by Anne Z. Cockerham, PhD, CNM, WHNP-BC, CNE
Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of History
Building on FNU’s long-standing commitments to teaching excellence and innovation, we launched the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL) in early 2017. CITL is a collaborative effort between Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Anne Cockerham; Innovation Coach, Tia Andrighetti; our two instructional designers, Laura Orsetti and Ally Williams; and many faculty, staff, and administrators across the university.
The Center’s two major goals are to: (1) vigorously promote innovation as an iterative process of exploration, evaluation, and sharing, to improve student learning outcomes; and (2) safeguard student-centered, evidence-based teaching and learning as a vital task of the university.
The first major project for CITL is the development, implementation, and evaluation of a curriculum-wide program of simulations delivered at a distance. We chose this as the first CITL project because FNU faculty members are constantly seeking ways to enhance our students’ application of clinical knowledge, critical thinking, and diagnostic reasoning skills. We decided to begin incorporating distance-delivered simulations in online didactic courses in order for students to be able to engage in the content through the applications of concepts. An important goal is that the preceptors and clinical sites who host our students will benefit from students whose didactic courses prior to their clinical practica included extensive application of knowledge and skills to realistic patient situations. Ultimately, the clients served by our students and graduates will benefit from the intense preparation for clinical practice that our students will receive through simulation.
Our distance-delivered simulations will be aligned with the objectives and needs of each course and we’re using a variety of technologies and approaches. A few examples include: web conferencing software, standardized patients, student peer-interaction activities, branching case scenario software, guided reflection, student self-evaluation, varying assessment types, and debriefing.
Here are a few examples of distance-delivered simulations:
- A breastfeeding phone triage simulation. A standardized patient plays the role of a new mother and speaks with each student by phone. The experience simulates after-hours patient phone calls. Following the simulation, the standardized patient provides feedback to each student about how they made her feel as a patient and then the student writes and submits a clinical SOAP note (subjective, objective, assessment, plan).
- A health history, standardized patient/provider encounter. Students meet with a standardized patient in BigBlueButton (web conferencing software integrated in the learning management system/Canvas) for a face-to-face, one-on-one interview to elicit a basic health history. Session is recorded. SP provides feedback after interview then students submit a reflection and SOAP note
- An interactive, branching case study using Twine. Students work through patient histories by reading a case study and answering questions about what information to solicit from the patient. Then they perform a physical exam listening to recorded segments of heart and lung sounds and decide what other data is needed. Students then form an assessment and plan based on their findings. Students assess their knowledge using a pre and post test and more information is available if they need more practice with the didactic content.
CITL is facilitating extensive support, coaching, and feedback loops to promote this initiative. Cohorts of four course coordinators per term will design and implement distance-delivered simulations in their courses by working through a formal training and simulation-development course: Innovation 101: From Imagination to Simulation. Additional faculty development support includes: in-depth debriefing training, a Simulation Resource Center, course faculty-specific simulation training, and ongoing support from the CITL staff. Members of a special subcommittee of the Curriculum Committee, Simulations Across the Curriculum, perform valuable service to the simulation initiative by serving as a simulation advisory group, providing ongoing support of quality assurance for simulations, addressing faculty development needs related to simulation, and offering a faculty Simulation Journal Club. Faculty that work closely with students in clinical practicum are providing feedback about clinical students’ knowledge and skills that could benefit from enhanced focus and application via distance-delivered simulations during earlier didactic courses. We are exploring ways for clinical preceptors to provide feedback to inform the simulation program.
According to CITL director and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Anne Cockerham, “Students are at the center of our teaching and learning activities and we keep that as a guiding principle of our simulation initiative, beginning with the planning stages of a simulation and continuing until after the simulation is over. We’re ensuring that students are well-prepared for their simulation experience, from technology- and content standpoints. We have an extensive evaluation process to gather feedback from students about their experiences, including how well the simulations contributed to their learning, whether they experienced any technological or logistical problems, and how the simulations affected their self-confidence in the content and skills associated with the simulations.”
We are excited about this new initiative and, especially, about partnering with students to deepen their understanding of course content and skills. If you have ideas or feedback, please contact Anne Cockerham at anne.cockerham@frontier.edu.
Carrie Belin is an experienced board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner and a graduate of the Johns Hopkins DNP program, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Georgetown University School of Nursing, and Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She has also completed fellowships at Georgetown and the University of California Irvine.
Angie has been a full-scope midwife since 2009. She has experience in various birth settings including home, hospital, and birth centers. She is committed to integrating the midwifery model of care in the US. She completed her master’s degree in nurse-midwifery at Frontier Nursing University (FNU) and her Doctorate at Johns Hopkins University. She currently serves as the midwifery clinical faculty at FNU. Angie is motivated by the desire to improve the quality of healthcare and has led quality improvement projects on skin-to-skin implementation, labor induction, and improving transfer of care practices between hospital and community midwives. In 2017, she created a short film on skin-to-skin called 
Justin C. Daily, BSN, RN, has ten years of experience in nursing. At the start of his nursing career, Justin worked as a floor nurse on the oncology floor at St. Francis. He then spent two years as the Director of Nursing in a small rural Kansas hospital before returning to St. Francis and the oncology unit. He has been in his current position as the Chemo Nurse Educator for the past four years. He earned an Associate in Nurse from Hutchinson Community College and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Bethel College.
Brandy Jackson serves as the Director of Undergraduate Nursing Programs and Assistant Educator at Wichita State University and Co-Director of Access in Nursing. Brandy is a seasoned educator with over 15 years of experience. Before entering academia, Brandy served in Hospital-based leadership and Critical Care Staff nurse roles. Brandy is passionate about equity in nursing education with a focus on individuals with disabilities. Her current research interests include accommodations of nursing students with disabilities in clinical learning environments and breaking down barriers for historically unrepresented individuals to enter the nursing profession. Brandy is also actively engaged in Interprofessional Education development, creating IPE opportunities for faculty and students at Wichita State. Brandy is an active member of Wichita Women for Good and Soroptimist, with the goal to empower women and girls. Brandy is a TeamSTEPPS master trainer. She received the DASIY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Faculty in 2019 at Wichita State University. 
Dr. Sabrina Ali Jamal-Eddine is an Arab-disabled queer woman of color with a PhD in Nursing and an interdisciplinary certificate in Disability Ethics from the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). Dr. Jamal-Eddine’s doctoral research explored spoken word poetry as a form of critical narrative pedagogy to educate nursing students about disability, ableism, and disability justice. Dr. Jamal-Eddine now serves as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in UIC’s Department of Disability and Human Development and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Organization of Nurses with Disabilities (NOND). During her doctoral program, Sabrina served as a Summer Fellow at a residential National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute at Arizona State University (2023), a summer fellow at Andrew W. Mellon’s National Humanities Without Walls program at University of Michigan (2022), a Summer Research Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute (2021), and an Illinois Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (LEND) trainee (2019-2020).
Vanessa Cameron works for Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nursing Education & Professional Development. She is also attending George Washington University and progressing towards a PhD in Nursing with an emphasis on ableism in nursing. After becoming disabled in April 2021, Vanessa’s worldview and perspective changed, and a recognition of the ableism present within healthcare and within the culture of nursing was apparent. She has been working since that time to provide educational foundations for nurses about disability and ableism, provide support for fellow disabled nursing colleagues, and advocate for the disabled community within healthcare settings to reduce disparities.
Dr. Lucinda Canty is a certified nurse-midwife, Associate Professor of Nursing, and Director of the Seedworks Health Equity in Nursing Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Columbia University, a master’s degree from Yale University, specializing in nurse-midwifery, and a PhD from the University of Connecticut. Dr. Canty has provided reproductive health care for over 29 years. Her research interests include the prevention of maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity, reducing racial and ethnic health disparities in reproductive health, promoting diversity in nursing, and eliminating racism in nursing and midwifery.
Dr. Lisa Meeks is a distinguished scholar and leader whose unwavering commitment to inclusivity and excellence has significantly influenced the landscape of health professions education and accessibility. She is the founder and executive director of the DocsWithDisabilities Initiative and holds appointments as an Associate Professor in the Departments of Learning Health Sciences and Family Medicine at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Nikia Grayson, DNP, MSN, MPH, MA, CNM, FNP-C, FACNM (she/her) is a trailblazing force in reproductive justice, blending her expertise as a public health activist, anthropologist, and family nurse-midwife to champion the rights and health of underserved communities. Graduating with distinction from Howard University, Nikia holds a bachelor’s degree in communications and a master’s degree in public health. Her academic journey also led her to the University of Memphis, where she earned a master’s in medical anthropology, and the University of Tennessee, where she achieved both a master’s in nursing and a doctorate in nursing practice. Complementing her extensive education, she completed a post-master’s certificate in midwifery at Frontier Nursing University.
Dr. Tia Brown McNair is the Vice President in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success and Executive Director for the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in Washington, DC. She oversees both funded projects and AAC&U’s continuing programs on equity, inclusive excellence, high-impact practices, and student success. McNair directs AAC&U’s Summer Institutes on High-Impact Practices and Student Success, and TRHT Campus Centers and serves as the project director for several AAC&U initiatives, including the development of a TRHT-focused campus climate toolkit. She is the lead author of From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education (January 2020) and Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success (July 2016 and August 2022 Second edition).