A Faculty Development Program

Schools of Nursing exist to prepare students for nursing practice, to grow nursing science that benefits patients and the profession, and to foster health in internal and external communities.  The National Academy of Medicine’s national plan (2022) and the US Surgeon General’s advisory (2022) highlight the dangers of clinician burnout and the imperative for health worker wellbeing.  Accordingly, they called on healthcare educators to develop healthy learning environments.  The AACN Essentials (2021) goes farther by listing competencies for entry-level and advanced nursing graduates. 

Yet a question remains:  How can a school of nursing become a credible model of a healthy work and learning environment and infuse curricula with learning experiences that support students’ ability to flourish as learners and nurses?

As the first recipient of Sigma’s Healthy Work Environment award and home of the groundbreaking Compassionate Care Initiative, the UVA School of Nursing wants to help Schools of Nursing faculty and administrators answer this question.  Our expertise includes:

• Broad knowledge of self-care methods that foster wellbeing in nurses as detailed in Self-care for New and Student Nurses and Self Care for Nurses: Small Doses for Wellness
• Cutting edge insights into mattering in learning and work environments
• Balanced attention to wisdom and wellbeing practices for individuals, teams, and organizations
• Practical methods that support mindful collaboration and leadership

The Healthy Learning Communities and Curricula program offers small teams of school of nursing innovators an opportunity to:

• Take an intentional 3-day time out designed to help them personally refresh, be inspired, and collaborate on creating a practical plan that answers this question for their school
• Learn the key elements of creating healthy learning communities through the example and expertise of the U.Va. School of Nursing
• Engage firsthand in learning experiences that foster wellbeing, effective collaboration, and leadership
• Gain dedicated workshop time to work in their small team
• Receive mentoring and coaching from program facilitators
• Leave the program with concrete ideas and plans to foster healthy learning communities and curricula in their own school