Belonging before skills: Where learning takes root

What if the real barrier to learning isn't the content to cover, but the confidence to engage? Nursing programs move fast, cycling through skills checkoffs, clinical rotations, and simulation labs with little room to slow down. There's a lot to cover and not much time. But can students fully step into nursing education before they truly believe they belong?

That's the question at the center of this episode of Lippincott Spark: Illuminating Nursing Education, where host Dr. Kelly Dries speaks with Dr. Kathryn Shaffer of Jefferson College of Nursing. Drawing on more than 30 years as a nurse and over 20 years as an educator, Dr. Shaffer makes a case that's both simple and quietly radical: belonging isn't something students earn after they've proven themselves. It's what makes learning possible in the first place.

Why does belonging matter before students build nursing skills?

Dr. Shaffer draws a clear line between inclusion and transformational belonging. Inclusion offers students a seat at the table. Transformational belonging widens the table, because every student's background, perspective, and lived experience make nursing stronger. When that shift happens, something changes in the classroom. Students stop asking whether they're good enough and start asking how they can contribute. That's where professional identity begins, and where clinical judgment takes root.

One redesigned assignment. Unexpected student reflections. In her Introduction to Nursing course, Dr. Shaffer saw how quickly a student's sense of self and purpose can shift when they finally see themselves in the profession. Hear what she changed and what her students shared.

How can nursing educators build belonging from day one?

Dr. Shaffer shares low-cost, practical strategies, including humor, classroom contracts, and calling students "future nurses," to build psychological safety without asking students to earn it. Her approach connects the science of how people learn with the reality of what nursing students carry through the classroom door.

And the conversation goes deeper than classroom culture. Dr. Shaffer talks about preparing students for the moral complexity of real practice, not by shielding them from it, but by helping them find their footing inside it. She revisits the American Nurses Association (ANA) Code of Ethics in a way that reframes self-care not as a wellness trend, but as an ethical obligation. Her approach to a nurse’s well-being connects directly to the kind of healthy work environments students will one day help build.

At the heart of this conversation is identity. Skills can be taught. But educators who invest in belonging help students decide not just what to do, but who they want to become as nurses.

Listen to the full episode for practical ways to make belonging part of learning from day one. Subscribe to Lippincott Spark for more conversations on teaching, belonging, and leadership in nursing education.