Jacklyn DelPrete

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.

A 2022 article published in Medical Education Online titled "When Students' Words Hurt: 12 Tips for Helping Faculty Receive and Respond Constructively to Student Evaluations of Teaching" by Cornes and colleagues offers evidence-based guidance for exactly this moment. I'm breaking down their key recommendations here through the lens of NP faculty life, because this research is too good not to keep sharing.

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.