Faculty First: Elevating Nursing Education through NLN Faculty Intensives

In this episode of the NLN podcast Nursing EDge Unscripted, host Dr. Raquel Bertiz speaks with guests Dr. Rachel Onello and Dr. Nicole Smith about the transformative impact of the NLN Faculty Intensives Course for nurse educators. The course equips both novice and seasoned faculty with evidence-based strategies in instructional design, curriculum mapping, and the science of teaching and learning. Drs. Onello and Smith emphasize the importance of shifting from clinical expertise to intentional educational practice, helping educators build confidence and improve student engagement. Participants often report personal and institutional growth, with some receiving teaching awards and others reconsidering their career paths in academia. The episode underscores that investing in faculty development not only enhances individual teaching excellence but also drives broader change across nursing programs.

Learn more about NLN Faculty Intensives: https://ondemand.nln.org/product?catalog=NFI2021

Dedicated to excellence in nursing, the National League for Nursing is the leading organization for nurse faculty and leaders in nursing education. Find past episodes of the NLN Nursing EDge podcast online. Get instant updates by following the NLN on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and YouTube. For more information, visit NLN.org.

Transcript

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[Music][Music] Welcome to this episode of the NLN podcast, Nursing EDge Unscripted. I am the host of  today's episode, Raquel Bertiz from the National League for Nursing. In this episode we will shine  a spotlight on what's one of the most transformative professional development  opportunities for nurse educators, the National League for Nursing's Faculty Intensives course.  Today we're joined by course faculty themselves who will share the vision behind the program,  the impact it had on educators and institutions and why so many participants say I wish I had this  course. sooner. Whether you're a nurse educator, a dean or director, advocating for your faculty,  or simply passionate about the future of nursing education, this conversation will give you insight  into how investing in faculty development can transform not just individual careers, but entire  nursing programs. Our guests today are Dr. Rachel Onello, who is a nursing education consultant,  and Dr. Nicole Smith, a co-program director of the University of Maryland School of Nursing. And both  of our guests bring very extensive experiences as nurse educators and as leaders of nursing programs  and they offer unique perspectives on how faculty development can shape not only individual careers  but the future of nursing education. Welcome Dr. Onello and Dr. Smith. Thank you for joining  me today. All right. So can you describe what the NLN Faculty Intensives course is and who  is it designed for and and also kind of like what drew you to become faculty of this course and its  personal meaning to you? Nicole, do you want to start? Sure. The emphasis for this course is built  around instructional design, curricular mapping and the science of teaching and learning. And one  thing that really drew me to the course was I've always believed that developing nurses takes far  more than clinical expertise. And so just helping my colleagues to move beyond just teaching content  toward really intentionally designing meaning for those learning experiences for our students. You  know, we only get one day, sometimes a couple of hours with our learners a week. So we really  have to make every second count. and this course moves learners through all those pieces so they  can build the confidence to teach across learning environments. That's what drew me to this course.  I would agree with Nicole. You know, something that hit me very hard early on was recognizing  the transition, the very, very real transition from expert expert clinician to novice educator.  And a lot of us go through that transition when we enter academia. And unfortunately, there's not  a whole lot of time or resources or access even from our mentors or our colleagues or from our  administration when we enter academia to really build the unique skill set that's grounded in the  art and science of education. And so what really drew me to be involved with Faculty Intensives is  that a huge passion of mine is really focusing on this paradigm shift from nurses who teach  to educators who teach nursing. And that is two very different things. And so I am very passionate  about helping other faculty develop the skills and really hone their art and their practice of  teaching that's aligned with best practices across multiple disciplines. So really in the cognitive  science of learning and classical education, how do we help our learners learn how to learn and how  can we become learning mentors for our students? Because a lot of times the way that they think  that they should be learning is not the way that science really tells us our brain is wired to do  it. And similarly, we as educators aren't always equipped to help mentor them in that way to  learn that. So, that's what really drew me to this course because it's very much grounded in the best  practice of assessment and evaluation, curriculum mapping, lesson planning. How do you even then  take that and bring it into the classroom? And when I say classroom, online, hybrid,  clinical, simulation, face to face in a way that is immersive, interactive, and really builds the  skills around clinical judgment. Yeah. So you both said so many significant statements about  what's currently happening in nursing education around nurse education preparation nurse educator  I should say how are nurses who are going to educate prepared and right now our educators  would enter academia with varying preparation right so in your experience experience. So  what are some of the most common challenges that the nurse educators who registered in  previous Faculty Intensives courses bring into the course or even just your regular observations in  your capacity as as leaders of nursing programs? What are the challenges that new nurse educators  present related to their academic preparation or perhaps their preparation prior to the academic  world? One thing I love about this course is that it's not just for the new educator, right? It can  also be for the experienced educator because if you look at many of the applications and job  postings around the country, many times there's no requirement for formal training and teaching  and learning, right? So this course can be that. And again faculty come to academia with lots of  experience in their expert conditions but going into a classroom or a lab setting or a clinical  environment for the first time with no formal training can be absolutely overwhelming. And  so this course really walks faculty through that curriculum structure demystifying all the pieces  assessment and it allows time for them to have some small wins and small gains and add more to  their toolbox to be successful. So they oftentimes come to the course and say I'm overwhelmed.  Learners aren't engaged. I don't know how to do this. I don't know where my curriculum map is. I  don't understand how to write an objective or how to look at a test. and we walk them through those  pieces and really give them time to apply the concepts and have dialogue about the concepts  to help them add more tools to their toolbox. Yeah. Yep. Having that toolbox, right? Because  and therefore related to the challenges that they don't have the tools right away and and presenting  them with a toolbox is is really a great thing. And you know, you know, talking about the toolbox,  we have been really privileged and honored to have educators join us in these faculty  development sessions and and the cohorts that have been teaching for many years. So, just like Nicole  said, it's not for the novice, just for the novice educator. We've also had educators join us who  have been teaching 10, 20, upwards of 30 years. And it's so interesting because more often than  not, they'll say, "Oh, well, I've learned new things. I've learned some new tools to put in  my toolbox or now I understand why I've been doing the things that I've been doing which now allows  them to communicate that to their learners and explain why, which then translates to buy-in and  less push back and there's also things too that even if you've been an educator for a while we  also dive into this changing landscape of academia we all know that it's constantly changing and so  as the course has evolved over the years it also has been really trying to stay ahead head of some  of the changes in academia. So we talk about competency based education, we talk about AI,  we talk about some of the nuanced legal and academic challenges that we will face as educators  socializing into the role. How do we lead from where we are? Because many of us may not even step  into administrative roles or formal leadership roles, but we can lead from where we are and we  can affect change in our institutions from the roles that we hold. And so we even talk about  that as well. And so it's really nice because we often see a spectrum of educators join us  from the very new like Nicole talked about they're trying to figure out how to write an objective and  you know develop a lesson to the folks who have been teaching a while and are now navigating new  challenges in academia and looking to one find some validation and a community of practice as  well as new ideas and new tools. Yeah. And and that brings to the attention of of everyone all of  us as educators the fact that we might be able to master some of the things that educators would do.  Write exams, teach in the classroom, facilitate learning experiences, but more often than not,  do we know the pedagogies around those things or or evidence or theoretical explanations of  the things we do? And I think the buy-in is very important like why are we doing this knowing that  is really kind of important and I am certain this course really hones that in during the 12 weeks of  interactions as asynchronous and then synchronous sessions that you all have. So  in your years of facilitating this course, can you share stories or or examples of what participants  say or shared with you with how they have grown or transformed because of the course. You know,  one of my favorite aspects of this course is the community of practice that's built and it endures  long beyond the time that we all are together. And so we've heard that some cohorts stay in  touch and many of our colleagues that are in the courses will continue to stay in touch with us  long after the courses end. And so some of the things that we've heard that have just  been really inspiring and encouraging are folks that will email us back and share with us some of  these new teaching techniques or approaches that they're trying out in their academic practice.  You know, most recently we had one of our cohort participants say, you know, I she was relatively  newer. She'd been teaching for several years, but had gained some new tools and shifted her paradigm  a bit on her approach to teaching. And she had been awarded two teaching awards, one from her  colleagues and the other from the students. And you know, it's great to always be recognized by  your colleagues, but man, does it mean something when the students recognize you as adding value to  their learning experience. And so that was really special to hear. There's folks that will come back  and say, you know, they use this as a building block in their trajectory towards certification.  And I and just as a disclaimer, this course is not meant to be a certification prep course.  However it is very much rooted and aligned with an NLN core competencies educator core competencies  and so it becomes a resource for folks who are trying to elevate their practice as an educator  and it helps with that that path. I think finally you know one of the most heartwarming ones that  we had and Nicole you this may stand out to you as well. It was in our last cohort of an educator who  is very seasoned, a wonderful educator clearly had touched a lot of lives over the years and  was at a moment in her career where she was really questioning whether she wanted to stay in academia  and she you know joined this course and through the support of her colleagues that were her in  her cohort and the conversations and the dialogue she really started re-evaluating whether she was  leaving academia. And that was so touching to me because we almost lost a really good educator  that hopefully maybe you know I think a lot of us sometimes feel on an island or sometimes you know  we may as an educator really need the value of someone's outside perspective to help us and I  think this course offers that too as as a form of validation and new perspectives from others and so  she really wanted to re-evaluate and she's staying in education for now and so that was really  heartwarming those stories for me as well Rachel and I think the beauty of us spending the months  together with this course in the asynchronous format and then coming together in a synchronous  fashion is we begin to see those shifts and our colleagues right as as we begin to they learn new  things and try new tools and they begin to really transform their teaching philosophy no matter how  long they've been teaching and so that's beautiful to see how far they've come from where they start  out when they they join with us to the very end of our time together. So yeah and and I  think those stories are very powerful and for me we always have this vision of transforming  nursing education but I also believe that this transformation needs would have to start from  faculty members from the educators themselves. So therefore seeing this transformation among  individual participants do we see any potential impact to transform not just individual faculty  members but institutions as well? Absolutely. We get most of our participants from word of mouth  and the advertisements of course that does but there's a real ripple effect. So we have had some  sessions where there's colleagues from several institutions and again faculty leave us some tools  they can really use immediately right which is going to improve the student learning experience.  We've seen it build capacity for retention and if we can help educators feel more confident  and supported and connected right it's going to improve student experiences. It's going to improve  program outcomes. I think if we were to track this from a from a resource standpoint, we could see it  improve some of the lure and student satisfaction and graduation rates and practice ready. So  absolutely I think it has the ability to transform organizations for consistency and just elevating  teaching practice and teaching excellence. One of my favorite stories about how one educator at one  institution can make transformative change was when the educator started trying out low-hanging  fruit, just some small wins in their classroom that were based on the science of best practice  of teaching and they had small wins and gains that positively impacted the learners and it was the  learners who drove the change. Right? Because and it may not be right. The the day you plant and we  talk about this in the course, the day you plant the seed is not the day you pick the fruit. And so  they're going to be in that class, those educators are going to be just trying it out, trying it out,  you know, going through the grind and they may not see that payoff right away, but where we do  and in the story that I'm sharing it paid off was then the learners who were positively impacted by  that and thought and saw experienced, oh wow, this really is helping me make connections in  the classroom. Oh, I am actually or connections in the clinical too. I am really seeing a difference  on my scores and understanding on my tests and and in my patient practice that shows up then  on an evaluation. And so this educator who was trying these things out, not always, you know,  seeing the immediate reward had an educator come to them and say, "I got this strange comment on my  eval from last semester that said, I really wish that so and so would start doing these activities  that Dr. So-and-so did in her class. Can you tell me about that? And that educator said, "Sure,  how about you come to my class and watch?" And that's how it started to spread by the students  really sharing their voices. And we know in in academia, it's really the student voices  that can affect most change. And so, you know, being consistent, picking the low-hanging fruit,  showing up, you know, really leaning into your teaching philosophy and living that out will  reap the fruit with the learners who then spread that through, you know, talk and they, you know,  they talk through their evals and that then will really put a ball in motion for others to say,  try and get on board with that train. What is it that you're doing in your class that students love  this class? They love how this is taught and you get by in that way and it happens right and that  shows the power of students in driving change and we've seen that so many times we satisfy students  well that's basic but then in the long run if we can see how they're driving learning outcomes  then that's a very powerful driver of change in institutions as Well, and you're both leaders in  your various organizations. How can our leaders in various programs use this course for example  as part of a broader strategy to strengthen their nursing programs, teaching excellence and and even  faculty retention. I think this course could be used for onboarding of new faculty, ongoing  faculty development. I think if leaders take a stance and say support their faculty to engage in  this course, they're making a statement that good teaching matters, right? In addition to service  and scholarship, but that if we build on teaching excellence, we are supporting our students,  we're supporting ourselves. Especially since this course is built through those NLN educator  competencies. So and that drives home the point of good teaching does not just happen. We need  preparation and unfortunately because we don't have a consistent pre-academic world preparation.  Some do of course right but many don't and therefore what do we do when we have our educators  here and now and they need to be supported to be real excellent educators. We need to do something  great. And and now what advice would you give our nurse educators who are hesitant about taking the  Faculty Intensives course? Oh, it's it's too long or I don't have the time and and so many  other challenges that that we have to further our skills or our competencies as nurse educators.  Well, I think I would really highlight I think a beauty and a strength of this course is the hybrid  nature of it, right? So, we've designed it in a way that part of it, you know, the asynchronous  modules are very self-paced. And so, although we have, you know, the three modules that are  asynchronous followed by a synchronous module, it allows some of that flexible room because we  recognize educators, as Nicole likes to say, I'm going to quote her, are time poor, right? We've  got a lot going on, a lot of competing priorities, and sometimes unfortunately investment in  ourselves and our practice takes the backseat to what feels like more urgent pressing matters. And  so, there is flexibility in the time commitment of being able to self-pace through these asynchronous  modules and then have that protected time where we come together for that synchronous module that  is not a rehash of what you did on your own. It's really this immersive active learning,  flexing those teaching muscles, getting feedback from colleagues and peers and experts in building  these skills and building this community of practice, using each other as a sounding board  and then moving back into the asynchronous modules again where there's more flexibility and time. And  so there is more breathing room, more wiggle room that allows the participants to still be able to  invest in themselves and in their practice without feeling like they've got this other commitment  that they've got to be present for every single week at this standing time. I'll just add that  one thing that we often hear participants say is, "I wish I had this course sooner." Mhm. Whether  they are brand new starting and been there a month or they have been there for years. So my advice  would be don't wait even if you feel stretched or short on time that we all are. This course really  meets participants where they are and we have strategies small strategies that you can apply  when you're ready. But the community that we build and the resources that are shared are invaluable  to teaching practice and really creates a roadmap for success in the faculty role. And I think,  you know, and I'm thinking and reflecting on that comment, Nicole, that we do hear a lot, which is,  "I wish I had this course sooner." And if I think about that in my own practice, had I had a course  like this, I would have saved myself a lot of time, a lot of time trying to undo the things  that I probably shouldn't have done. And learning from mistakes and learning from, you know, doing  it probably in an inefficient way that then I had to, you know, backtrack on. So you know an ounce  of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure. So I think in a way equipping ourselves with these  skills, equipping ourselves with the knowledge and understanding of how do you align tightly align  closely align outcomes that are driving teaching strategies that are tied to evaluation methods  that make sense and lead to durable learning and building of clinical judgment. All of  those things actually makes you more efficient as an educator I think. And I think that ties  back to your question, Raquel, if we go back to as administrators, what would you tell administrators  and some of these things that are built into this course around curriculum mapping and understanding  verticality and horizontal alignment and building, you know, tight lessons that have outcomes that  drive evaluation. that pays off tenfold when it comes to time for accreditation and self-study  and having a workforce of educators that really can speak to the pedagogy of what's going on at  your institution. That makes a really robust and and very successful faculty. I know. Yes,  I totally agree with the two of you, especially with just that quote about I wish I had this  course sooner. It resonates with me so much also and and the one thing that I always  reflect on are I would say things that I should not have done but I did not know that before and  how I would probably have harmed individuals I'm hoping not but there is a huge possibility of of  harming learners as Well, because we are not doing evidence-based teaching or the practice  of education that is harmful because it's not safe. So, yeah, the these are things that are  are really going to impact our careers, our our practice as educators. And then we have  resources like this course that we can have moving forward. So yeah, I think and something that we  may not have already talked about but would be worth noting about the course is our focus on how  do we teach in a way that builds clinical judgment by focusing on making thinking visible. So really  what are the strategies as educators that we can use and and we we build on that foundation you  know the basics we have to have about outcomes and evaluation strategies and course mapping and all  that curriculum mapping but when the rubber meets the road when we are in our learning spaces with  our learners whether that's classroom clinical online simulation how do we teach in a way that  makes thinking visible that helps make sure that our learners are getting to the right answers for  the right reasons not getting lucky and getting to the right answers for the wrong reasons  that will lead them into trouble in other situations. And how that thinking can transfer  to other contexts in other environments. And the ability to make thinking visible and to focus on  the cognitive functions that build into clinical judgment is an art and a skill. And it requires  not only practice in doing that as an educator, but also understanding how to do that and what  that looks like in different environments, in different contexts with different learners.  And that is something that we talk very heavily about in the course. And I shouldn't even say  talk because we don't talk about it. We do it. And the other thing too, which is what I think  is so great about this course, is that not only are the educators that are enrolled in the course  learning about best practices and teaching, they're actually experiencing it. The course is  built in a way that they are experiencing what these techniques are like for their learners.  And near the end of the course, we actually draw back the curtain and show them how all of these  techniques, all of these fundamentals, all of these concepts we've talked about were actually  lived out in the course they just walked through with us. And so they're getting to one, experience  it as a learner while also learning about it as an educator to pass on to their learners. So with that said, I would like to thank you Rachel and Nicole for joining us this episode of  Nursing EDge Unscripted and we thank you from the NLN for sharing your insights and expertise and  your ever continuing support in facilitating this course and many other things that you do to really  make this course a very successful one. So, for more information about the NLN Faculty Intensives  course, please go to the website and there are information that would be apparent along with  this podcast as well. So, thank you and we look forward to more conversations in in the future.[Music]