| Washington, DC — Baccalaureate nursing programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) recently received welcome support through an intensive professional development project created by the National League for Nursing called Advancing Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) Schools of Nursing through Innovation in Technology and Teaching Excellence. After seeding the program in 2020, the Elsevier Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on inclusive health and research and funded by Elsevier, has provided a generous grant of $100,000 for the 2021-22 academic years.
Initially developed as a League-Elsevier Foundation collaboration, the project has been designed under the NLN Institute for Diversity and Global Initiatives and the Division for Innovation in Education Excellence. The project combines coaching in teaching excellence with high-level instruction in the use of state-of-the-art technology in academic and clinical nursing education. Forty carefully selected faculty members from five HBCUs—Hampton University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, North Carolina Central University, Winston Salem State University, and Tuskegee University—will form the second cohort for this ambitious endeavor during the 2021-2022 academic year.
The overarching goal of the project is two-fold:
• To enhance faculty expertise in the art of teaching and learning strategies to explore students’ frame of reference and promote reflective learning
• To foster the instructor-learner relationship to generate effective feedback to student nurses in academic and clinical settings through the online environment
“Adequately preparing graduates for practice in underserved communities of color is one of the highest priorities of HBCUs, in part because their students come from diverse backgrounds. Because patient outcomes are strongly correlated with the cultural competence of health care professionals, we want to assure that HBCUs are in the best position to provide the most current instruction possible,” said NLN Chair Dr. Patricia S. Yoder-Wise, RN, EdD, NEA-BC, ANEF, FAONL, FAAN, Professor and Dean Emerita at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and president of The Wise Group. “While many nurse educators come to higher education as experts in the art and science of nursing, they may not always be experts in the art and science of teaching and learning. Therefore, faculty development directed to teaching in today’s technological age to improve patient care is a matter of great urgency.”
A critical component of the program for nurse educators is the League’s Coaching for Excellence in Nursing course, first launched in 2018. Faculty complete five e-learning modules that cover adult learning theory, how to apply theory to practice, and context for understanding challenges faced by novice nurses as they transition from academia to professional practice. By the end of the course, faculty are comfortable utilizing the Socratic method of interactive dialogue with one another before introducing it to their students.
“Committed to advancing the intersection of science, technology and health care, along with a mission to increase the diversity of the nursing workforce, the National League for Nursing and Elsevier are well positioned to assist faculty in their efforts to provide the pool of nurses of color with the requisite skills, knowledge and judgment to transition into practice while improving health access and equity,” said NLN President and CEO Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN.
Beyond the Coaching for Excellence in Nursing curriculum, participants in the NLN-Elsevier ETI project will attend Next Gen Teaching and Learning webinars.
“The Elsevier Foundation is proud to collaborate with the National League for Nursing in providing nursing faculty with critical teaching skills to better equip our next generation of nurses to deliver patient-centered care and tackle health disparities in the communities they serve,” said Ylann Schemm, Director of the Elsevier Foundation.
The funding provided by the Elsevier Foundation complements the additional financial support provided by Elsevier’s Nursing and Health Education business for the League’s educational webinar series, “Taking Aim Initiative: Structural Racism, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Implicit Bias, and Social Justice,” to equip nurse educators and future nurses with information and resources that supports them in creating a safe and equitable health care environment for communities at risk. For more information, visit NLN.org.
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