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University of Maryland School of Nursing's Jenkins Named University of Maryland, Baltimore Teacher of the Year

 

November 18, 2016

Louise Jenkins, Teacher of the Year 2016. Jenkins is just second UMSON faculty member to be named Teacher of the Year in history of the award.

 Baltimore, Md. – Louise S. Jenkins, PhD ’85, MS ’81, RN, FAHA, ANEF, professor and director of the Institute for Educators, University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON), recently was named the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s (UMB) 2016 Teacher of the Year during its annual Founders Week. Jenkins is the seventh UMSON faculty member to receive a Founders Week Award since the celebration was initiated in 1996.

In 2004, Jenkins co-founded the Institute for Educators to address the urgent statewide nursing faculty shortage. Under Jenkins’ leadership, the institute has contributed to a 63 percent increase in the number of new Maryland nursing school graduates sitting for boards and becoming licensed in the state; its effectiveness has been recognized through the awarding of multiple grants, totaling nearly $7 million, over the past 12 years. Jenkins also co-developed and leads the Teaching in Nursing and Health Professions Certificate program, which has equipped nearly 800 graduate and undergraduate students with the essential skills for teaching current and future nurses.

“Dr. Jenkins occupies a unique niche,” said UMSON Dean Jane M. Kirschling, PhD, RN, FAAN. “She is a highly accomplished and much lauded teacher, advisor, and mentor to individual students. She is a visionary and innovative educational leader who perceives how the art and science of teaching must evolve and is then able to move the enterprise.”

Each year, UMB celebrates the achievements and successes of its students, faculty, staff, alumni, and philanthropic support and pays tribute to its 200-plus-year history. As part of the celebration, awards are presented in four categories: Researcher of the Year, Public Servant of the Year, Teacher of the Year, and Entrepreneur of the Year.  Nominees for the Teacher of the Year award must have contributed to course development; created innovative teaching methods; developed student-initiated applications, evaluations, and student endorsements; and received past national and/or local teaching awards.

“There were so many emotions when [UMB President] Dr. [Jay] Perman told me I had been selected as Teacher of the Year,” Jenkins said. “I was surprised, thrilled, and very humbled by the honor of this award from my colleagues.”

Past UMSON Founders Week Award winners include Karen L. Soeken, PhD, Teacher of the Year 1998; Barbara Resnick, PhD ’96, RN, CRNP, FAAN, FAANP, Researcher of the Year 2003; Rebecca Wiseman, PhD, RN, Public Servant of the Year 2006; Jane Lipscomb, PhD, RN, FAAN, Researcher of the Year 2008; Robin Newhouse, PhD ’00, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, Researcher of the Year 2014; and Karen Kauffman, PhD, RN, CRNP, FAAN, Public Servant of the Year 2014.

University of Maryland School of Nursing's Bindon Receives AACN's Excellence and Innovation in Teaching Award

October 5, 2016

‌The award recognizes UMSON faculty member as a highly-skilled, innovative, and creative teacher.

Baltimore, Md. –Susan L. Bindon, DNP '11, RN-BC, CNE, assistant professor, University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON), has been awarded the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s (AACN) Excellence and Innovation in Teaching Award.

The award recognizes excellence and innovation in the teaching of nursing at AACN member schools by faculty with more than five years of teaching experience. Bindon has taught for 25 years, and has been on UMSON’s faculty for five.

“I’m tremendously honored to receive this year’s AACN Excellence and Innovation in Teaching Award. Helping others to become good teachers is both a professional privilege and a personal joy,” Bindon said. “Good teaching requires thought, intentional practice, and openness to new ideas, but it also entails listening carefully to understand the learner’s needs, expectations, and readiness to learn, which creates fertile ground for innovation. Effective teaching attracts great students who will become tomorrow’s excellent nurses.”

Awardees must demonstrate significant innovation in teaching/learning approaches to promote learner outcomes; lead the promotion and implementation of innovative teaching/learning approaches in nursing education; and act as a role model for creating and sustaining a culture in nursing education that integrates theory and practice. Additionally, the award winner is required to have mentored faculty in evidence-based teaching/learning approaches and shared innovation outside of their home institution.

Bindon is known for working with peers to address instructional challenges and helping them determine the best teaching strategies for their particular classroom, online, or clinical setting. She encourages her students and advisees to use her large "thinking-wall" strategy through which they sketch their ideas and projects as they think aloud. She also connects with students in her online courses via personalized video feedback during  the semester. Additionally, Bindon has helped develop and deliver an adjunct clinical faculty workshop for new clinical instructors that has been offered four times in the past year, reaching approximately 70 clinical faculty throughout Maryland. The course includes interactive exercises and utilizes standardized students who model the concept of standardized patients to simulate clinical encounters.

“We are enormously proud of Dr. Bindon. She has distinguished herself as a highly skilled, innovative,  creative teacher. As a mentor to her students, she models innovative techniques that engage them in their own learning, while expanding their sense of what teaching looks like,” said UMSON Dean Jane M. Kirschling, PhD, RN, FAAN.  “Dr. Bindon’s enthusiasm for the teaching enterprise, and her willingness to extend herself to assist veteran and novice teachers and clinical faculty members, makes her an outstanding colleague. Her influence is felt throughout the School of Nursing, as well as regionally and nationally. We congratulate her on this prestigious recognition of her contributions to teaching.”

AACN is the national voice for baccalaureate and graduate nursing education. AACN works to establish quality standards for nursing education; assists schools in implementing those standards; influences the nursing profession to improve health care; and promotes public support for professional nursing education, research, and practice. 

2016 Excellence in Teaching Awards

The Institute for Educators congratulates the recipients of two prestigious awards for Excellence in Teaching 2016:

  • Excellence in Undergraduate Education: Nicole Smith, MS, RN, clinical instructor, and clinical simulation lab coordinator, Universities at Shady Grove
  • Excellence in Graduate Education: Rachel Onello, PhD, RN, CHSE, CNE, CNL, assistant professor, Organizational Systems and Adult Health

Faculty members are nominated by students for these special awards. Panels of undergraduate and graduate students vote to choose the winner in each category.

The institute proudly notes that both 2016 award recipients completed the Teaching in Nursing and Health Professions Certificates as part of their graduate studies. Congratulations! 

NLN Research Priorities in Nursing Education 2015-2019

The new National League for Nursing (NLN) released the 2016-2019 NLN Research Priorities in Nursing Education on March 31, 2016. Read the research priorities. 

Priorities are articulated in three areas:

  1. Build the science of nursing education through the discovery and translation of innovative evidence-based strategies
  2. Link student learning to sentinel health indicators to promote health, prevent disease, and manage the symptomatology of illness
  3. Examine the science of learning in the academic context related to health transitions