This webinar discussed the strategies for accurately mapping curriculum to identify issues that nursing students may face in achieving competency for developing research, EBP, and QI projects to meet the standards of the AACN Essentials and practice requirements of nurse residency programs.
It is important to support learners in achieving required competencies for their nursing education program. Mapping the curriculum to those competencies allows educators to identify strengths and weaknesses within the program. While teaching EBP, QI research, critical gaps exist between what students are taught and what they can actually "do.”
Often, the focus in mapping the curriculum is on the delivery of content and checking the box that it has been covered – a teacher-centered and subjective process that shies away from measuring true outcomes. Competency-based education and assessment requires educators to collect objective data related to abilities in order to determine what learning took place and where gaps in competency remain.
Learning objectives
- Identify strategies for collecting meaningful data on competence related to educational standards of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Essentials.
- Learn how curriculum mapping supports faculty in identifying issues nursing students may face in achieving competency for developing research, EBP, and QI projects to meet the standards of the AACN Essentials and practice requirements of nurse residency programs.
- Discover how Ovid Synthesis provides the data collection and review opportunities to determine the activities for each sub-competency in order to identify gaps and redundancies and to put a plan in place.
About the speakers
Gerry Altmiller is a professor of nursing, 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. She was a leader of one of the 15 pilot schools for the QSEN Collaboration back in 2006, served on the QSEN Advisory board for over a decade, and currently serves as a national consultant for integrating quality and safety into nursing curricula. 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. Dr. Altmiller authored the Teamwork and Communication Module of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing’s Transition to Practice program. In 2014 she received a Lindback Award for distinguished teaching. 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 was co-editor of a special QSEN issue of Nurse Educator and currently serves on the journal’s editorial board. She is a member of the AACN workgroups that developed the toolkits to support adoption of the 2021 AACN Essentials and serves as an AACN Coach for implementation of the Essentials. Her research focuses on clinical evaluation, quality and safety integration, creating a just culture in academia and addressing communication challenges in education and practice environments.
Dr. Jacquelyn (Jacqui) McMillian-Bohler is an assistant professor and Director for Educational Excellence at Duke University School of Nursing. Grounded by her Masterful Educator Model, she mentors faculty and presents nationally on faculty development, fostering inclusive learning environments and employing impactful teaching strategies. Her efforts extend to guiding nursing programs toward competency-based education and researching effective teaching practices and health equity. Holding degrees from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Vanderbilt, and Villanova Universities, she has received numerous awards for teaching excellence. Beyond academia, she advances health equity through Cultural Intelligence workshops and a culturally concordant doula training initiative.
Dr. Rebecca Taulbee has been a registered nurse since 1989. She is an ADN graduate from Waubonsee Community College and a BSN graduate from University of Phoenix. She completed her MSN and MBA degrees at the University of Phoenix and earned her Doctorate in Education from Northcentral University. While Dr. Taulbee’s specialty is in critical care, she has also held academic teaching roles as an assistant professor and visiting professor for MSN at Chamberlain University, adjunct faculty at Purdue University in the DNP program, Assistant Director of Nursing at Hondros College of Nursing, and Clinical Educator at Central Ohio Technical College and Columbus State Community College. Throughout her career, she received many awards including the DAISY Faculty Award 2016 Chamberlain University, a finalist for Ohio Nurse of the Year 2017 in the category of Research by March of Dimes, the Nursing Excellence Award 2001-2004, and a nominee for the 2020 Sisters of the Holy Cross Award.
Dr. Taulbee has also presented to Sigma, Nurse Tim, and Ovid Synthesis for Wolters Kluwer. She has multiple published works and continues to write on multiple nursing topics. Her work with the American Association of Critical Care Nurses includes reviewing several ECCO modules and line-item test review for national nursing certification in her role as an ambassador.
Rachel Dicker is a Product Management Associate at Wolters Kluwer, Health Learning, Research & Practice. She is responsible for creating and implementing product strategies, innovation, and market outreach for new clinical research and information solutions. Her current focus is building a new, innovative application for conducting, storing, and disseminating evidence-based and quality improvement initiatives. She recently received the 2021 Health Learning, Research & Practice High Performance Recognition Award and the 2021 Wolters Kluwer Global Innovation Award.
