courses (Adult 1 and Maternity) for cohort II. Suggestions for changing the way clinical experiences are planned, executed, and evaluated are provided.

From Expert Clinician to Nurse Educator: Outcomes of a Faculty Academy Initiative.

The Eastern Shore Faculty Academy and Mentorship Initiative, a collaborative program among 3 nursing programs in rural Maryland, was developed to facilitate the transition of expert clinicians from diverse backgrounds in clinical specialty areas with critical shortages to new roles as part-time clinical faculty. Initial outcomes include 32 Academy graduates, with 37.5% representing diverse backgrounds and 37.5% in needed clinical specialties. This initiative represents an innovative approach to meeting the challenges of the nursing faculty shortage through collaborative efforts and creative solutions.

Expert clinician to clinical teacher: developing a faculty academy and mentoring initiative.

The lack of sufficient numbers of qualified nursing faculty to prepare nursing students for entry into the field of nursing is of national and international concern. Recruiting expert clinicians and preparing them as clinical teachers is one approach to addressing the faculty shortage. Adequate training for the new role is paramount to promote job satisfaction and reduce attrition. Various models for orienting and preparing expert nurse clinicians as clinical educators are reported in the literature with little consensus or research to support a single approach. This paper describes a collaborative effort to prepare experienced registered nurse clinicians for new roles as part-time clinical faculty. Using a blend of learning strategies (face-to-face, online, simulation, and group mentoring sessions), this training experience was designed to cover content while promoting discussion of issues and challenges and providing much-needed mentorship. Outcomes include 12 new clinical faculty, 25% from groups underrepresented in nursing, with nine newly employed as part-time clinical teachers.

Making it real: using standardized patients to bring case studies to life.

With increases in the overall number of individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), nurse educators must provide experiences that help nursing students learn how to better communicate and care for individuals with this disorder. This article describes how two learning strategies-case studies and standardized patients-were combined to facilitate the development of therapeutic communication and assessment skills. Two case studies on PTSD were written, and actors were trained to portray the individuals in the case studies. Fourteen baccalaureate nursing students enrolled in a senior-level psychiatric nursing clinical course participated in this pilot alternative learning activity. This article describes the learning activity and presents student evaluations of the assignment.

From community outreach to reaching students: using public access television as an educational strategy.

Nursing faculty are not only charged with educating students in creative and engaging ways but also expected to participate in service activities that benefit the surrounding community. One such initiative was the creation of a television health education series hosted by nursing faculty. The authors describe the evolution of a partnership between a university-based public access television channel and the nursing department that provided community education while enriching both the undergraduate and graduate nursing curricula.

Cinemeducation: teaching end-of-life issues using feature films.

Given the rapidly escalating older adult population and the need to strengthen content on end-of-life care in nursing curricula, finding creative strategies to encourage student thinking about the dying process and personal choice in end-of-life care is a timely challenge for nurse educators. There is an evolving body of literature in a variety of disciplines on cinemeducation, or the use of films to promote learning and personal awareness. This article describes an innovative assignment incorporating feature films designed not only to enhance student knowledge of the stages and process of grief and the complexity of human reactions when facing end-of-life situations, but also to engage students in thinking about the importance of quality of life in palliative care. The assignment was given to students enrolled in a second-semester, junior-level advanced adult health nursing course. Faculty and student evaluations of the assignment are discussed, and suggestions for selecting films and structuring such an assignment are proposed.

A review of intervention studies to promote NCLEX-RN success of baccalaureate students.

Numerous studies have identified factors to predict NCLEX-RN but few have evaluated interventions to promote success. An integrative literature review of intervention studies used in baccalaureate programs to improve NCLEX-RN success demonstrated that although pass rates increased, researchers were limited in their ability to attribute success specifically to the interventions. Further investigation using more rigorous designs with larger, diverse student groups to evaluate both type and timing of various interventions is recommended.

Developing a practical evaluation tool for preceptor use.

After years of dissatisfaction with existing instruments, a tool for preceptors to evaluate an undergraduate student's clinical performance was developed, with preceptors' input in its construction. A 2-year pilot evaluation revealed notable problems including excessively high preceptor ratings and significant disparities between faculty and preceptor ratings. Further revisions were made, reducing indicators to those which the preceptors can actually evaluate on an everyday basis and developing a rubric. Additional recommendations to bolster the quality of ratings are improving orientation and guidance of preceptors and modifying procedures for giving feedback.

The changing face of accelerated second bachelor's degree students.

Although accelerated second bachelor's degree programs have existed for more than 30 years, few studies have tracked the changing student profile over time. This study compared demographics and academic performance of accelerated students enrolled during 1997 to 2003 with those enrolled during 2004 to 2006 at a small, rural, public mid-Atlantic university. Recently enrolled students were older, more diverse in gender and ethnicity, held multiple degrees, and had a significant time delay since their first degree. Modifications in educational strategies, support services, and curricular design, as well as suggestions for future research are proposed.

California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory: further factor analytic examination.

The stability of the factor structure of the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory was re-examined using a convenience sample of 800 undergraduate students from nursing (n=520 first bachelors' and n=185 second bachelors' students) and biology (n=95) enrolled in introductory courses in their majors at a 4-yr. mid-Atlantic public university. Ages ranged from 17 to 54 years (M = 23.0, SD = 5.9), with 92 men and 707 women (1 missing). 685 participants identified themselves as Euro-American, 65 as African American, 9 as Hispanic, 26 as Asian, and 11 as "Other" (4 missing). The inventory developed by Facione in 1994 is a 75-item, forced-choice, adjective checklist, yielding seven subscores and a total score assessing testees' disposition toward critical thinking. A principal components factor analysis did not replicate the original factor structure of seven factors but supported the stability of a four-factor structure which had emerged in previous work by Walsh and Hardy and by Kakai. When the 75 original items were reduced to 25, the explained variance for the inventory improved from 27% to 44.95%. Thus, further investigation and continued refinement is warranted.

Measuring critical thinking: one step forward, one step back.

When critical thinking was identified as an explicit program outcome by the National League for Nursing in 1991, nursing programs were thrust into frenzied activity defining critical thinking and selecting instruments to evaluate it. This drove research on the measurement of critical thinking among nursing programs and the concomitant search for reliable and valid methodologies to systematically assess changes in critical thinking in their students. Although the ultimate goal of this process was curricular improvement, nearly 15 years later, faculty struggle to make sense of the data they have.

Critical thinking: back to square two.

Tracking the development of critical thinking in students presents challenges for nursing programs. After 8 years of measuring critical thinking with mixed results, faculty at one school analyzed current beliefs and practices with a focus on the type of thinking that is reinforced in both classroom and clinical settings and the effects of classroom technology on critical thinking. Recommendations for the conceptualization of critical thinking and its measurement, as well as teaching strategies to emphasize principles over "coverage," are proposed.

Measuring critical thinking in graduate education: what do we know?

Accrediting and specialty organizations agree that a master's education expands critical thinking skills gained during undergraduate study, yet a review of literature revealed a lack of research measuring critical thinking of students enrolled in postbaccalaureate education in nursing and other fields. Of 35 studies retrieved, 17 were conducted on undergraduate nursing students, with the remainder spread across practicing RNs, and master's level students in physical therapy, business, medicine, and nursing. A critique of this research and recommendations for future study are presented.