Nutrition is a fundamental component of nursing education and is essential to providing high quality care across the spectrum of healthcare. Nutrition is particularly important for meeting the care needs of older adult and young child populations who may be at increased risk for malnutrition. In the United States (U.S.) nutrition-focused nursing education may be limited, but there are opportunities for enhancement at the baccalaureate and graduate levels. This policy paper briefly outlines the need to enhance nutrition as an integral part of high-quality nursing care to align with current nutrition policy changes in the U.S. It also discusses segmenting nutrition content by nursing degree programs, differentiating nutrition content as separate from versus integrated into nursing curricula, and effective teaching methods for nutrition content. Also described are nutrition-focused continuing education and certifications that can further augment nutrition in nursing education programs to "nourish the mind" of future practitioners.

The Recommended Baccalaureate Competencies and Curricular Guidelines for the Nursing Care of Older Adults was published in 2010. The core competencies for professional nursing education were published by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) in 2021. This article describes the process of developing new gerontological nursing competencies aligned with the AACN core competencies (Essentials).

The shortage of academic nurse educators (ANE) continues to rise in the US and poses a significant threat to the RN workforce. Addressing the ANE shortage is a complex process and requires support from multiple stakeholders.

Nursing competency assessment is crucial for evaluating nurses' skills and ensuring the quality of patient care. However, existing instruments face limitations, including inconsistencies in core competency dimensions, incomplete psychometric validation, and limited cross-cultural applicability.

Introducing Internationalisation at Home (IaH) means integrating international perspectives into curricula in higher education in order to develop students' intercultural and international competence. Introducing international learning objectives in a purposeful way into higher education curricula provides the opportunity for all students to assimilate international skills.

Competencies are observable and measurable behaviors cultivated across a nursing program. Building on the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) essentials and competency-based education (CBE), leadership training must be integrated into entry level professional nursing education to meet practice demands and prepare nurses to lead from the start. Many nurses enter leadership roles without formal education, highlighting the urgent need for structured leadership development. The American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL) offers a strong framework for developing these competencies. Leadership education is essential, not just for clinical proficiency, but for empowering nurses to lead change within healthcare systems and communities. Nurses must graduate with the ability to communicate clearly, think critically, and manage time effectively. This article reviews current evidence on entry level leadership education and explores how AACN competencies align with the AONL framework. Strategies for embedding leadership skills into nursing education and early practice are delineated to ensure a smooth transition into the first year of clinical practice with essential leadership capabilities. Integrating leadership training into simulations and coursework can transform nursing education and outcomes, equipping early-career nurses to serve as capable leaders and mentors. This shift has broad implications for healthcare institutions and policymakers alike.

Collaborative learning has been used commonly in contemporary nursing education, valued for fostering critical thinking, enhancing problem-solving skills, and deepening understanding of learning outcomes. However, there is a lack of comprehensive evidence synthesis regarding the experiences of nursing faculty and nursing students in collaborative learning, which is necessary to gain better insights into this process.

As competency-based education (CBE) becomes a defining expectation in graduate nursing education, many programs face the challenge of systematically evaluating how and where competencies are taught, reinforced, and assessed across the curriculum. This article describes a structured, replicable process used by one graduate nursing program to measure competency progression across five advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) specialties. Using adapted national frameworks, including the 2021 American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education and the 2024 National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF) Competency Implementation Guide, the faculty developed faculty-friendly tools to map course assessments to sub-competencies, performance expectations, and developmental frameworks such as Miller's Pyramid and Benner's Novice to Expert Model. A staged implementation approach included custom-designed Google Forms™ and Sheets™ that allowed for real-time visualization, pattern recognition, and faculty reflection. This method promoted a shared understanding of CBE principles, revealed gaps and redundancies in assessment design, and informed curricular refinement. Lessons learned offer practical guidance for other programs seeking to move from traditional objective-based education to a competency-driven model that prepares APRNs for complex and evolving healthcare environments.

Online education has transformed higher education, yet student engagement remains a persistent challenge, particularly in distance-based programs. A self-evaluation of an online graduate nursing program in southwest Virginia identified a gap in interactive learning and engagement. To address this gap, Grand Rounds was introduced in 2017 as an inclusive pedagogical strategy, initially within the Family Nurse Practitioner curriculum, to enhance clinical competence, foster collaborative learning, and support student engagement. Weekly Grand Rounds involved student-led case presentations, differential diagnosis discussions, and management planning, promoting active participation and peer interaction. A four-minute oral case report was delivered by assigned students, incorporating real-time diagnostic reasoning and clinical decision-making. Student feedback indicated increased engagement, and preceptor evaluations validated improvements in diagnostic reasoning, treatment planning, case presentation, and interviewing skills. These findings support Grand Rounds as an effective teaching strategy to enhance student engagement, refine clinical competencies, and foster a collaborative learning environment in online nursing education.

This article examines how Watson's Caring Science theory and the 10 Caritas Processes® can be systematically integrated into contemporary nursing education curricula to foster humanistic centered-care. Current nursing education faces the challenge of balancing empirical, evidence-informed education with the profession's foundational commitment to holistic, human-centered care. The article explores discipline-specific educational approaches that realign faculty-student relationships within a caring framework, providing nursing educators with theoretical foundations and practical implementation strategies for curriculum development. This comprehensive framework addresses nursing's unique twofold identity as both an empirical science and a caring discipline. By incorporating Watson's Caring Science principles throughout the educational continuum, the approach ensures that future nurses develop competencies to deliver care that seamlessly integrates evidence-informed practice with authentic human connection and compassion.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the public health response have been widely identified as a period that brought to light and amplified anti-intellectual attitudes within society, including distrust in healthcare institutions (Chen et al., 2023; Casselman-Hontalas et al., 2024; Merkley & Loewen, 2021). Anti-intellectualism is not a lack of intelligence but the minimization of intellectual value (Hofstadter, 1963). Despite its significance, empirical research on anti-intellectualism remains limited, particularly within the field of nursing.

Requesting manuscript feedback from a friend or colleague plays an important role in preparing a manuscript for journal submission. Writers benefit from honest feedback to identify strengths and weaknesses of a manuscript. A critical friend balances the roles of critic and friend enabling the writer to view their manuscript from a different perspective. This article reviews the critical friend literature related to providing manuscript feedback. Suggestions for selecting a critical friend, developing a writing feedback group, and how to provide quality feedback are discussed. Benefits and challenges exist when developing critical friendships for manuscript review.

Although AACN standards recognize communication as vital for establishing nurse competency, formal educational materials and direction for teaching and assessing communication are lacking.

Nursing offers a host of career opportunities across settings and roles. Despite recruitment and retention challenges still faced by our profession, there are sound recommendations and evidence-based approaches that can help nurses experience career success and fulfillment, no matter their career stage. Using Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz as a metaphor, this article provides career roadmap insights and exemplifies how rewarding and long-term nursing careers are established through thoughtful and evidence-based career guidance. Key aspects for career development to thrive (not just survive) in a nursing career include seeking mentorship, establishing well-defined career goals, being smart and selective about choices and opportunities, acting courageously in the face of failure, and aligning career goals with personal passions. Attention to developing work-life balance requires a focus on integrating physical, emotional, social, and professional "success" approaches presented in this article. The practical strategies offered act as a flexible guide for empowering nurses to take control of their careers and find personal success.

Nursing students encounter stress throughout their academic career that impacts their emotional, physical, and psychological well-being, however, there is limited literature on specific coping behaviors and their effectiveness in managing high stress levels.

Undergraduate nursing students face significant academic and practical challenges, with their responses reflecting their academic resilience. However, most studies have overlooked the differences in their levels of academic resilience and the factors contributing to these differences.

Healthcare faces a nursing crisis with high turnover, burnout, and faculty shortages, which requires innovative educational approaches that bridge the gap between education and practice.

This article discusses textbooks and open educational resources (OER) used in nursing education, and their effectiveness in representing care of diverse populations to provide educators with an objective comparison for selection of materials.