annual-report

2019

Colleagues, the National League for Nursing remains the leader in nursing education and the champion for nurse educators.

Engagement continues to be our strength—with members participating in all levels of work at the NLN, from serving on committees to item-writing for testing, and from submitting abstracts to funding scholarships through the foundation. Thank you to the thousands of nurse educators involved with the NLN, especially our members who are vital in spreading the NLN’s message to our colleagues. You are the backbone of our work to bring resources to nurse educators across the academic spectrum.

And there’s more great news about our members and their work on behalf of the NLN. We have a number of 2019 NLN Press publications being released later this fall, including:

  • Academic Clinical Nurse Educator Review Book: The Official NLN Guide to the CNE®cl Exam; Teresa Shellenbarger, editor
  • The Scope of Practice for Academic Nurse Educators and Academic Clinical Nurse Educators, 3rd Edition; Linda Christensen; Larry Simmons
  • Certified Nurse Educator Review Book: The Official NLN Guide to the CNE® Exam, 2nd Edition; Linda Caputi
We'd also like to highlight the centerpiece of the NLN/Chamberlain University College of Nursing Center for the Advancement of the Science of Nursing Education—the excellent NLN research journal, Nursing Education Perspectives.  The editorial team is supported by a dedicated Editorial Board who bring direction to the journal as well as many who serve as peer reviewers. Their work on the Peer Review Panel often goes unnoticed. The work they do is essential to Nursing Education Perspectives maintaining scholarly integrity while supporting innovation and cutting-edge research.    

Plus, the special themed 2019 issue of the NLN’s Nursing Education Perspectives, or NEP, will be distributed at this Summit and is now available online at NEPonline.net. A call for manuscripts for the 2020 special issue remains open until January 2020. This special issue is focused on research examining the recommendations of the IOM Future of Nursing Report 10 years later, September/October 2020. There’s also a call for manuscripts open right now for the 2021 special issue, which will focus on workforce issues. 

The NLN continues the adoption of industry-standard business principles in pursuit of a mission-aligned business model through structured venture development and portfolio management. Soon after restructuring, the Center for Innovation in Education Excellence implemented a stage-gate development framework to standardize, assess, and scale ideas from idea to launch. This is being accomplished in collaboration with the senior business director. The department is assembling mission and margin metrics to assess impact through portfolio management.


In our aim to serve you best, our members, we are focused on better information and data management in order to understand who you are and what interests you. Not only are we committed to ensuring you receive excellent customer service and user-friendly means for interacting with us, we also want to give you a customized experience, delivering only relevant information about the products and services that will most satisfy your unique needs. Maintaining and adding value; reducing barriers to accessing information; and providing each of you with membership services that best meets your needs – that is our goal. 

One of NLN products during the year has been the development of Vision Statements by volunteer strategic action groups in collaboration with staff. An example is “A Vision for Integration of the Social Determinants of Health into Nursing Education Curricula.” The NLN believes that addressing the social factors in how people live and where they live is crucial to improving population health and eliminating health disparities. We have led the call to put this on the agenda of federal policymakers this year. Yes, colleagues, we are all about bringing excellence to patient care through inclusiveness, collaboration, and research. 

In addition, Testing Services fully adopted Salesforce as the customer relationship management system supporting sales. Due to a portfolio review last year, the department retired several exam titles and is refreshing top-sellers. After the Summit, Testing will launch a new Nursing Acceleration Challenge Exam, or simply called the NACE Prep Product, in addition to refreshed NACE exams in Spring 2020. Over the last year we had nine working committees consisting of 54 individuals, including 38 NLN members, engaged in this process. In Summer and Fall 2020, we anticipate release of a new Nurses in Practice, also known as the PASWEB Secure Exam Series and Prep Product. 

The NLN Centers have been extraordinarily busy. Internationally, the NLN and Laerdal Medical formed a partnership to conduct a three-year project in collaboration with Peking University, Fudan University, Wuhan University, and Southern Medical University to continue the transformation of nursing education in China through leadership training and faculty development in the use of simulation in teaching and learning. Planning is underway to arrange for China regional conferences for these faculty to deliver four different workshops regionally and begin faculty development across China. 
Updates to the vSim technology platform, vSim 2.0, will begin in September with all the current NLN scenarios anticipated to be updated through 2021.

Coaching for Excellence in Nursing: A Guide for Educators is being launched as a standalone program and was piloted in nine US schools of nursing and one international school of nursing in Australia. Within the Institute for Vulnerable Populations, the Advancing Care Excellence for Caregivers, or ACE.C, has been funded by the Hartford Foundation, with an AARP subcontract. Three unfolding cases are being piloted in over 20 schools nationally, with diversity of type and location. Final cases will be posted on the NLN website by March 2020.

The partnership between NLN and Chamberlain resulted in the NLN/Chamberlain University School of Nursing Center for the Advancement of the Science of Nursing Education. Within that Center, the NLN Research Review Panel approved eight research grants with four awards granted to doctoral dissertation students. The funding amounts ranged from $2,500 to $30,000 with three two-year studies.  


The NLN/Jonas Scholars Program is funded through a grant from Jonas Philanthropies. The 10th cohort of four NLN/Jonas Scholars were selected from diverse doctoral nursing programs, the University of Northern Colorado, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Villanova University, and Widener University.   
 
We are pleased to celebrate 10 years, a full decade, of the Scholarly Writing Retreat. The summer retreat was conducted June 8th and 9th. Colleagues, planning is underway for the 2020 Nursing Education Research Conference, or NERC, in Washington, DC, March 26-28, 2020, sponsored by the NLN and Sigma. Over 500 abstract submissions were received highlighting the significance of this conference. 

Moving on to the Center for Transformational Leadership NLN Leadership Institute, there are 46 participants in the two year-long NLN Leadership Institute Programs, the Leadership Development Program for Simulation Educators, or Sim Leaders, and LEAD. The deadline for the 2020 cohort is October 7th. 
 

There have been several successes for the NLN’s public policy and advocacy; for example, the Reauthorization of Title VIII Nursing Workforce. The NLN is also conducting surveys, including The Faculty Census Survey. Many thanks to everyone who took the time to complete any of these surveys because the data are so important for dissemination to policy makers, funders, accreditation agencies, and regulators.

And now for an update on The Certified Nurse Educator (CNE): The NLN Certification Department now offers two certifications for academic nurse educators. Since 2005, over 7,000 academic nurse educators have earned the credential of Certified Nurse Educator, or CNE. This credential measures excellence as an academic nurse educator, practicing in the full scope of the role.

In recognition of the thousands of academic nurse educators, who practice as a clinical educator only, or adjunct, or preceptor, or one of the other titles referring to the same role of being with students during clinical experiences, a second academic nurse educator certification exam was created. We are proud to report that during the past year, 130 clinical nurse educators have earned the credential of CNEcl.


The NLN is grateful for the many individuals who have a significant role in our certification activities, including those who served on the NLN Certification Commission, the NLN Certification Test Development Committees, and the many certified nurse educators who volunteer their time writing test items for the certification exams.

Furthermore, I’d like to tell you a little about our new Communications Department, which works in consultation with the other departments and divisions, to increase the visibility of NLN programs, members, and leadership, and meet strategic goals in accordance with the League’s core values. This year saw the addition of a new director of communications and the formation of a new team. 

Following the Summit, this team will be working on crafting a strategic communications plan that will guide our marketing initiatives going forward so that our products, services, and programs are marketed to our members and stakeholders on a consistent and well-planned basis. We look forward to seeing what they have in store.
 
Finally, we would like to thank all the workshop participants and visitors who came to our headquarters in Washington, DC, this year. They totaled more than 750 people. Our door is always open.