New Clinical Nurse Leader Competencies Create Pathways for Master’s and DNP Education!
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM (ET)
Webinar Details
Discover how the new AACN Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) Competencies align with the AACN Essentials (2021) to create contiguous pathways to master’s and DNP level preparation for CNLs.
This session will provide an in-depth overview of the revised competencies, the intent and rationale for the two distinct educational tracks, and strategies for integrating the new competencies into the CNL curricula and competency-based education. The Essentials core concepts—leadership, systems thinking, quality improvement, and interprofessional collaboration—are foundational to the CNL role and educational preparation. This presentation will highlight how these Essentials align with and support the revised competencies, offering a structured framework for curriculum development.
By integrating the AACN Essentials (2021) with the new, updated CNL competencies, nursing programs and practice partners can better prepare graduates for the multifaceted role of the CNL, equipping them to lead with confidence and competence in today’s healthcare environments.
Outcomes:
By the end of this session, viewers will be able to:
- Describe how the new Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) competencies and curricular requirements align with the AACN Essentials (2021).
- Describe strategies for implementing the CNL competencies into a competency-based curriculum.
- Compare and contrast competencies of the CNL master’s program and the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) education pathway.
Who should attend: This free webinar is offered for faculty, deans, and healthcare administrators who have a current CNL program or are interested in developing one. CNL preparation provides an excellent opportunity for nurses who want to advance their education and scope of practice while remaining at the point of care!
Note: Recording of the webinar will be available soon after the webinar airs. Visit AACN's On-Demand Webinars to watch.
Speakers
Speakers
Juliann Sebastian, PhD
Dean Emerita
University of Nebraska Medical Center
Juliann G. Sebastian retired from the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing in July 2023 as Professor Emerita and Dean Emerita, having served as Professor and Dean from October 2011-July 2023. She had previously served as Dean and Professor at the College of Nursing at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and, prior to that, as Assistant Dean for Advanced Practice Nursing and Professor at the University of Kentucky, College of Nursing. Dr. Sebastian earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s of Science in Nursing degrees from the University of Kentucky (UK), College of Nursing and her doctorate in Business Administration from the UK College of Business and Economics. Her areas of expertise are academic nursing, nursing workforce, and health policy. Her scholarly work has been published widely, including journal papers, book chapters, and three books, and she has presented scientific and professional papers extensively at regional, national, and international meetings. She was inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in 1999. Dr. Sebastian has been actively engaged in national academic nursing through her service on many task forces for the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and as Chair of the AACN Board of Directors from 2016-18. She served as Chair of the Board of the Global Alliance for Leadership in Nursing Education and Science from 2015-17. She was a member of the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation’s Competency-Based Education Invitational Conference Planning Committee (2016-17) and of the National Academy of Science and Medicine’s Committee on The Health and Medical Dimensions of Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults (2018-20). She currently chairs the AACN Clinical Nurse Leader Competencies Workgroup and is an emeritus member of AACN.
Jacklyn Barber, EdD
Dean
Nylen School of Nursing & Health
Morningside University
Jackie Barber is the Dean of the Nylen School of Nursing and full professor at Morningside University. She received her bachelor of science in nursing degree from Morningside College; her master of science in nursing degree from Creighton University; and her Doctorate in education/health professions from College of Saint Mary. She demonstrates expertise in medical-surgical, oncology, infusion therapy, and community/population health. She continues to deliver patient care in the practice of home infusion in the rural setting. She has more than 26 years of teaching experience and is a certified Quality Matters evaluator. She led the initiative for designing and implementing the graduate and doctorate nursing programs at Morningside University. In 2021, she was awarded the Siouxland Nurse of the Year. In 2019, she was the recipient of the Thompson Employee of the Year award. She was also the recipient of the Lucille and Charles Wert Faculty Excellence Award in 2014, the Sharon Walker Faculty Excellence Award in 2006 and 2012, and the ODK Faculty Person of the Year Award in 2005 and 2013. She was a past recipient of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) LANP Fellowship and the Wharton Executive Leadership Program. She served on the AACN Essentials Revision Taskforce and the AACN CNL Competency Taskforce; chaired the AACN’s Nominating Committee; and is currently serving as AACN’s Essentials Consulting Coach. She is a member of the Commission on Nurses Certification Board of Commissioners (CNC), past board member of the Iowa League of Nursing, and past president of the Iowa Association of Colleges of Nurses. She currently serves on the Iowa Board of Nursing.
Sarah Craig, PhD
Associate Professor
School of Nursing
University of Virginia
CNL Program Director (former)
Sarah Craig is an experienced intensive care unit nurse and certified advanced practice clinical nurse specialist. She has been a faculty member since 2014 at the University of Virginia School of Nursing. Previously, she supported the school as a clinical instructor and graduate teaching assistant, and worked at the University of Virginia Health System as a clinical nurse specialist in post-operative cardiovascular and thoracic surgery care. Sarah is a ‘double Hoo’, earning both her Master of Science in Nursing and Doctor of Philosophy from the University. She recently completed a post-Graduate certificate in Nursing Education from Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. Prior to moving to Charlottesville for graduate school, she worked in intensive care units in Virginia and North Carolina.
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Integrating the Essentials and Quality into Nursing Using the Million Hearts Initiative: Part 2
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM (ET)
Webinar Details
This webinar will introduce nursing educators to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s hypertension, cholesterol, hypertension in pregnancy, tobacco cessation, and cardiac rehab control packages as competency-based tools for teaching evidence-based practice, quality improvement, and population health. Exemplars will be provided for integrating these control packages into nursing curricula and as DNP projects.
Outcomes:
- Explore the Million Hearts Control Change Packages
- Recognize best practices for implementation of the Million Hearts Change packages into nursing curricula
- Examine the Million Hearts Change packages as DNP project resources
Note: Recording of the webinar will be available soon after the webinar airs. Visit AACN's On-Demand Webinars to watch.
Speakers
Speakers

Kate Gawlik DNP, APRN-CNP, FAAN, FNAP, FAANP
Associate Professor of Clinical Nursing
The Ohio State University
Dr. Kate Gawlik is an Associate Professor of Clinical Nursing, Director of Undergraduate Health and Wellness Academic Programming, and the Director of the Bachelor of Science in health and wellness program at The Ohio State University. She is a Family Nurse Practitioner and her areas of expertise are in wellness, cardiovascular prevention, parental burnout, and nursing education. She pioneered an online educational program, the Million Hearts Fellowship, for healthcare professionals that has resulted in the cardiovascular screening and education of over 110,000 people nationwide and has been embedded into nursing curricula across the U.S. This work has received four national awards, including most recently, the AACN’s Innovation in Professional Nursing Education Award. She is a Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, the National Academies of Practice, and the American Academy of Nursing.

Jennifer Cooper, DNP, RN, PHNA-BC, CNE
Associate Professor & Chair
Hood College Department of Nursing
Dr. Jennifer Cooper is an Associate Professor and Department Chair for Nursing at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland. Her experience in community/public health nursing practice and nursing education provides the foundation for her practice, teaching, scholarship and service. She is a Past President of the Association of Public Health Nurses and liaison to the national Million Hearts® initiative. Dr. Cooper leads Hood Million Hearts®, where she works with nursing students to promote cardiovascular disease prevention in the Frederick community. She serves as a liaison for nursing to the Frederi
ck County Board of Health as a Board Member of the Maryland Nurses Association. Dr. Cooper earned her DNP from The George Washington University, MSN from Rush University and BSN from Cedarville University.
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Interprofessional Education, Substance Use Disorders, and a Framework for Patient-Centered Care
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM (ET)
Webinar Details
This webinar examines the unique merits of interprofessional education (IPE) and the role of IPE events to prepare healthcare students to provide evidence-based, patient-centered care for substance use disorders. IPE events provide a distinct learning opportunity for students to practice coordinated care and effective communication while expanding their knowledge of complex healthcare needs, like treating opioid use disorders. The speakers will describe the National Academy of Medicine’s 3Cs Framework for Pain and Unhealthy Substance Use and its implementation in an IPE event for students from schools of medicine, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Faculty volunteers from the respective schools have diverse practice backgrounds and educational needs to prepare them to effectively facilitate these events. A learning assessment tool based on the 3Cs Framework is a comprehensive and practical approach to determine priority content for faculty curriculum development.
Outcomes:
- Examine the role of Interprofessional Education events for developing substance use disorder core competencies
- Identify gaps in care for people seeking medications for opioid use disorder
- Discuss the 3Cs Framework for Pain and Unhealthy Substance Use
- Discuss strategies to implement the 3Cs Framework for Pain and Unhealthy Substance Use
Note: Recording of the webinar will be available soon after the webinar airs. Visit AACN's On-Demand Webinars to watch.
Speakers
Speakers

Nicole Mollenkopf, PharmD, MBA, BCPS, BCPPS
Assistant Professor
Director of Interprofessional Education
Johns Hopkins School of Nursing
Nicole Mollenkopf is a nursing educator, pharmacist, and patient safety specialist with over 20 years of clinical experience working in interprofessional health care teams in both the community and acute care settings. She has been educating nursing, pharmacy, and other health professions students for 18 years with the last 8 years as full-time faculty at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing as an assistant professor and Director of Interprofessional Education. In this role, Nicole oversees the interprofessional education (IPE) program which educates thousands of learners each year. Under her leadership, the IPE program scope expanded to include a community-based, health equity focus. We have an IPE experience that leverages teams to mitigate provider and systemic bias in opioid-use disorder care, as well as an interprofessional critical service-learning program that brings interprofessional students together with community partners to foster community-service learning within a social justice framework. Similarly, the IPE program has moved from didactic learning methods to include simulation- and clinically-based interprofessional experiences. Her scholarship involves a variety of funded and unfunded projects assessing outcomes associated with interprofessional education, simulation training, as well as the use of human factors engineering to improve medication safety and team-based care.

Jessica Heacock, MSN, PMHNP-BC
DNP Executive Student
Johns Hopkins School of Nursing
Jessica Heacock is a psychiatric nurse practitioner, aspiring policy expert, and nurse educator nearing completion of her doctoral degree at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She has twenty years of nursing experience, much of which has been dedicated to working with underserved populations. In her clinical role, Jessica specializes in working with people with severe and persistent mental illness and co-occurring substance-use disorders. She consistently demonstrates the value of patient-centered care, focusing on patient education and shared decision-making. She has previously worked with similar patient populations as a care manager, helping to address the many social determinants negatively impacting health outcomes. Jessica is passionate about mentorship and is committed to passing these values to future practitioners. Jessica was recently awarded the Isabel Hampton Robb Interprofessional Education Fellowship. In her fellowship capacity, she collaborated with the National Academy of Medicine to lead a pilot project implementing the 3Cs Framework for Pain and Unhealthy Substance Use for interprofessional education development focused on opioid use disorders.
Tags
Interprofessional Education, Substance Use Disorders, and a Framework for Patient-Centered Care
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM (ET)
Webinar Details
This webinar examines the unique merits of interprofessional education (IPE) and the role of IPE events to prepare healthcare students to provide evidence-based, patient-centered care for substance use disorders. IPE events provide a distinct learning opportunity for students to practice coordinated care and effective communication while expanding their knowledge of complex healthcare needs, like treating opioid use disorders. The speakers will describe the National Academy of Medicine’s 3Cs Framework for Pain and Unhealthy Substance Use and its implementation in an IPE event for students from schools of medicine, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Faculty volunteers from the respective schools have diverse practice backgrounds and educational needs to prepare them to effectively facilitate these events. A learning assessment tool based on the 3Cs Framework is a comprehensive and practical approach to determine priority content for faculty curriculum development.
Outcomes:
- Examine the role of Interprofessional Education events for developing substance use disorder core competencies
- Identify gaps in care for people seeking medications for opioid use disorder
- Discuss the 3Cs Framework for Pain and Unhealthy Substance Use
- Discuss strategies to implement the 3Cs Framework for Pain and Unhealthy Substance Use
Note: Recording of the webinar will be available soon after the webinar airs. Visit AACN's On-Demand Webinars to watch.
Speakers
Speakers

Nicole Mollenkopf, PharmD, MBA, BCPS, BCPPS
Assistant Professor
Director of Interprofessional Education
Johns Hopkins School of Nursing
Nicole Mollenkopf is a nursing educator, pharmacist, and patient safety specialist with over 20 years of clinical experience working in interprofessional health care teams in both the community and acute care settings. She has been educating nursing, pharmacy, and other health professions students for 18 years with the last 8 years as full-time faculty at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing as an assistant professor and Director of Interprofessional Education. In this role, Nicole oversees the interprofessional education (IPE) program which educates thousands of learners each year. Under her leadership, the IPE program scope expanded to include a community-based, health equity focus. We have an IPE experience that leverages teams to mitigate provider and systemic bias in opioid-use disorder care, as well as an interprofessional critical service-learning program that brings interprofessional students together with community partners to foster community-service learning within a social justice framework. Similarly, the IPE program has moved from didactic learning methods to include simulation- and clinically-based interprofessional experiences. Her scholarship involves a variety of funded and unfunded projects assessing outcomes associated with interprofessional education, simulation training, as well as the use of human factors engineering to improve medication safety and team-based care.

Jessica Heacock, MSN, PMHNP-BC
DNP Executive Student
Johns Hopkins School of Nursing
Jessica Heacock is a psychiatric nurse practitioner, aspiring policy expert, and nurse educator nearing completion of her doctoral degree at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She has twenty years of nursing experience, much of which has been dedicated to working with underserved populations. In her clinical role, Jessica specializes in working with people with severe and persistent mental illness and co-occurring substance-use disorders. She consistently demonstrates the value of patient-centered care, focusing on patient education and shared decision-making. She has previously worked with similar patient populations as a care manager, helping to address the many social determinants negatively impacting health outcomes. Jessica is passionate about mentorship and is committed to passing these values to future practitioners. Jessica was recently awarded the Isabel Hampton Robb Interprofessional Education Fellowship. In her fellowship capacity, she collaborated with the National Academy of Medicine to lead a pilot project implementing the 3Cs Framework for Pain and Unhealthy Substance Use for interprofessional education development focused on opioid use disorders.
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Building the Infrastructure for Competency-Based Education in Nursing: A Step-by-Step Approach
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM (ET)
Webinar Details
Many nursing schools are working to implement the 2021 AACN Essentials in a competency-based framework. Sometimes the work may seem fragmented, leaving faculty unsure of the next steps. This presentation will share strategies for implementing a tactical and systematic approach to operationalize this work overtime and support schools in making incremental advances on their Essentials journey.
Outcomes:
- Review backward design for the implementation of competency-based education and assessment.
- Demonstrate the elements of a flexible timeline for building the infrastructure for competency-based education.
- Suggest approaches to address competencies needing greater representation across the curriculum.
- Provide examples of competency-based teaching and assessments faculty can implement in their programs.
Note: Recording of the webinar will be available soon after the webinar airs. Visit AACN's On-Demand Webinars to watch.
Speakers
Speakers

Gerry Altmiller, EdD, APRN, ACNS-BC, ANEF, FAAN
Professor Emeritus, Director
Quality and Safety Innovation Center
The College of New Jersey
Dr. Gerry Altmiller is a clinical nurse specialist for Jefferson Einstein Healthcare Network in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and professor emeritus and director of the Quality and Safety Innovation Center at The College of New Jersey. She served on the QSEN Advisory board for over a decade and was a national consultant for integrating quality and safety into nursing curricula. Dr. Altmiller authored the Teamwork and Communication Module of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing’s Transition to Practice program and in 2014 she received a Lindback Award for distinguished teaching. For 7 years, she led the QSEN Academic Task Force, creating opportunities for its 120 faculty members to network, share ideas, and conduct academic-focused research. Her work on constructive feedback led to the development, testing, and dissemination of support tools for nurse educators and learning tools for students to view feedback as an opportunity. Dr. Altmiller is a member of the AACN workgroups that developed the toolkits to support adoption of the 2021 AACN Essentials, serves as a national consultant for schools of nursing working to integrate competency-based education, and has served on the editorial board for the Nurse Educator since 2017.