As a staff nurse working with students during their clinical rotations, Sheila Searles received many compliments on her ability to interact with students and was frequently told, “You should be a nursing instructor!”
She took that advice and made a shift in her career from service to education. Searles started as a part-time clinical instructor and advanced to coordinator of the skills and simulation lab. While pursuing her master’s degree in nursing education, she worked as the Director for the Lab and Simulation Center. Upon completion of her MSN, Searles began teaching mental health nursing and community health nursing in the classroom, as well as medical-surgical nursing in the skills and simulation labs. Then, she was promoted to Director of the BSN Pre-licensure program. Prior to employment at Elsevier, Searles was Lead Faculty for the MSN in Nursing Education and MSN in Nursing Leadership.
Searles came to Elsevier with the passion for implementing technology into the classroom as a means for increasing student engagement and improving outcomes. She is a firm believer in mentoring students to be confident and competent practitioners – setting them up for on-the-job success.
