The Benner Institute Has Two Certificate Programs

1) Clinical Faculty & Educator (CF/E) Certificate Program HealthImpact, the California nursing workforce and policy center, collaborated with Dr. Patricia Benner to create the Benner Institute for Teaching and Learning at HealthImpact.  According to the Carnegie Report, Educating Nurses: A Call for Radical Transformation by Dr. Benner and colleagues, nursing education must undergo essential changes to transform nursing education.  The Benner Institute offers the Clinical Faculty and Educator (CF/E) Certificate Program with the goal to equip clinical faculty in academia and clinical educators in clinical agencies with the theory, tools, and skills necessary to develop their practice of teaching.

The CF/E Certificate Program is a 6-class, 4-hour Zoom series co-created with Dr. Benner to integrate the latest neuro and learning sciences into clinical education.

2) Preceptor Certificate Program
One preceptor program offered by the Benner Institute for Teaching and Learning describes their perspective on the goal and purpose of clinical education and teaches their preceptors to precept for the purpose of clinical education. Their goal of clinical education, as stated above, is to move learners from seeing the clinical world as being elemental, partial, and dominated by tasks and procedures to engaging with the clinical world, as a nurse, to see meaningful clinical patterns and an increased understanding the whole patient, family, or community situation (Benner, Tanner & Chesla, 2009). The purpose of clinical education is to 1) develop a perceptual grasp (seeing and noticing), a sense of salience, clinical reasoning and judgment, and clinical imagination in particular clinical situations; 2) understand the notions of the good internal to the practice of nursing (i.e., the American Nurse Association Code of Ethics) to develop advocacy skills for individual, family, community, and/or social good (e.g., equity, among others); 3) respect humanity and give social space to develop skills of involvement and relationship building (diversity, inclusion, belonging); 4) develop a reflective, self-improving practice (i.e., learning from the situation, other professionals, from mistakes, failures; and guarding against bias); and 5) develop competence in the nine clinical work role competencies (HealthImpact, n.d.). The nine clinical work role competencies were modified to encompass all types of clinical nursing practice from clinical work role competencies in acute and critical care across the lifespan that were inductively identified through research by Benner, Hooper Kyriakidis, and Stannard (2011). The nine clinical work role competencies can be found in Box 1. The nine clinical work role competencies are one way to define the practice of direct care nursing. By clearly articulating the purpose of clinical education with preceptors, the preceptors are better able to use appropriate andragogies such as, but not limited to, situated coaching, oral and written narratives to support the development of perceptual grasp, a sense of salience, clinical reasoning and judgement, clinical imagination, advocacy skills, skills of involvement, a self-improving practice, and the clinical work role competencies.

Who is eligible to attend?

Each pre-licensure RN programs in California, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii, and the Pacific Islands will be able to send four (4) attendees: two (2) clinical faculty and two (2) clinical educators from clinical provider organizations/agencies.

When will the courses be offered?

Both the CF/E Certificate Program and Preceptor Certificate Program will be offered approximately 8 times per year.

How can I sign up?

Fill out the form. In order for a pre-licensure RN program to register, the pre-licensure program must have all four (4) attendees be able to attend the same cohort.

Will I get continuing education hours?

Yes, the CF/E course is approved for 30 continuing education hours. The Preceptor course is approved for 20 continuing education hours.

This initiative was supported by HRSA Grant # 1 T1QHP47320‐01‐00.