| Course | NUR 5194 Capstone Practicum for Role of the Nurse Educator |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 1 |
| Paper type | Nurse educator practicum plan |
| Length | 1,210 words, about 4 pages plus title and reference pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | American College of Education |
| Program | MSN Nurse Educator |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NUR 5194 Module 1
A Semester in Someone Else's Course: The Nurse Educator Practicum Plan, With Objectives Mapped to Program Outcomes and the NLN Competencies, and a First Look at Post-Conference
Student Name
American College of Education
NUR5194: Capstone Practicum for Role of the Nurse Educator
Module 1 Assignment
Instructor Name
September 12, 2028
Setting and Mentor
The practicum takes place in the school of nursing of a composite public university in the Southeast, in NURS 3320, Adult Health Nursing I, the first acute care clinical course in the junior year of the traditional BSN program. The course enrolls 64 students in eight clinical groups of eight, each with a clinical instructor, on medical-surgical units at two hospitals. Students spend two 8-hour clinical days a week on the unit, and each clinical day ends with a one-hour post-conference led by the clinical instructor.
The mentor is the course coordinator, an associate professor with a PhD in nursing education, certification as a nurse educator and 14 years of teaching in the course. She supervises the eight clinical instructors, most of whom are part-time, and has agreed to meet weekly with the author, to observe the author teaching and to provide access to the course's materials and de-identified assessment data, subject to the school's approval. The author will work with one clinical group throughout the semester alongside its instructor and will take part in the course's didactic teaching and faculty meetings.
Objectives
The practicum has six objectives. Each is mapped to one of the MSN Nurse Educator specialization's outcomes and to one of the core competencies for nurse educators described by the National League for Nursing, eight competencies that range from facilitating learning and learners' development, through assessment, curriculum work and leading change, to scholarship, the educator's own continuing improvement and working within the institution (Halstead, 2019).
First, facilitate learning for a clinical group of eight students across the semester, using at least three evidence-based teaching strategies, mapped to the competency of facilitating learning. Second, plan and lead at least eight clinical post-conferences, each with written objectives and a structure grounded in a clinical judgment framework, mapped to the same competency and to the program outcome on applying learning theory. Third, assess student clinical performance using the course's evaluation tool and provide written formative feedback at midterm, mapped to the educator competency concerned with assessing and evaluating learners. Fourth, design, implement and evaluate a scholarly project that addresses a nursing education problem identified in the course, mapped to the competencies of functioning as a change agent and engaging in scholarship and to the program outcome on scholarly inquiry. Fifth, participate in the course's faculty meetings and one curriculum committee meeting and write a brief analysis of how the course fits the program's curriculum map, mapped to the curriculum competency. Sixth, maintain a reflective journal and complete a self-assessment against the educator competencies at the beginning and end of the practicum, mapped to the competency of continuous quality improvement in the educator role.
Activities, Evidence and Timeline
The semester is 15 weeks. In weeks one to three, the author will observe the clinical instructor, co-lead post-conferences and complete the needs assessment for the scholarly project, including observation of post-conferences in several groups and review of the course's clinical evaluation data. In weeks four to six, the author will lead post-conferences independently for the practicum group, draft the project proposal and submit it to the mentor and course faculty. In weeks seven to twelve, the author will implement the project, complete midterm evaluations for the group with the instructor and attend the faculty and curriculum meetings. In weeks thirteen to fifteen, the author will evaluate the project, complete final evaluations and write the scholarly paper and reflection.
Evidence for each objective will be collected as the practicum proceeds: teaching plans and the mentor's observation notes for the first objective; post-conference plans and a peer observation for the second; midterm evaluations and feedback, reviewed by the instructor, for the third; the project proposal, data and paper for the fourth; the curriculum analysis for the fifth; and the journal and self-assessments for the sixth.
Starting Point: What the Author Brings and Must Learn
The plan was shaped by an honest starting self-assessment. The author has nine years of experience as a medical-surgical nurse and four years as a unit preceptor and charge nurse, and has taught informally at the bedside for most of that time. Against the educator competencies, the author's strongest area is facilitating learning in the clinical setting one to one, where years of precepting have built comfort with coaching a novice through a procedure. The weakest areas are those that belong to academic education rather than practice: evaluating students' performance against a formal tool and writing feedback that will stand up if a grade is appealed, understanding how one course fits a program's curriculum and accreditation requirements, and designing a teaching change that can be evaluated with evidence rather than impressions. The six objectives were chosen with this profile in mind. The first draws on existing strengths, while the third, fourth and fifth target the gaps directly. The mentor reviewed the self-assessment and added one expectation: that the author practice leading a group, not only coaching individuals, because group facilitation is a different skill from precepting, and post-conference is where the difference shows. That expectation is part of the second objective and is one reason post-conference emerged as the project focus. The self-assessment will be repeated at the end of the semester using the same competency statements, and the change between the two will be discussed in the final reflection in Module 6.
Ethical Responsibilities
The practicum involves students' educational records, which are protected by federal privacy law, and patient care on hospital units. The author will access only de-identified course data provided by the mentor, will store notes without student names and will not use any student's work in the scholarly project without the school's approval. Because the project will evaluate a change in teaching, the author will ask the university's institutional review board whether it requires review or qualifies as educational quality improvement, and will follow its determination. On the clinical units, the author will follow each hospital's student and faculty policies and will not document in patient records except as the instructor directs.
A Preliminary Project Focus
In the first week, the author observed two post-conferences in the course. Both followed the same pattern: each student in turn described their patient and what they had done, the instructor asked about diagnoses and medications, and the hour ended when everyone had spoken. The questions were almost all at the level of recall. This matches research on post-conferences. In a qualitative study of 20 clinical post-conferences, faculty asked mostly lower-level questions of knowledge and comprehension, and discussions tended to be task-oriented (Hsu, 2007). Post-conference is the only protected time in clinical education for students to reason aloud about their patients, and the course's clinical evaluation data show that students' lowest scores are on the item for interpreting patient data. If post-conference asks only what students did, it cannot teach them to think about what they saw. The preliminary focus for the scholarly project is therefore to restructure post-conference around a clinical judgment framework, drawing on the clinical judgment model described by Tanner (2006), with its four phases from noticing to reflecting. Module 2 will assess this problem systematically before the project is proposed.
References
Halstead, J. A. (Ed.). (2019). NLN core competencies for nurse educators: A decade of influence. National League for Nursing.
Hsu, L.-L. (2007). Conducting clinical post-conference in clinical teaching: A qualitative study. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 16(8), 1525-1533. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2006.01751.x
Tanner, C. A. (2006). Thinking like a nurse: A research-based model of clinical judgment in nursing. Journal of Nursing Education, 45(6), 204-211. https://doi.org/10.3928/01484834-20060601-04
Reading the NUR 5194 Module 1 instructions
The educator capstone in NUR 5194 opens by asking for a written plan, typically negotiated with an experienced nurse faculty mentor. Expect to describe the teaching setting, write measurable objectives tied both to program outcomes and to an educator competency framework, schedule teaching activities across the term with proof of each, address student privacy and research review, and float a first idea for the scholarly project. Hours and activity logs are kept separately, not in this paper. The plan usually comes to about five pages. Canvas states the competency framework expected and whether the mentor must approve the plan before teaching begins.
Inside the NUR 5194 Module 1 example
The plan opens with the program and setting: a prelicensure course with clinical groups, a skills lab and a classroom, and a mentor with graduate preparation and certification who agreed to share teaching. The objectives section lists measurable objectives, each tied to a program outcome and a named NLN competency, such as facilitating learning or using assessment strategies. Activities run across the semester, from observing post-conferences to teaching a unit and writing test items, each with its evidence. The starting point section reports the author's self-assessment as a clinician new to teaching and shows how the mentor reshaped two objectives. The ethics section covers student privacy and research review. The last section frames the post-conference question as a hypothesis for Module 2.
Reading the NUR 5194 Module 1 rubric
Educator practicum plans are judged on the quality and links of the objectives. The objectives decide most of the grade: each must be measurable and tied both to a program outcome and to an NLN competency. Activities spread across the semester, each with its proof, come next. Graders credit a self-assessment that explains why the objectives were chosen and shows the mentor's influence. Ethics marks go to obligations specific to teaching, such as student records and review of any data collection. A preliminary project grounded in observation and literature earns the final substantive credit, with APA 7 and the NLN document cited correctly. Mentor input that visibly changes two objectives is strong evidence of a negotiated plan.
Common NUR 5194 Module 1 mistakes, and how to avoid them
A plan that says observe teaching, with no product or learning named, is the usual weak spot. Objectives lifted straight from the syllabus without fitting them to the clinical group are another. Students also map every objective to the same competency. Name the evidence for each objective before teaching begins. Show where the mentor changed your plan. Keep student names and grades out of anything you submit. Choose a project focus you can observe and measure in one term. If your practicum is in staff development or a simulation center, the desk can draft a practicum plan for that setting. Keep the post-conference idea open as a question until Module 2 tests it.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official American College of Education document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
More NUR 5194 and MSN Nurse Educator sample papers
- NUR 5194 Module 2: Education Needs Assessment
- NUR 5194 Module 3: Review and Project Proposal
- NUR 5194 Module 4: Project Implementation Report
- NUR 5194 Module 5: Project Evaluation Report
- NUR 5194 Module 6: Scholarly Project and Reflection
- NUR 5233 Module 2: Program Outcomes and Curriculum Map
- NUR 5223 Module 2: Adult Learning Application Paper
- NUR 5223 Module 5: Theory-Based Teaching Session Design
- NUR 5213 Module 6: Pharmacology Teaching Plan
NUR 5194 Module 1 questions, answered
Should my practicum objectives be mapped to a competency framework?
Many sections ask for it, and it strengthens the plan. The NLN core competencies for nurse educators are widely used for nurse educator practicums; map each objective to at least one competency and one program outcome.
Do I include my practicum hours in this paper?
No. Hours and activity logs are recorded separately in the practicum record. The paper describes the plan, objectives and evidence.
Where can I find a free NUR 5194 Module 1 sample paper?
The nurse educator practicum plan is open above for free, with the setting and mentor, mapped objectives, activities and evidence, the starting point, ethics and the post-conference project idea.
What are the NLN core competencies for nurse educators?
The National League for Nursing lists eight competencies, including facilitating learning, using assessment and evaluation strategies, designing curriculum and engaging in scholarship. Practicum objectives are often mapped to them.
Who can be a mentor for the NUR 5194 practicum?
Usually an experienced nurse educator with at least a graduate degree in nursing, often certified, who teaches in a program or staff development role. Confirm the requirements in Canvas before arranging hours.