The semester is over — and if you're already building a summer to-do list, this is your sign to pause. NP faculty are wired to keep moving, but sprinting straight from finals into a packed development agenda isn't growth. It's just working under a different label. This summer, try a different approach: rest first, then grow. Your fall students — and your future self — will thank you.

My qualitative study on academic nurse leader (ANL) role development was published in Nursing Education Perspectives. I interviewed 18 nurse leaders across the country — program directors, chairpersons, assistant and associate deans, and deans — to understand how they actually developed in their roles. What I found was equal parts validating and sobering. Here are five strategies drawn directly from the findings of this study.

Your graduate nursing students are the not the same “blank slates” that they used to be in their undergraduate programs. These students are nurses. Some of them will have twenty years of professional nursing wisdom, while others will be fresh from a BSN program, and they can all be admitted together in the same cohort. This heterogeneity is not a challenge to be managed. It is a gift to be used. But only if you understand two theoretical frameworks: andragogy & constructivism

If the word accreditation makes your shoulders creep toward your ears, you are not alone. For many NP faculty — especially those new to academia — accreditation can feel like an entirely separate world. One with its own language, its own rituals, and a seemingly endless appetite for documentation. This post breaks it down — plainly, practically, and without the committee-meeting energy.