Optimizing the student learning environment: A framework to select faculty for teaching courses.

Nurse educators must provide high quality student education and demonstrate foundational competencies to fulfill the academic role. Reports on nursing and health care underscore the importance of nurse educators' clinical expertise and educational preparation in teaching; yet, a framework to framework faculty selection and preparation to teach courses does not exist. The purpose of this article is to describe an innovative Faculty-Course Selection Framework (FCSF) for nursing education and discuss two practical examples of application in one school of nursing. The FCSF describes student, organizational, and faculty elements for consideration in determining faculty-course assignment. The fundamental units of the framework include workload needs, credentials, skills, content interest, individual attributes, and commitment. The FCSF equips nursing program administrators and directors to cultivate a highly functioning faculty team that can achieve pedagogical, subject, social, and organizational competence to practice the nurse educator role skillfully and artistically and optimize the student learning environment.

Writing a Diversity and Inclusivity Statement: Guidelines for Nursing Programs and Faculty.

BACKGROUND: For decades, nursing programs have worked to address the need for a culturally diverse workforce and student body to better reflect the populations they serve. The development of a diversity and inclusivity statement is a first step in ameliorating this issue. PROBLEM: A clearly communicated diversity and inclusivity statement should demonstrate a nursing organization's commitment to the value of people from all backgrounds. It should include language that emphasizes the value of diverse cultures, experiences, thoughts, and contributions. APPROACH: Nursing faculty can benefit from an organized and literature-supported model for writing meaningful diversity and inclusivity statements. CONCLUSIONS: Such an approach will communicate a nursing program's commitment to diversity and inclusion in the organization's mission, policies, practices, relationships, and curricula. This article provides nursing faculty with evidence-supported guidelines for writing meaningful diversity, inclusion, and equity statements for their nursing programs.

Appreciative Advising Pilot Study: An Innovative Approach to Advising Doctor of Nursing Practice Students.

BACKGROUND: Traditional advising may not meet the needs of doctor of nursing practice (DNP) students. Founded on the principles of appreciative inquiry, appreciative advising serves as a promising alternative model. PURPOSE: The purpose of this pilot study was to determine feasibility of a DNP appreciative advising model to advise students through the rigors of DNP education and improve student and faculty satisfaction. METHODS: Faculty were oriented to the model and provided comprehensive guidebooks. Survey data were collected at 4 time points. Quantitative survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Qualitative responses were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: Twenty-six students and 7 faculty who participated reported satisfaction with the model and commented that the model allowed for early identification of needs and was helpful and worthwhile. CONCLUSION: The model may hold promise as a solution to assist students in adjusting to DNP education and deserves further exploration as an advising approach.

Appreciative Advising in Nursing Education.

The 6-phase Appreciative Advising framework for academic advising has been incorporated into a nursing program in the southeast United States, with promising initial results. Historical perspectives of academic advising, an overview of Appreciative Advising, and implementation of the framework are presented.

There is an "app" for that: Designing mobile phone technology to improve asthma action plan use in adolescent patients.

PURPOSE: Asthma burden affects mortality, morbidity, quality of life, and the economy. Written asthma action plans are standard of care according to national guidelines, but these plans are often not prescribed. The purpose of this project was to develop an asthma action plan application for smartphones. DATA SOURCES: A development studio was consulted for support in developing a smartphone application to code the software for the asthma action plan and assist in the design process. During development of the application, a survey was conducted to assist in design of the application and functionality. CONCLUSIONS: All survey participants agreed that the application was easy to use, could be used without written instruction, and was designed for adolescents with asthma of any severity. Patients and providers mostly agreed that the app would help provide information about what to do in the event of an asthma exacerbation, and the application would be used frequently. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: There was consensus from both patients and providers that this application is not only functional but also helpful in the event of an asthma exacerbation. The project met the goal of designing a mobile phone application that would improve patient access to asthma action plans.

Immersion in Evidence-Based Practice Fellowship Program: A Transforming Experience for Staff Nurses.

The aim of this study was to explore professional and personal changes staff nurses experience during and after a 1-year evidence-based practice program. Focus groups were conducted with staff who completed an evidence-based practice fellowship program. Five themes emerged from the focus groups: support, resources, knowledge, opportunity, and empowerment. A 1-year fellowship program provides essential elements needed for organizational structural empowerment. Sense of empowerment helps to explain outcomes of fellowship programs and successes of graduates.

Meta-Evaluation: Experiences in an Accelerated Graduate Nurse Education Program.

Most schools of nursing are engaged in some form of program evaluation and recognize the potential benefits in using program evaluation outcomes to influence continuous improvement in program quality. A number of factors exist that may negatively influence program evaluation quality and adversely affect the ability to make sound decisions based on program evaluation outcomes. The potential limitations that threaten program evaluation quality underscore the importance of evaluating the evaluation process itself, also known as meta-evaluation. However, there is an absence of discussion in the nursing literature of the importance of program meta-evaluation. This article seeks to address this gap in the nursing literature and illuminate the need for more schools of nursing to engage in the meta-evaluation process. By introducing 1 model of program meta-evaluation and describing our own endeavors in the program meta-evaluation process, we hope to inspire other schools of nursing to consider using a systematic and formalized process to evaluate their own program evaluation processes to ensure that data obtained from program evaluation are of optimal quality to influence sound, data-driven decisions to promote continued quality and excellence in nursing education programs.

The curriculum vitae: gateway to academia.

A CV serves as formal documentation of the applicant's career path and provides necessary demographic and historical information for career change or advancement. Therefore, each section of the CV should be a thorough accounting of the applicant's academic, work, and professional responsibilities and attainments. The guidelines in this column also are relevant for nurse educators applying for positions in schools of nursing.