The National League for Nursing (NLN) catalyzed meaningful conversations and collaborations to advance the quality and relevance of nursing education at their annual education conference, the 2024 NLN Education Summit in San Antonio, Texas, September 18th – 20th. The 2024 Summit emphasized the importance of innovation and technology in nursing education. Participants left the summit inspired by innovative ideas, best practices, and strategies for promoting excellence in nursing education and preparing the next generation of nursing professionals to meet the evolving needs of the healthcare industry. As a media partner, this article by HealthySimulation.com Content Manager Dr. Teresa Gore will highlight the 2024 NLN Education Summit.
NLN Education Summit 2024 A Daring Proposition: Competency-Based Education
NLN Summit 2024 had over 1300 registered attendees and a sold-out exhibit hall with 60 vendors. Dr. Patricia Sharpnack, NLN Chair 2024, and Dr. Beverly Malone, NLN CEO and President, opened the conference with a welcome and thanks to attendees, speakers, presenters, and great sponsors who support NLN’s work in nursing education. They challenged nursing educators to view competency-based education not as an option to the status quo but as a bold innovation to adapt learning to the student, use experiential learning opportunities to measure competency along the path of education, and to remember the future of nursing education is in their hands.
Opening Keynote: Dr. Jan Jones-Schenk: Competency-Based Education: Things for the Journey: What Nurse Educators Know: Dr. Jones-Schenk discussed the challenges in nursing education and competency-based education (CBE), the NLN Vision Statement on Integrating CBE in the Nursing Curriculum. There is a gap in the ability of nursing students in academia and their ability to practice in the clinical setting. This was the impetus for competency-based education (CBE).
Key takeaways were: Simulation and CBE have grown in use over the last 15 years. Simulation is critical to develop and measure advanced competencies and meets the needs of diverse learning. The time for change is now, and there is a call to action to develop nurses who are competent, advocate, and provide compassionate care to improve health disparities and patient outcomes. Dr. Jones-Schenk reminded attendees that perfect practice makes perfect; mastery learning is no longer ‘one and done.’
Plenary Speaker: Dr. Hege Langli Ersdal: Simulations Save Lives! Major reduction in maternal and newborn deaths after implementation of Safer Births training. Dr. Ersdal explained that the Safer Births Bundle of Care Program has improved clinical care and reduced early maternal and newborn deaths by training birth attendants and midwives on how to respond quickly to these emergencies. Through the purposeful and strategic implementation of “Helping Babies Breathe” and “Helping Mothers Survive,” infant and maternal mortality has decreased by over 50%. These programs offer visual image algorithms to represent the actions required in an emergency versus text-heavy algorithms. Key factors in this success are local ownership and local champions to continue the change, frequent practice, access to their data, ongoing mentoring and supervision, and systems for equipment maintenance.
Laerdal Global has developed new simulation technology to meet the needs of low- and high-resource countries to address infant and maternal mortality rates. For every MamaNatalie purchased by a high-resource country, Laerdal Global Health donates one MamaNatalie to a low-resource country. In 2024, Laerdal has donated over 14,000 MamaNatalie simulators to low-resource countries.
President Chief Executive Officer (PCEO) Summit Address: On Thursday, Dr. Beverly Malone revealed the new NLN Competency-Based Education Toolkit . CBE provides the learner with flexibility, individualization, and customizable to promote mastery of learning competency using a scaffolding approach. Students should be able to visualize what they are learning in academia to their lifelong clinical practice. Dr. Malone discussed NLN’s statement on the potential negative impact of a mandatory increase in clinical hours requirement for APRNs. More clinical hours do not equal competency and mastery of content. A CBE approach, not required clinical hours, is a better approach using multiple teaching and evaluation methods. Simulation is a superior learning method for learners over traditional clinical education. One size does not fit all. Dr. Malone’s Call to Action: “I challenge each of your [nurse educators] to lead the charge of CBE in your program.” “Collectively, nurse educators serve as the greatest influence on the future of the nursing profession. Individually, nurse educators can serve as agents of change within their academic settings, charting a new course for the future of competency-based education. I challenge each of you to lead the charge for CBE in your programs. “NLN will be there with you each step of the way.” Dr. Malone reminded the audience, ‘a vision without action is a hallucination.’
NLN is leading the way in advocacy for nursing educator recognition and compensation. New in 2025 is the new designation: the NLN Centers of Excellence Creating Learning Environments that Impact Climate Change for Planetary Health.
The Angoff Method: Dr. Ashley Frankin, INACSL President, presented this workshop based on a project to develop a cut score for formative assessment of undergraduate senior nursing students in a multiple-patient simulation scenario. The Angoff Method can be used to define performance expectations in conjunction with a simulation-based mastery learning curriculum. Learners who require remediation can receive individualized coaching to achieve mastery and demonstrate competency. The major issue is facilitating an iterative process to help subject matter experts define what the minimum passing standard looks like. Dr. Ashley Frankin, INACSL President, challenged the attendees to consider the entrustable professional activities (EPA) for nursing education similar to medical education. She proposed a hypothetical EPA list: gather assessment data in a prioritized focused assessment, prioritize plan of care, communicate effectively with patients / caregivers / team, establish patient-centered goals, minimize harm, and evaluate outcomes and adjust accordingly.
Debra L. Spunt Lecture: Dr. Jared Kutzin: Time in Grade or Grade over Time?
Dr. Kutzin, President-Elect of SSH, inspired the attendees with concrete examples of how CBE can be accomplished in nursing education. Jared discussed the Miracle on the Hudson 2009 and how simulation provided pilots with experience in handling crisis situations, but this scenario had not been practiced with low altitude and both engine failures. This is the same for nursing education. Dr. Kutzin stated, “When I went to school, my teachers stated – We give you the tools. It is your job to determine which tool to use and when to use it.” For both environments, the professional must take the pieces and put them together in a more realistic, ever-changing environment. He also gave examples of his daughter’s education, which was individualized learning for all students to be measured over time until competency was reached.
For an assignment, the base can be used with different activities so that each learner can meet them where they are until their level is reached. Dr. Kutzin provided examples of observable behaviors compared to objectives. What is the gestalt of the learner, not just one event? He gave the example of the ACGME Milestones and the 13 Core Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) and how simulation can help measure these. Simulation is not the only way and cannot be used to measure competency. The role of simulation is to provide every learner with low-frequency and high-risk cases and their progression in competency performance. With the incorporation of Rapid Cycle Deliberate Practice (RCDP), one organization was able to improve the resident’s competency of CPR performance in simulation by 97%. Participants left Dr. Kutzin’s session with the hope to be able to develop a plan for success with CBE.
View the LEARN CE/CME Platform Webinar Competency-Based Clinical Education Solutions from Laerdal Medical to learn more!
More About NLN
The National League for Nursing (NLN) has been involved in nursing simulation and clinical simulation research for numerous years. HealthySimulation.com signed a media partnership to support the NLN in May of 2023. In 2003, through a grant from the Laerdal Medical Corporation, the National League for Nursing began a three-year, multisite study to explore how to design and implement simulations as a teaching strategy and evaluate selected learning outcomes using simulations. As a result of this research, the Jeffries Simulation Framework was developed. The NLN/Jeffries Simulation Theory evolved from the simulation framework in 2015. This HealthySimulation.com page will explore the contributions of NLN to clinical simulation.
Dedicated to excellence in nursing, the National League for Nursing, the nation’s first nursing association, serves as the leading voice for nurse faculty and leaders in nursing education. The NLN offers professional development, networking opportunities, assessment services, nursing research grants, and public policy advocacy for nearly 45,000 individuals and over 1,000 institutional members. NLN members represent nursing education programs across the spectrum of higher education, healthcare organizations, and agencies.
NLN offers many resources for nursing educators and their professional development. Some of these are:
- NLN Simulation Innovation Resources Center (SIRC)
- Simulation Evaluation Instruments
- Nursing Simulation Scenarios
- HomeGrown Solutions, in partnership with INACSL
- NLN Leadership Development for Simulation Educators Program
- NLN Leadership Institute
Learn More About NLN, NLN Simulation Resources, and the New CBE Toolkit!
