BACKGROUND: The need for faculty to educate prospective nurses is urgent: without sufficient nursing faculty, schools regularly reject qualified applicants, despite an increasing need for nurses . At the same time, many graduate-prepared nurses lack preparation in teaching and pedagogical frameworks .

PROBLEM: Literature on how PhD programs in nursing prepare graduates for teaching indicates that there is typically more emphasis on research than pedagogical learning . APPROACH: With the shift to remote learning under the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of California Irvine created a Graduate Fellows program to provide support to faculty while offering graduate students education in pedagogy and remote learning .

OUTCOMES: Fellows were satisfied and reported increased understanding of challenges in teaching and increasing comfort with nurse faculty roles .

CONCLUSIONS: The collaborative efforts of fellows and faculty provided important resources at a critical time, and insights gained can inform similar projects in nursing faculty development.