This June, the annual Seventh-day Adventist Nurse Educators Conference was held at Pacific Union College. Entitled "New Directions: The Changing Face of Nursing Education," the event offered nursing educators practical resources that they can develop to help students, informed them about developments in media and medical technology in the field of nursing, and allowed them to network and serve as a sounding board for one another regarding current issues in nursing education.

During the course of the conference, nursing educators heard from various presenters, including Wynelle Huff, vice president for Delivery of Care at Adventist Health, and Marilyn Hermann, dean of the School of Nursing at Loma Linda University. Presentation content included information on media advances in the field of nursing and panel and group discussion on “Politically Charged Issues,” with an emphasis on students who fail nursing programs.

With so many factors playing a part in nursing education today, it can be a challenge to maintain balance and structure. Barbary James, dean of nursing at Southern Adventist University, feels the conference not only offers new information, but also gives the “opportunity to dialogue together, realizing we are more alike than different. We have many of the same issues.” She believes that the conference helps improve nursing education because it allows educators to “collectively learn from the wisdom of each other.”