Home » Nursing lecturer brings innovation and experience to the online classroom

Nursing lecturer brings innovation and experience to the online classroom

Jennifer Cowley

LEXINGTON, Ky.  When University of Kentucky faculty were tasked with taking their classroom teaching online, College of Nursing lecturer Jennifer Cowley was faced with the prospect of having to scrap her plan for guest speakers for her career management course.

But with the help of UK’s Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching and the instructional designers within the College of Nursing, Cowley was able to turn her guest speaker series into a podcast.

Cowley is developing a podcast series called “When I Grow Up” in which she interviews nurses from a number of different specialties to give her nursing students an idea of what different career paths look like. Many students, Cowley says, want to pursue careers in intensive care units or emergency departments.

But this podcast, set to launch in the Spring 2021 semester, will expose them to career paths they may not have considered.

She reached out to nurses outside the clinical setting as well. She interviewed a former student who forged his own career path in nursing research, as well as Janie Heath, dean of the UK College of Nursing, to speak about her experience in nursing education and administration.