NLN Center for Innovation in Education Excellence

The NLN Center for Innovation in Education Excellence offers a wide range of creative educational simulation and curriculum integration advisory services, teaching and learning resources, and professional development opportunities. As new faculty and seasoned nurse educators engage in excellence in teaching and learning, the continued development of online and virtual products is necessary to both enhance faculty skills and expertise and meet the needs of this contemporary generation of learners.

The center provides a professional development arena to bring faculty together to thoughtfully and intentionally build modern innovative approaches to teaching and learning. Additionally, the center engages members through maker space activities to move ideas through innovation, scaling, and launching of new products and offerings.

The center's mission is to cultivate, scale, and impact excellence and innovation in nursing education to meet the needs of contemporary learners across the discipline of nursing. The vision is influencing innovation in nursing education excellence globally.

Innovation is defined as processes that result in large or small, sweeping or gradual change to NLN products and services that introduce something new for the organization (Demiris et al., 2020) and adding value to the teaching learning process.
Education Excellence is defined as a process that reflects continuous efforts to make incremental or breakthrough improvement within the context of teaching and learning that are beyond the status quo.

The center hosts two institutes on simulation and the care of vulnerable populations. The Institute for Simulation and Technology and the Institute for the Care of Vulnerable Populations funnel through the center's mission-aligned strategies.

Institute for the Care of Vulnerable Populations

Institute for Simulation and Technology

Innovation in Education Excellence Offerings

For novice to expert nurse educators, our innovative products and resources are intended to cultivate and scale cutting-edge teaching and learning resources, community building to expand and support the role of the nurse educator, and evidence-based processes to measure excellence and educational impact.

Communities – View the Simulation Innovation Resource Center (SIRC) or Visit NLN Connect
The NLN Center for Innovation in Education Excellence offers various communities to meet the evolving needs of nurse educators.

SIRC is a resource community of nurse educators who effectively use simulation to promote and evaluate student learning and who dialogue with one another to advance simulation in nursing education. Community members submit HomeGrown Solutions to address tricky issues in simulation.
Alumni of the NLN Simulation Leadership Program are invited to participate in the NLN Connect Sim Leader Alumni Community to expand and support the role of simulation in nurse education.

Online courses – View innovative NLN OnDemand course offerings
The NLN Center for Innovation and Education Excellence offers synchronous, asynchronous, and hybrid courses. Underpinned by theory and evidence, the courses consist of diverse teaching strategies aimed at supporting learners in their emergence as competent and caring clinicians.

Podcast episodes – Listen to NLN Nursing EDge Unscripted
The award-winning NLN Nursing EDge Unscripted podcast offers episodes on the how-to of innovation and transformation in nursing education. Each conversation embraces the power of innovation to move educators away from the mundane and mediocre to the interesting and exceptional.

Resource Center – View the Simulation Innovation Resource Center (SIRC)
The Simulation Innovation Resource Center is a resource community of nurse educators who use simulation to promote and evaluate student learning and who dialogue with one another to advance simulation in nursing education. Community members submit HomeGrown Solutions to address tricky issues in simulation.

Scenarios and Simulations
Scenarios are a frequently used teaching methodology in nursing education and staff development learning environments. Use of simulation is valued for its ability to provide realistic, context-rich experiential learning in a safe environment. From standardized participants, to low and high fidelity manikins, to the virtual world, each context provides a slightly unique perspective and can facilitate learning and evaluation of patient care situations along the continuum of care. The NLN offers a variety of innovative scenario and simulation offerings.

Teaching Strategies – View Advancing Care Excellence teaching strategies
The center creates and maintains over 50 teaching strategies that are teacher-ready curriculum tools that can be used in a variety of environments.

Toolkits – View the ACE.P toolkit
The NLN Center for Innovation in Education Excellence creates interactive, highly engaging toolkits.

Videos – View Center Videos
The NLN Center for Innovation in Education Excellence uses videos as a modality to explain and promote center offerings.

Webinars – View Center Webinar Recordings
The NLN Center for Innovation in Education Excellence houses a collection of recorded webinars for members.

Archived Blog posts – Read NLN Nursing EDge
From 2016 through 2023, contributors blogged on topics that kept nurse educators up to date with the latest innovations in simulation, technology, e-learning, telehealth, and informatics. Blog content focused on innovative and contemporary thinking across the continuum of nursing education and practice.

Contact a member of the team:

Kellie Bryant, DNP, WHNP, CHSE, FAAN. Director, Center for Innovation in Education Excellence
Raquel Bertiz, PhD, RN, CNE, CHSE-A. Senior Manager
Andrea Browning. Portfolio Manager