Questions from the Audience: The Essentials Progression Indicators
December 08, 2025
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM (ET)
Webinar Details
Building on the October 27 webinar, Designing Nursing Curricula for Competency-Based Education: The Role of Progression Indicators, this follow-up session will address questions submitted by participants that were not covered during the live event. Faculty are encouraged to view the original webinar prior to attending this session. During this Q&A-focused discussion, presenters will revisit key concepts related to Progression Indicators (PIs) and expand on how PIs can be used to strengthen curriculum design, support equitable student progression, and align learning experiences with the AACN Essentials. Participants will gain deeper insight into practical application strategies and common questions raised by peers implementing competency-based education (CBE) in nursing programs.
Outcomes:
- Discuss common questions and challenges related to implementing and using Progression Indicators across courses and learning environments.
- Apply insights from peer and expert discussion to strengthen the integration of Progression Indicators within their own CBE curriculum design efforts.
Note: Recording of the webinar will be available soon after the webinar airs. Visit AACN's On-Demand Webinars to watch.
Speakers
Speakers

Dawn Mueller-Burke, PhD, CRNP, NNP-BC
Assistant Professor/Neonatal Nurse Practitioner
University of Maryland Baltimore
University of Maryland Medical Center
Dr. Dawn Mueller-Burke is a nationally certified Neonatal Nurse Practitioner who has dedicated her career to caring for critically ill neonates and advancing nursing education across all levels. She earned her PhD in Nursing from the University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON) and completed postdoctoral training in developmental genetics at Johns Hopkins University, where her research focused on neonatal brain injury, hypothermia and stem cell treatment.
Now a leader in academic nursing and competency-based education (CBE), Dr. Mueller-Burke serves as an Assistant Professor and chairs UMSON’s Curricular Revisions Taskforce, leading the transformation of programs to align with the 2021 AACN Essentials. She previously directed the transition of all advanced practice master’s specialties to the doctoral level. A catalyst for CBE innovation, she has helped ignite initiatives across Maryland and serves nationally as a consultant, AACN Essentials Champion and Coach, co-lead of the AACN Curricular Workgroup, and member of the NONPF Curricular Leadership Committee, shaping the future of nursing education through collaboration and curricular excellence.

Jacquelyn McMillian-Bohler, PhD, APRN
Assistant Clinical Professor
Director, Institute for Educational Excellence
Duke University
Dr. Jacquelyn McMillian-Bohler is an Assistant Professor and the Director for Educational Excellence at the Duke University School of Nursing. She received a BSN from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, an MSN in Nurse-Midwifery from Vanderbilt U niversity, and a PhD in Nursing Education from Villanova University. Grounded by her Masterful Educator Model, she mentors faculty and presents nationally on faculty development, fostering inclusive learning environments, and employing impactful teaching strategies. Her efforts extend to guiding nursing programs toward competency-based education and researching effective teaching practices and health equity. Beyond academia, she advances health equity through Cultural Intelligence workshops and a culturally concordant doula training initiative.
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Designing Nursing Curricula for Competency-Based Education: The Role of Progression Indicators
October 27, 2025
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM (ET)
Webinar Details
Competency-Based Education (CBE) is reshaping nursing education by shifting the focus from what students know to what they can do. This approach emphasizes descriptive, observable behaviors that support learning, competency development, and readiness for professional practice. Central to this shift are Progression Indicators (PIs), which translate sub-competencies into clear, observable behaviors that faculty, preceptors, and students can use as a shared roadmap for learning.
This webinar will explore how PIs support backward curriculum design, clarify expectations, and align assessments with the behaviors students must demonstrate in practice. By making competence visible, PIs help educators foster transparency, strengthen experiential learning opportunities, and promote equitable readiness for professional nursing practice.
Outcomes:
- Analyze the role of progression indicators in competency-based education and how they guide learning and assessment.
- Demonstrate how to align program outcomes, course objectives/learner outcomes, and assessments with progression indicators to support learner development.
- Design strategies for using progression indicators to provide consistent, transparent, and developmentally sequenced assessment of student competency.
Note: Recording of the webinar will be available soon after the webinar airs. Visit AACN's On-Demand Webinars to watch.
Speakers
Speakers

Dawn Mueller-Burke, PhD, CRNP, NNP-BC
Assistant Professor/Neonatal Nurse Practitioner
University of Maryland Baltimore
University of Maryland Medical Center
Dr. Mueller-Burke has a clinical focus in the Neonatal Intensive Care arena where she spent most of her career as a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON) PhD program with a focus in neonatal neurophysiology. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University in a developmental genetics laboratory with a focus in stem cell biology. Her research sought to better understand neonatal brain injury and to identify potential interventions, including hypothermia and stem cell therapy to improve outcomes after neonatal brain injury. She shifted her focus to leadership and educational-based endeavors once joining the faculty at the University of Maryland School of Nursing in 2004, where she teaches across degree programs, specifically in the NNP program.
She is nationally certified as a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner, with a per diem practice in the NICU at the University of Maryland Medical Center. In 2011 she served as the Faculty Chair of the DNP Transition Task Force incorporating the AACN Essentials, leading all the APN Master’s specialties at UMSON to the doctorate (DNP) beginning Fall 2014. She is currently the Chair of the Curricular Revisions Taskforce at UMSON, transforming entry and advanced practice programs to the 2021 Essentials. As an AACN Essentials Champion and Coach, and the co-lead for the AACN Essentials Curricular Workgroup, as well as a member of the NONPF Curricular Leadership Committee, she is part of the national dialogue and consultant on curricular revisions and speaks at various venues around implementation of the AACN Essentials and the move to competency-based education.

Jacquelyn McMillian-Bohler, PhD, APRN
Assistant Clinical Professor
Director, Institute for Educational Excellence
Duke University
Dr. Jacqui McMillian-Bohler is an Assistant Professor and the Director for Educational Excellence at the Duke University School of Nursing. She received a BSN from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, an MSN in Nurse-Midwifery from Vanderbilt University, and a PhD in Nursing Education from Villanova University. Grounded by her Masterful Educator Model, she mentors faculty and presents nationally on faculty development, fostering inclusive learning environments, and employing impactful teaching strategies. Her efforts extend to guiding nursing programs toward competency-based education and researching effective teaching practices and health equity. Beyond academia, she advances health equity through Cultural Intelligence workshops and a culturally concordant doula training initiative.
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Enhancing Competency-Based Education and Assessment with Video Simulations
December 13, 2022
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM (ET)
Webinar Details
Dr. Laurie Kennedy-Malone highlights a year-long project funded by AACN’s Faculty Scholar Grant Program at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro (UNCG). During this project, five new clinical simulations, with faculty guides, were developed with the goal of designing competency-based video simulations that facilitate formative assessment of nurse practitioner students’ clinical decision-making skills. The simulations come with a guide, written by UNCG nurse practitioners, which lists the specific Essentials domains and concepts for advanced-level nursing education sub-competencies, used to enhance the student learning experience.
Objectives:
- Describe the process of developing clinical video simulations and faculty guides developed for nurse practitioner curriculum
- Summarize the process used to validate the AACN Advanced Essentials with the clinical video simulations/faculty guides
- Discuss the use of clinical video simulations in nurse practitioner curriculum
Speakers
Speakers

Laurie Kennedy-Malone, PhD, GNP-BC, FAANP, FGSA, FAAN
Professor of Nursing
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Laurie Kennedy-Malone has been a certified gerontological nurse practitioner since 1982 and a professor of nursing at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) since 1990. She was the 2007 recipient of the John A. Hartford Foundation Institute for Geriatric Nursing Faculty Champion and the National Conference of Gerontological Nurse Practitioners' Excellence in Education Award in 2006. In November 2018, she was awarded a Certificate of Recognition for Excellence as a Distinguished Educator in Gerontological Nursing by the National Hartford Center of Gerontological Nursing Excellence. She coauthored Integrating Gerontological Content into Advanced Practice Nursing Education and Advanced Practice Nursing in the Care of Older Adults. Both books received AJN Book of the Year Awards. She has authored over 40 peer-reviewed publications. A former president of the National Conference of Gerontological Nurse Practitioners, she later served as a Director at Large of the Gerontological Advanced Practice Nurses Association (GAPNA). In 2020, Dr. Kennedy-Malone received the Excellence in Leadership Award from GAPNA and, in 2021, the Excellence in Creativity & Innovation, Edith Moore Copeland Founders Award from Sigma Theta Tau International. Dr. Kennedy-Malone is a recent recipient of the AACN Faculty Scholars Grant Program for her work on Enhancing Nurse Practitioner Competency-Based Education and Assessment with Innovative Video Simulations.
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