The Nursing Education and Professional Development (NEPD), within the Department of Nursing, plays a pivotal role in providing necessary orientation and continuing education to ensure clinical competencies, while encouraging nurses to engage in critical thinking and the implementation of evidence-based clinical nursing practice. Nursing Clinical Educators and Instructors support preparation for specialty and institutional certifications and, in conjunction with the Nurse Education Councils, facilitate the acquisition of Nursing knowledge, bedside Nursing skills and technologies, and an interdisciplinary sharing of clinical expertise. NEPD is an approved provider of Pennsylvania State Nurses Association (PSNA) continuing education credits, and offers a full spectrum of continuing education opportunities including: American Heart Association Training Center ACLS/BLS/PALS certifications, a comprehensive Level I Nursing Trauma Course, Critical Care, Pediatric and Medical Surgical Graduate Nurse Internship programs, Nursing student externship programs, Nurse Preceptor and Advanced Preceptor Classes, Group facilitation workshops, clinical specialty updates and state of the art Clinical Crisis Resource Management exercises in our simulation lab.
Our Philosophy
As Nurse Educators in an academic medical center we endorse the following beliefs:
- Excellence in Professional Nursing Practice requires ongoing, lifelong continuing education
- Our programs are grounded in the educational concepts of adult learning theory, evidence-based practice, critical thinking/problem based learning, continuous program evaluation, and the diversity of learners and learning styles
- We value the incorporation of educational technologies
We encourage teamwork and appreciate the wealth of clinical knowledge and experience available both within the Department of Nursing, and through collaboration with our Interdisciplinary Medical Center colleagues
Our Commitment to Scholarly Activities
Clinical Nurse Educators at Penn State Hershey Medical Center are frequently presenters at local, regional, state and national professional conferences and nursing clinical specialty organizations. We offer continuing education programs to nurses within the central Pennsylvania region. In a research-rich environment, Nurse Educators function as primary and co-investigators in Nursing and interdisciplinary educational research projects. Within the last three years, our Nurse Educators have had articles in print in such journals as: Journal of Advanced Practice Nursing, Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, Advances in Neonatal Care, Critical Care Nurse Quarterly and The Journal of Simulation in Healthcare.
