How do you tame student-clinicians’ overconfidence, or quell their nerves? Should you correct student nurse’s error with a patient present?

In high stakes clinical environments, how do you realistically build students’ skills without overwhelming them?

Those were some of the topics at a recent clinical instructor workshop for UVA University Medical Center RNs interested in adding a new role to their professional roster: clinical instructor. Part of the School’s new “Earn While You Learn” partnership with the hospital, this first group of 18 are poised to become instructors in the classroom and at the bedside both at Piedmont Virginia Community College for nursing students seeking to earn an associate's degree, and at UVA, with nursing students in the BSN, Accelerated BSN, and Clinical Nurse Leader programs.

"It's a win-win, with opportunities both to expand working nurses' skills and marketability and the population of nurse educators.”

Kathryn Reid, associate professor and director of academic leadership and nursing professional development

It’s no secret that there are too few nursing faculty to teach nursing students. With a new Nurse Educator Academy (NEA), another program dreamed up and deployed by professor Kathryn Reid (BSN ’84, MSN ’88, CERTI-FNP ’96), director of academic leadership and nursing professional development, associate professor Sarah Craig (MSN ’10, PhD ’14), and UVA Health nurse manager Beth Mehring, these programs fill the need for teachers while also boosting nurses’ satisfaction, the hospital’s workforce stability, and reducing attrition and the need for contract labor.

“We want to cultivate talent internally,” said Dean Marianne Baernholdt, UVA University Medical Center's dean of professional nursing who championed the programs with UVA Medical Center’s Kathy Baker, chief nursing officer and associate dean for clinical affairs at the School, “and retain our next generation of leaders.”

“We want to cultivate talent internally and retain our next generation of leaders.”

Dean Marianne Baernholdt, who, with Kathy Baker, UVA Health's chief nursing officer, champions the programs

Reid calls it a “win-win, with opportunities both to expand working nurses' skills and marketability and the population of nurse educators.” 

In addition to the clinical instructor workshop, which is designed for BSN-educated practitioners, the NEA’s first cohort of six master’s prepared nurses begin the three course, nine-credit executive format program begins this fall. Designed for nurses who’ve earned an MSN, DNP, and/or a PhD, the academy offers three education courses and mentored teaching experience. Upon completion, participants will meet eligibility requirements and be prepared to take the certified nurse educator examination for an additional credential.

The next clinical instructor workshop will take place August 14, 15, and 16, 2023. Curious? Email professor Kathryn Reid.