ETSU’s Christine Mullins, assistant professor in the College of Nursing, is the 2019-20 recipient of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s Novice Faculty Excellence Clinical Teaching Award.
Mullins graduated from ETSU in 2014 and started working on an education grant at the university shortly after. Later she successfully applied for a faculty position and specializes in teaching health assessment, among other courses at the university.
She was encouraged to apply for the award by Dr. Myra Clark, associate dean and associate professor for graduate programs.
Mullins’ passion for her course and her involvement in inter-provisional education made her a strong candidate for the award. She is a co-leader for the Tennessee Inter-Provisional Education, where she is working to incorporate a state-wide curriculum for inter-provisional education.
She draws her teaching content from real-life experiences, such as her volunteer work at the Health Wagon free clinic in West Virginia.
“I want real-life scenarios for these students, so we’re not just teaching what is in a book,” she said.
Mullins also developed her own application for graduate students that provides them access to educational content, such as YouTube videos, that helps them with their studies. The application also contains free, up-to-date clinical guidelines for students.
“When [AACN] announced the award, one of the things they were impressed with was that I had developed the application,” she said.
Mullins is also very respected among ETSU faculty with Clark, Wendy Nehring and Judy Rice all writing letters of recommendation on her behalf, describing her as an adequate faculty member for the award.
“It was consistent across the letters of recommendation that students know more coming out of my course than they did when they came in,” she said. “It was a true demonstration of student learning, and that’s why they selected me.”
Mullins said she appreciates the opportunities she has earned through teaching at ETSU, and she tries to give her students the best learning experience possible.
“I feel like ETSU is my home,” she said. “I feel like I’m where I’m supposed to be.”
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