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ELEVATE & EDUCATE:
TRANSFORMING NURSING EDUCATION
JUNE 16-20, 2025
Conference is Sold Out, but you can still join the waitlist!
PRECONFERENCES
Monday, June 16th
1230pm - 430pm
Nursing History 101:
A Toolkit to Transform Nursing Education Curricula
April Matthias PhD, RN, CNE
Beth Hundt PhD, APRN, NP-C, ACNS-BC, FAHA
Sarah Craig PhD, RN, CCNS, CCRN-K, CNE, CHSE
Generate teaching strategy ideas using a sample of primary and secondary history sources to enhance student learning.
Apply a 5-step approach to thread relevant nursing history content into existing courses for a concept-based curriculum. OR Apply performance indicators with aligned assessments to integrate relevant nursing history content for a competency-based curriculum.
Examine a history framework that supports meaningful integration of history content in nursing curricula.
Discuss the power of nursing history to enhance the educational experience of learners and the development of entry-level and advanced-level nurses.
Learning nursing’s history has the potential to transform a nursing students’ professional identity, thinking, understanding, and perspective.
This engaging 4-hour preconference will provide nurse educators with the knowledge and tools needed to meaningfully integrate and align nursing history content in their nursing education curricula. Through intentional discussion and active participation, educators will learn how nurse history influences the professional identity and role development of the nurse, how to use a history framework to select relevant nursing history content, how to enhance active student learning using primary and secondary history sources, and how to align relevant history content to learning outcomes in a concept-based and competency-based curriculum.
April Matthias
PhD, RN, CNE
Dr. Matthias is a Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW). She has been a nurse educator for more than 25 years and has taught in ADN, RN-BSN, MSN, and DNP programs. Throughout her teaching career, she has developed and re-designed numerous didactic and online courses as well as developed, evaluated, and redesigned graduate nursing program curricula. Dr. Matthias is a National League for Nursing Certified Nurse Educator and serves as a site
evaluation team leader for the National League for Nursing Commission for Nursing Education Accreditation. She is a long-time member of the American Association for the History of Nursing and currently, serves on the board as the Director of Nursing History Education. Dr. Matthias is the 2023 recipient of the UNCW Distinguished Teaching Professorship Award and the 2022 recipient of the UNCW Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Award.
Dr. Matthias’ research and teaching scholarship focus on the professional identity and role development of the nurse and nurse educator through various pedagogies. She has conducted historical research on an 1873 hospital-based nursing school, a turn-of-the-20th-century nursing correspondence course, a 1916 dual diploma/BSN program, a 1945 accelerated BSN program, and a 1952 ADN program to study the
influence of these new educational pathways on the professional identity and role development of the entry-level nurse. She is currently researching the influence of a Blacks only hospital nurse training school on the health of the Black community in Wilmington, NC during the segregated healthcare period of the 20th century. She has completed qualitative research and teaching scholarship on pedagogies for professional identity and role development as a BSN-prepared nurse, MSN-prepared nurse educator,
and journal peer reviewer for the academic nurse educator role. She is currently completing qualitative analysis of BSN nursing students’ written reflections taken while viewing a history documentary on HIV/AIDS nursing care to study the influence of history on their professional identity development.
Dr. Matthias has combined her passions and expertise in nursing history and nursing education curricula to design a preconference that will assist nurse educators to meaningfully integrate relevant nursing history to facilitate their students’ professional identity development and achievement of program student learning outcomes.
Beth Hundt
PhD, APRN, NP-C, ACNS-BC, FAHA
Dr. Hundt is the Director of the Stroke Program at Centra Health in Lynchburg, Virginia. Her experience in nursing education spans over two decades from educating nurses at the bedside in the intensive care unit to teaching at the University of Virginia School of Nursing as an Assistant Professor. She is a member of the American Association for the History of Nursing and has been an active member of the Nursing History Education
Committee.
Dr. Hundt’s research scholarship focuses on the impact of the built environment on patient well-being. This interest led her to examine the use of nature and the built environment in the treatment of mental illness at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, DC during the 19 th century. Additionally, she is active in the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association to advance the care of stroke patients and is recognized as a Fellow in the American Heart Association by the Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing Council.
Sarah Craig
PhD, RN, CCNS, CCRN-K, CNE, CHSE
Dr. Craig is an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Virginia (UVA). She teaches across graduate and undergraduate nursing programs in the clinical, online, and simulation center, and classroom settings. Additionally, she consults on course design for School of Nursing faculty colleagues. Dr. Craig is the
2022 recipient of the UVA All-University Teaching Award.
Dr. Craig’s research focus is the scholarship of teaching and learning. As a certified healthcare simulation educator, she examines how simulation enhances student knowledge, skills, and attitudes in preparation for transition to clinical practice. Her clinical passion focuses on medication safety practices. Currently, her pilot work
explores the benefit of extended reality in improving clinical judgement with high-risk medication infusion management. She also participates in historical inquiry into the history of nursing image, practice, and professionalization. Dr. Craig uses a social history framework to inquire into the work and care provided by industrial corporate welfare nurses in southern textile mill towns in the United States in the early 20th century. She is an associate at the University of Virginia School of Nursing Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry.
Tuesday, June 17th,
800am - 500pm
Beyond Transformation:
A Call for Reformation of Nursing Education
Maria Flores-Harris DNP, RN, CNE
Distinguish between transformation and reformation of nursing education and explore the most significant challenge: returning to nursing education’s primary purpose—teaching students to think, feel, and act like nurses by embracing their new identity as professional nurses.
It has been 15 years since Patricia Benner called for a radical transformation in nursing education to bridge the academic-practice gap. Yet, the gap is widening. Only 9% of new graduate registered nurses possess entry-level clinical judgment competency (Kavanagh & Sharpnack, 2021). The current efforts in transforming nursing education have yet to move the needle in the right direction. It is time to move beyond individual transformation as nurse educators and embrace a comprehensive reformation of nursing education.
Maria Flores-Harris
DNP, RN, CNE
Dr. Maria Flores-Harris is a registered nurse with extensive experience across clinical, academic, and business environments. She earned both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in nursing from Clemson University, where her loyalty to the Clemson Tigers remains steadfast. Dr. Flores-Harris received her Doctoral degree in Nursing Education Leadership from American Sentinel University and is a Certified Nurse Educator credentialed by the National League for Nursing (NLN).
She has held various roles throughout her career, including nursing faculty and director positions in practical and registered nursing programs and as a national nurse education consultant. She is the President and Founder of Academic Partners Consulting, an educational consulting firm, and currently works with KeithRN as their nurse education consultant.
Her expertise lies in evidence-based teaching strategies, learning science, and academic integrity. Dr. Flores-Harris is passionate about empowering educators to utilize research and evidence to nurture safe and competent nursing professionals. She travels across the United States, sharing her insights at educational conferences and providing professional development for nurse educators.