Rounds with Leadership: Moving Beyond the Pandemic

Welcome to Rounds with Leadership, a forum for AACN’s Board Chair and President/CEO to offer commentary on issues and trends impacting academic nursing.

June 29, 2022 - Moving Beyond the Pandemic

Responding to COVID-19 has had a transformative impact on what we teach, how we teach, and how we practice. Nursing programs moved quickly to adapt curriculum to ensure that graduating nurses at all levels are better prepared to respond to current and future public health emergencies. Navigating the pandemic has underscored health inequities that persist throughout our healthcare system, with a disproportionately high death toll from COVID-19 among communities of color.  We have all grown more acutely aware of the need to tend to the mental health and well-being of faculty, students, and clinicians to ensure the health of our colleagues during the most trying of times.

Driven by these challenges, the academic nursing community has made strides in building a healthier, more equitable, and resilient tomorrow as we move closer to the end of the pandemic. To showcase the work underway that is moving us toward a preferred future for nursing, AACN has joined with our colleagues at the National League for Nursing (NLN) to create a new video titled Paving the Way Forward: Academic Nursing’s Role in Moving Toward a Post-Pandemic Future. This video showcases 12 academic nursing leaders who share details about how their schools leveraged innovation and collaboration to create a new “normal.” The presenters address how nursing education continues to work toward eliminating health disparities, achieving health equity, and increasing diversity in learning and practice environments. Click the image below to access the video.

AACN and NLN salute our colleagues for their outstanding work to break new ground, lead through collaboration, and move us closer to achieving health equity. How has your school of nursing made an impact as we prepare for the future of nursing education in the post-pandemic age? Share your story on Twitter using @AACNursing and @NLN.