Program Agenda

• Access, Connection, and Engagement Leadership Network (ACELN) Forum
  Join colleagues to meet, greet, and network with other ACELN members and potential members. You will have the opportunity to meet the steering committee and other members you may have only met or worked with virtually. Learn about the activities of ACELN and share thoughts on future engagement activities. All are welcome to attend.
   
• Faculty Leadership Network (FLN) Breakfast Forum
  Join colleagues to celebrate and contemplate future directions for the network. In addition to seeing old friends and meeting new ones, we identify issues of mutual interest and opportunities for engagement in an informal setting. All are welcome to attend.

Emerging Solutions
These immersive learning sessions dive deep into practical strategies for addressing academic nursing needs, blending expert insights, real-world case studies, peer-to-peer learning, and dynamic interaction.

• Ethics, Morality, and AI: Retaining Human Dignity in a Digital World
  What, really, is this thing we call AI? How does it work, and how should we think about it ethically? How does AI operate like a traditional technology, and how is it something new? This talk will explore the broader questions of technology that will help us understand the groundswell of AI in the last few years, in order to effectively encounter AI from a position of ethics, morality, and human dignity. It will discuss positions of faith leaders, as well as the wider landscape of ethical approaches to AI, and will offer challenges to think critically about AI usage in the context of nursing and healthcare.
   
• Navigating AI-Mediated Scholarly Communication
  Generative AI is rapidly transforming scholarly communication by reshaping how knowledge is discovered, synthesized, written, reviewed, published, and disseminated across academic and research settings. This session introduces AI-mediated scholarly communication as a framework for understanding this reciprocal relationship between AI and scholarship: while generative AI is increasingly used to support writing, publishing, and research practices, scholarly works themselves are also becoming important resources for developing, enhancing, and evaluating AI systems. Through this framework, the session examines how these parallel transformations are reshaping scholarly communication, from research and writing to publishing and the growing role of scholarly works in AI development. The presentation will invite faculty and academic leaders to consider generative AI not only as a tool for supporting scholarship, but also as a force reshaping the systems, norms, and relationships that define scholarly communication. Attendees will gain a broader understanding of the opportunities, challenges, and ethical considerations associated with AI-mediated scholarship and its implications for research, publishing, and the future of academic knowledge production.
   
• Robot Assisted Nursing Care: Navigating the 2026 AACN Essentials in the Age of Robotics
  The purpose of this session is to explore how robots and co-bots can support nursing practice. It will define what a robot is, how they work, and the benefits and challenges nurses must consider. It will then describe some of the teaching strategies that align with AACN domains, competencies and sub-competencies at the generalist and advanced level. We will invite participants to consider how robot-assisted care can strengthen clinical judgment, person-centered care, quality and safety, and interprofessional collaboration while preserving the essential human dimensions of nursing. The session will also examine implications for curriculum design, ethical decision-making, and learner assessment. The goal is to help nurse educators as they prepare graduates to practice confidently in technology-enabled care environments.
   
• What If Belonging Was by Design? Transformative Strategies for Building Student Connection and Success in Academic Nursing
  A sense of belonging is essential to student engagement, well-being, persistence, and academic success. Yet belonging does not happen by chance.  It can be intentionally designed through transformative educational practices that foster meaningful relationships, psychological safety, and supportive learning environments. In this interactive session, Drs. Karen Worthy and Coretta Jenerette will share innovative, evidence-informed strategies for cultivating belonging across nursing education settings. Faculty and academic leaders will explore practical, scalable approaches that strengthen student connection, promote engagement, and support learner success while creating learning environments where all students can thrive. Through real-world examples and implementation insights, participants will leave with actionable tools to design, implement, and sustain a culture of belonging within their own programs.

Studio Sessions: From Ideas to Action
Studio Sessions are highly interactive workshops designed for participants to actively apply concepts, tackle real-world challenges, and develop practical solutions. Working alongside facilitators and peers, attendees will engage in hands-on exercises, collaborative problem-solving, and structured activities that lead to tangible tools, frameworks, or action plans they can immediately implement within their institutions.

• AI Discernment: Designing Learning for Critical Thinking and Clinical Judgment
  AI can expand learning and faculty capacity, but it can also perform the thinking that an educational experience is intended to develop or reveal. This interactive workshop helps educators make sense of that tension and determine what role, if any, AI should play in teaching, learning, and assessment. Participants will examine how AI is changing learner performance, clinical judgment, faculty work, and credible evidence of learning, and will be introduced to the AI Discernment Framework for Teaching and Learning© as a structured approach to responsible, context-appropriate educational decision-making. Participants will leave with a grounded understanding of AI use cases, along with adaptable tools and resources to begin planning the creation or redesign of one student-centered learning experience or assessment for their own setting.
   
• Mad About Competency: Experiments in CBE Course Design
  Join two mad scientists in the Competency Innovation Lab as we test, tinker, and experiment with the ingredients of effective competency-based course design. Through a series of engaging, hands-on design challenges, participants will investigate course descriptions, learner outcomes, assessments, rubrics, formative learning activities, and progression indicators to uncover the formula for meaningful, aligned competency-based education. Leave with practical strategies, design tools, and renewed confidence to transform your own courses from good ideas into evidence-informed learning experiences.
   
• Stepping Off the Treadmill: Reclaiming Possibility in Complex Times
  In a time of continuous change, academic nursing education and health care leaders have an opportunity to strengthen themselves, support their communities, and lead with renewed clarity and purpose. This interactive session explores how connection, innovation, and reflection can help leaders navigate complexity while opening space for new possibilities. Moving beyond traditional approaches to burnout and time management, the session invites participants to examine the institutional and internal patterns that shape how time, energy, and attention are used. Through practical diagnostics, reflective exercises, and shared strategies, participants will identify ways to align their leadership practices with what matters most. Attendees will leave with concrete tools, workbooks, and a clear plan for sustaining momentum, strengthening community, and reclaiming possibility in their work and leadership.

Getting Published: Tips for Success 
Publishing is an excellent method for the dissemination of the body of evidence that advances nursing science as well as a forum for sharing solutions to common problems.  It is essential that faculty not only publish their scholarship, but also mentor students in the publishing process.  This session will focus on strategies to select a publishable topic, determine the appropriate audience for the topic, choose a suitable journal, and decide authorship.