Nurse Educator Tips for Teaching

Latest Episodes:

Entry and Exit Tickets Feb 04, 2026

Show notes

First-semester nursing students often struggle to connect health assessment and skills lab content with clinical expectations. To bridge this gap, Dr. Pendergraft-Horne and Cory Smith implemented structured entry and exit tickets in labs, guided by the Transparency in Learning and Teaching framework and Bloom's higher-order thinking skills. These tools fostered accountability, clinical application, and inclusive practice. In this podcast and article, they describe this innovative strategy.

Mixed Reality Approach to IV Simulation With Bimanual Haptic Feedback Jan 21, 2026

Show notes

Peripheral intravenous catheter (PIVC) insertion is an essential skill for nurses. Students, however, face challenges in learning PIVC insertion due in part to limited opportunities for hands-on practice with real patients. Traditional training methods with low-fidelity task trainers lack variability and depend on costly consumable products. To address this gap, Dr. Jeremy Jarzembak and his team developed a bimanual haptic feedback mixed reality IV simulator. This technology simulates IV needle insertion under diverse conditions. Their article explains the development of this new technology and reports findings on students' improved confidence and success rate.

Engaging Students in Defensive Documentation Jan 21, 2026

Show notes

Nursing students need to develop strong documentation skills. In this podcast and article, Lacy Hester describes an interactive classroom activity she developed that immerses students in a realistic legal scenario where they need to defend their own clinical documentation. Using de-identified notes from students' previous simulations, skills labs, and patient care assignments, students critically review the notes and rewrite entries using correct terminology and format. Students learn to justify their documentation choices and consider the legal implications of their wording.

Less Reading, More Learning: Boosting Engagement by Scaling Back Homework Jan 21, 2026

Show notes

Generation Z health professions students often struggle to stay engaged with large volumes of assigned readings, especially when the reading involves dense academic texts or unfamiliar vocabulary. Rather than relying solely on independent, out-of-class reading, consider incorporating guided in-class readings as an active learning strategy. Break readings into manageable segments and structure your class to alternate between brief reading periods (5-10 minutes) and guided discussion. This approach helps students process material in real time. Learn more about this classroom strategy from Dr. Kristopher Jackson in this podcast and teaching tip.

Alumni as Guest Instructors in Open Lab Jan 21, 2026

Show notes

Nursing faculty teaching in a prelicensure nursing program implemented a unique way to engage alumni by hosting them as guest instructors during Open Lab experiences. Karen Schofield, Christelle Isaac, and Dr. Bryce Catarelli discuss challenges and benefits to implementing this innovative concept. Additional information can be found in their article.

NP Residency Days as a Transition-to-Practice Clinical Teaching Strategy Jan 07, 2026

Show notes

Nurse Practitioner Residency Days addresses the disconnect between classroom education and real practice. Implementing NP Residency Days into practicum courses gives students real-word clinical challenges and scenarios reflecting the role of the first-year NP. Dr. Emily Lee describes NP Residency Days in this podcast. Read more in her article in Nurse Educator.

From Boomer to Zoomer: Bridging Generational Divides in Nursing Education Jan 07, 2026

Show notes

Nurse educators interact with multiple generations of learners and colleagues. Each generation is unique, which can create divides. In this podcast and article, Dr. Jennifer Chicca shares strategies educators can use to bridge these generational divides.

Media Competency Training Program for Doctoral Nursing Students Jan 07, 2026

Show notes

Despite playing an important role in patient care and advocacy, nurses are consistently underrepresented and quoted in health care media coverage. To address this, Dr. Rachel Malloy developed a media training program for doctoral students based on the 10 published media competencies for nurses. In this podcast and article, she explains why media training for nurses is important, describes the training program, and reports on the outcomes of the program.

Interprofessional Peer Teaching Jan 02, 2026

Show notes

In this podcast and article, Drs. Susan Seibert and Stephanie Rexing describe an innovative teaching strategy with nursing and occupational therapy (OT) students. The students were paired in interdisciplinary dyads – one OT student and one nursing student. The nursing students taught and demonstrated key clinical skills (the accurate measurement of blood pressure, radial pulse, respiratory rate, and pulse oximetry) to the OT students. In turn, the OT students provided instruction on assessing range of motion and gross motor strength. Drs. Seibert and Rexing emphasize the need for students to learn about interprofessional practice when they start their nursing and OT programs.

Intervention for Enhancing Advanced Physical Exam Skills in Graduate Education: The SMOR Toolkit Dec 22, 2025

Show notes

Traditional methods used to teach health assessment skills and diagnostic reasoning in an advanced health assessment and differential diagnosis course limit skill acquisition and personalized feedback. Integrating small-group learning, online simulations, and reflective practice may improve competency outcomes. Drs. Rashmi P. Momin and Kala Christopherson describe a multimodal intervention – the Small-group Learning, Mega Skills Lab, Online Escape Rooms, and Reflection (SMOR) Toolkit – that they developed to enhance students' competencies in health assessment, diagnostic reasoning, and clinical documentation. They share the toolkit and other resources in their article.