Expert in Competency-Based Education to Headline National Faculty Meeting at 2024 NLN Education Summit

Expert in Competency-Based Education to Headline National Faculty Meeting at 2024 NLN Education Summit

Dr. Gerry Altmiller to Present Roadmap on Transitioning to Competency-Based Education: Structure, Process, Outcomes

Washington, DC — Dr. Gerry Altmiller, professor emeritus at TCNJ, The College of New Jersey, will deliver the featured address during the National Faculty Meeting at the 2024 NLN Education Summit on Friday, September 20, in San Antonio, Texas, the final day of the National League for Nursing’s annual conference.

This year’s Summit theme, A Daring Proposition: Competency-Based Education—which joins with the urgent need to transform nursing education to better meet the demands of today’s dynamic, diverse health care environment—also reflects one of the major areas of focus of Dr. Altmiller’s scholarship and as a nurse educator.

A recognized expert in the design and implementation of competency-based models of education, Dr. Altmiller will present her talk, Transitioning to Competency-Based Education: Structure, Process, Outcomes, based on her decades of research and experience in academic and clinical instruction.

Dr. Altmiller, EdD, APRN, ACNS-BC, ANEF, FAAN, said, “The National Faculty Meeting creates an opportune time to explore pathways to transition to competency-based education. My hope is to offer practical approaches nursing programs can consider in their transition to competency-based education. Strategic steps to create the infrastructure needed to scaffold competency-based education and assessment across the curriculum will be demonstrated, intended to support faculty in making incremental yet productive advances.” 

“We are delighted that Dr. Altmiller will be with us this fall to give us a roadmap to incorporate time-tested concepts and methodologies into the pedagogy of nursing education and into the guideposts facilitating a smooth transition to practice for graduates of nursing programs across the spectrum of higher education,” said NLN Chair Patricia Sharpnack, DNP, RN, CNE, NEA-BC, ANEF, FAAN, Dean and Strawbridge Professor at the Breen School of Nursing and Health Professions at Ursuline College in Ohio.

NLN President and CEO Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN, said, “Competency-based education, with its focus on an individual learner’s abilities to analyze and perform required tasks with confidence, is a departure from the one-size-fits-all model of teaching and learning that has historically been a major contributor to hindering equity in education. The theme of this year’s Summit and Dr. Altmiller’s address to her community of colleagues couldn’t be timelier. We all look forward to her inspiring comments and engaging with her in a fruitful dialogue.”

For more information, visit NLN.org.

About Dr. Gerry Altmiller

Dr. Gerry Altmiller is a clinical nurse specialist consultant for Jefferson Einstein Healthcare Network in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and director of the Quality and Safety Innovation Center at The College of New Jersey. With 25 years of experience as a nurse educator, she served on the QSEN Advisory Board for over a decade and was a national consultant for integrating quality and safety into nursing curricula.

Dr. Altmiller authored the Teamwork and Communication Module of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing’s Transition to Practice program and in 2014 she received a Lindback Award for distinguished teaching. For seven years she led the QSEN Academic Task Force, creating opportunities for its 120 faculty members to network, share ideas, and conduct academic focused research.

Her work on constructive feedback led to the development, testing, and dissemination of support tools for nurse educators and learning tools for students to view feedback as an opportunity. Dr. Altmiller serves as a national consultant to schools of nursing working to integrate competency-based education across the curriculum. Her research focuses on competency-based clinical evaluation, quality and safety integration, creating a just culture in academia, and addressing communication challenges in education and practice environments.

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