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.

You open the gradebook. There are 24 discussion posts, 18 SOAP notes, or a stack of concept maps waiting for your feedback. You take a breath, open the first submission, and (if you're anything like most graduate nursing faculty) you feel the familiar pull to just fix it all. Here's the truth no one says loudly enough: you are not responsible for fixing everything, and trying to do so doesn't actually help students learn. In this post, we review how to give feedback that supp

If you've been in a faculty role for more than five minutes, you've probably realized that the wheels of academic change move slowly. Very slowly. And yet, without a formal title, it might feel like you just don’t have the power or influence to help and make a difference. But here's the thing: you do.

Item analysis reports are packed with numbers, short on explanation, and often dropped into your inbox with zero guidance. But buried in that spreadsheet is information that can make your exams fairer, clearer, and easier to defend—once you know what to look for. Below are the five item analysis statistics that matter most, what they actually mean, and how to use them without spiraling.