It’s been a little over a month since nursing educators from all over Canada met in Halifax at CASN’s biannual, Canadian Nursing Education Conference. Since 1942, CASN’s mandate has been to promote high quality nursing education and research on a national scale, it was therefore exciting to offer this opportunity to Canadian schools of nursing to present their research on the national stage. I believe we will be seeing spin offs from the stimulating presentations and conversations amongst participants for some time.
Thinking about the conference, I wanted to share information with you about our recently launched online Teaching Certificate Program. Currently, course offerings include: 1) Clinical Instructor Certificate Course; and 2) Nursing Educator Certificate Course.
Since its initial offering in 2013, the Clinical Instructor course has received a resounding positive response from nurse clinicians and educators. Clinical education is an essential component of nursing education and clinical instructors play a critical role in shaping quality nursing education for nursing. The knowledge and expertise of the course instructors, coupled with the desire and enthusiasm among participants to learn and engage in dialogue has been incredible, and we are looking forward to the next offering of the course fall 2014. We are also excited to announce that a French version of this course will also be offered this fall, 2014.
The Nurse Educator Certificate Course was introduced in January 2014 and is designed to foster the development of knowledge and expertise in pedagogy, course development, and curriculum design among nursing educators. This foundational course has appealed to different audiences including nurse clinicians interested in pursuing careers in academia, as well as newer, and more experienced faculty members. The dialogue and idea exchange on the online platform has been dynamic and inspiring.
We want to continue to improve and build on these initiatives to help support nurse educators in providing quality nursing education. I welcome your thoughts about the current course offerings, and invite your ideas about what we should be offer in the future.
Please send CASN your thoughts and comments regarding our continuing efforts to improve nursing education on our Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Canadian-Association-of-Schools-of-Nursing-CASN/574645555928679
We would love to hear your comments on Twitter too ! @CASN43 and include #ImprovingEducation
Cynthia Baker, RN, PhD.
Executive Director, CASN
