APNA Graduate Faculty Toolkit

Introduction

This APNA Graduate Faculty Toolkit serves as a resource for psychiatric-mental health (PMH) advance practice nursing educators, program directors, and administrators. It offers structured and synthesized guidance grounded in current educational standards, including the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Essentials (2021).

The toolkit provides curricular resources for integrating updated national educational and practice standards, essential knowledge for the practice of PMH advance nursing practice, leveling of objectives at different stages of program, innovative curricular teaching/learning strategies, evaluation measurements and rubrics, and up-to-date resources.

Background

The APNA Graduate Faculty Toolkit was developed by APNA Education Council members in response to the growing number of PMH advance practice nursing programs, as well as growing collaboration with other PMH graduate faculty to deliver quality, evidence-based education. An initial survey designed to gather graduate curricular information was sent to all members (N=104) of the APNA Education Council Graduate Branch and posted to the APNA Education Council Advisory Panel and Steering Committee communities. The survey included three sections: (1) Demographics: questions related to type of school/university, type of program, credits, and practicum hours; (2) Course Details: required textbooks, course sequencing, simulation formats, clinical requirements, and evaluation of student performance; and (3) Preceptor Specifications: requirements, manuals, orientation, payment, and site screening. The survey closed on 1.15.23 with a response rate of 17/104. With this information, as well as current curricular and practice guidelines, and a review of the literature, the toolkit was developed.

Framework

The toolkit is organized by the ten domains of the AACN Essentials (2021). Each domain is linked to the AACN descriptor and context, followed by essential knowledge related to each domain and an example leveling the domain objectives by program stages. In addition, the toolkit includes structured guidance of teaching/learning strategies which can be used for virtual or in-person instruction and clinical education. Included are detailed case studies, discussion prompts, simulations, and evaluation rubrics, leading to opportunities for demonstration of student competency. Faculty can customize the resources based on their unique student population, institutional goals, and clinical practice standards. Most importantly, this Toolkit is a living document, with ongoing opportunities for PMH advance practice nurse educators to contribute to it, ensuring continuous improvement and relevance.

The Graduate Faculty Toolkit not only supports PMH graduate nursing faculty in the development of curriculum, but also fosters a collaborative environment where PMH graduate nursing faculty can share and advance teaching and learning strategies for advanced psychiatric-mental health nursing programs.

American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2021). The essentials: Core competencies for professional nursing education. American Association of Colleges of Nursing.