unity in:

Educating clinical instructors and preceptors

FACULTY MEMBER

Quyen Phan 03MSN, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, assistant clinical professor

PARTNERS/COMMUNITY

Emory Healthcare, DeKalb County Board of Health, Mercy Care, Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition, Boat People SOS, and other community agencies

Like all professionals, nurses benefit from the guidance of experienced colleagues as they begin their careers. That reality is at the heart of the CAPES Academy, which will recruit and prepare nurses to serve as clinical faculty and preceptors to nursing students and newly licensed nurses in underserved areas of the Southeast.

On a Saturday morning at a free clinic for uninsured and low-income residents in metro Atlanta, School of Nursing student Rebecca Deal 22Ox 24BSN vaccinated a patient for COVID-19. Deal carefully administered the booster shot under the guidance of Deborah Silverstein 78C 83BSN 17MSN 20DNP, FNP-C, her clinical instructor from the Emory School of Nursing, and Thao Nguyen, program coordinator at Boat People SOS.

Nurses like Silverstein play an important role in bridging the gap between theoretical learning and clinical practice for students. The need for more instructors and preceptors is critical to growing the nursing workforce in medically underserved communities — the impetus behind a project at the School of Nursing.

The Clinical Instructor and Preceptor Excellence in the Southeast (CAPES) Academy will prepare 128 licensed nurses to serve as nurse educators in eight states — Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. It is part of an initiative funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration to bolster nursing education through partnerships among academics, clinicians, and community organizations.

Over the next four years, the CAPES Academy will recruit 32 nurses annually. All will receive stipends to complete the yearlong program. Instruction will include online classes, in-person exercises at the Emory Nursing Learning Center, shadowing experiences, and professional development.

Quyen Phan, assistant clinical professor in the School of Nursing, directs the CAPES Academy.

Emory Healthcare, DeKalb County Board of Health, Mercy Care, Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition, and Boat People SOS are among the partners Phan has tapped to provide education and shadowing experiences for CAPES Academy nurses in the Atlanta area. — Pam Auchmutey