Dr. Laurie Kennedy-Malone, a professor in the UNC Greensboro School of Nursing, was named one of two nurse educators nationally to receive a research grant as a 2021-22 recipient of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Faculty Scholars Grant Program.
Kennedy-Malone will receive a one-year, $25,000 grant from the AACN to support her work entitled “Enhancing Nurse Practitioner Competency-Based Education and Assessment with Innovative Video Simulations.” She was selected following a competitive process involving 57 applications from nursing school faculty members nationwide.
“I am honored to be selected as a 2021-22 recipient of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Faculty Scholars Grant Program,” Kennedy-Malone said. “This is an opportunity that I am looking forward to engaging in and working with colleagues from across the country and at UNCG.”
Kennedy-Malone developed and widely disseminated 23 clinical videos, 12 of them interactive, with funding from a Health Resources and Service Administration Advance Nursing Education Workforce grant from 2017-19. The videos are now being incorporated into nurse practitioner curriculum in several nursing schools across the country.
In 2020, AACN released the “The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education.” With the funding from the AACN Faculty Scholars Grant Program, Kennedy-Malone will build upon her work and take it one step further.
The new grant will provide Kennedy-Malone with the opportunity to align the Essentials domain and concepts for Advanced-Level Nursing Education sub-competencies with the 23 videos. The videos will continue to deliver opportunities to support competency-based education to nurse practitioner students.
In addition, new videos will be created that address the AACN’s Strategic Plan.
Dr. Kristen Munyan from Oakland University joined Kennedy-Malone as the other recipient of the AACN Faculty Scholars Grant Program.
“I applaud Dr. Kennedy-Malone and Dr. Munyan for their groundbreaking work to generate new nursing knowledge, lead change, and transform how nurses are educated, conduct research, and practice,” Dr. Deborah Trautman, AACN’s president and chief executive officer, said in a press release.
Read more about Kennedy-Malone’s research here.
Story by Alex Abrams, School of Nursing
Photography by Martin W. Kane, University Communications