October 14 - 2015 Summit Recap and Beyond

It’s a cliché nowadays that if it happens in Vegas, it will stay in Vegas. That may be generally true, but I am quite sure that the attendees at the NLN Education Summit 2015 returned to their schools of nursing last week ready to talk about their experiences and share their excitement. That’s one of the best outcomes of the NLN Summit. New ideas and findings in nursing education permeate the landscape, throughout the United States and abroad.

Dan Trachtman, NLN creative director who doubles as Summit photographer, reports that the photos he took throughout the three days of the Summit are being posted to Facebook for your enjoyment. The photos are high resolution and can be downloaded for your use. In addition, highlights from the Summit have been posted to the NLN’s YouTube channel. I hope that these photos and videos will inspire you to make your way to the NLN Education Summit 2016, which takes place in Orlando September 21-23. Watch for the Call for Abstracts, to be announced soon.

Odd-year Summits have a special resonance for me, for that is when we say thank you to one NLN president and welcome the next. Dr. Marsha Adams, who brought both brilliance and swagger to the role, led the NLN during our first two years in Washington DC, a time of change and amazing productivity. Marsha is succeeded by Dr. Anne R. Bavier, dean of the University of Texas Arlington College of Nursing and Health Innovation, who brings to the NLN vision, commitment, and an extraordinary record of success in leadership roles in academia and federal health care agencies, including the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Research on Women’s Health, where she was deputy director.

I am also pleased to report that Dr. G. Rumay Alexander was sworn in as NLN president-elect for a two-year term, along with three new governors-at-large: Drs. Ann Marie P. Mauro, Linda Moneyham, and Kathleen R. Stevens. Dr. Alexander, clinical professor and director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, has dedicated her career in nursing education to diversity and inclusion, a theme very important to the League and to me personally. Once again we have a fine Board of Governors that exemplifies our core values: diversity, integrity, caring, and excellence.

The Summit is a great place to become acquainted with the workings of the NLN | Chamberlain College of Nursing Center for the Advancement of the Science of Nursing Education, led by Dr. Betty Dennis. One of the seven collaborative, interactive NLN centers, the NLN | Chamberlain Center is a national resource for nursing education research and the scientific basis of nursing. Its research grants program supports beginning researchers as well as veteran scholars and this year awarded more than $80,000, provided by the NLN and through endowments and donations to the NLN Foundation for Nursing Education. It was thrilling to recognize four of the individuals for whom awards are named. Dorothy Otto, Nancy Langston, Joyce Griffin-Sobel, and Mary Anne Rizzolo all came to the stage, accompanied by the recipients of their named awards: Patricia Berry, Heather Beanlands, Ashley Franklin, and Cynthia Johnson, respectively. Three other research awardees were also introduced: Sherrill Smith (Ruth Donnelly Corcoran Research Award), Marilyn Asselin (NLN/Chamberlain Research Award), and Sheryl Buckner (NLN/MNRS Dissertation Award).

It is important to point out that the focus of nursing education research at the NLN is guided by our NLN Nursing Education Research Priorities, which are now being revised to address the challenges of a reformed health care system. The revised priorities will be published in early 2016; the deadline for the 2016 grants cycle is February 25.

The NLN | Chamberlain Center also nurtures scholarship through its support of the Jonas Scholars program, which annually supports and mentors doctoral scholars as they work on their dissertation studies during their final year of study. I am pleased to announce the 2016 Jonas Scholars: Cynthia Bradley, Joyce Brill, Jawanza Bundy, Andrea Fedko, Jesse Honsky, Jacquelyn McMillian-Bohler, and Antionella Upshaw.

Although not an NLN | Chamberlain Center project, I would be remiss if I did not tell you about our NLN Foundation for Nursing Education Scholarship Program, which seeks to support seasoned and ethnically diverse nurses with an interest in committing to careers in academic nursing education. In this year’s award cycle, nearly $30,000 was distributed among five doctoral candidates in amounts ranging from $3,000 to $8,000. The recipients are Stephanie Devane-Johnson, Michelle Finch, Tomekia Luckett-Earl, Knar Sagherian, and Shannon Woods. How exciting it is to recognize all these scholars and think about their future contributions to the important field of nursing education research.

One product of the NLN/Chamberlain Center is Nursing Education Perspectives, the NLN research journal. All Summit attendees were given a print copy of Part 1 of the NEP special simulation issue, guest edited by Dr. Pamela Jeffries and coinciding with the release of the monograph The NLN Jeffries Simulation Theory. To quote Dr. Jeffries in her guest editorial, this special issue of NEP (Vol. 36, No. 5, the first since 2009, offers “robust research and evidence of best practices, innovations, and futuristic ideas on the use of clinical simulation in education and practice.” Watch for Part 2 (Vol. 36, No. 6) when it is released in November.

As for other current projects of the NLN | Chamberlain Center, I would like to tell you about important work now being done with expert colleagues on the development of standards for graduates of master’s, PhD, and DNP programs who enter nursing education. The NLN has consistently recognized and urged continued commitment to the inclusion of educator preparation in all master’s and doctoral nursing programs, with graduates educated in pedagogy, evaluation, and related theory. It is especially important now to assist programs in defining faculty roles and supporting focused faculty preparation. Curricular elements for each level of preparation, as well as those for common standards, will be identified, and standards will be vetted nationally for release in early 2016.

Finally, it is time to tempt you with another conference being planned by the NLN | Chamberlain Center and Sigma Theta Tau International. Our collaborative international Nursing Education Research Conference, “Nursing Education Research: A Catalyst for Transformation in Practice,” is scheduled for April 7-9 in Bethesda, MD. Abstracts are due next week, October 21, and the agenda and other details will be announced soon. 

It seems that once I start talking about the NLN Education Summit and the NLN | Chamberlain Center I find it hard to stop, but stop I must. You will hear more from me and from all the NLN Centers for Nursing Education in the weeks to come. Colleagues, with your support, the NLN is doing critical work for nursing and for nursing education. When we work together and come together, the outcomes are amazing.

Check out photos from the 2015 NLN Education Summit on Facebook! #NLNSummit15‬‬