Skip to main content

Speaking

We offer transformative, hands-on experiences that engage and inspire!

Meet Our Speakers

Maria Flores-Harris

Maria Flores-Harris, DNP, RN, CNE
Nurse Educator Consultant

Maria is an accomplished registered nurse with experience in clinical, academic, and business settings. She received her B.S. and M.S. in Nursing with a Geriatric Nurse Practitioner focus from Clemson University.

After working in medical-surgical nursing and long-term care, Maria taught at the Practical Nursing and Registered Nurse levels and served in clinical director and director roles.

She obtained her Doctorate in Nursing Practice focusing on Nursing Education Leadership. Maria has also served as a nurse consultant with colleges and universities, providing support to improve student outcomes and faculty development.

She’s passionate about helping new educators transition from expert clinicians to expert educators.

More about Maria.

Keith Rischer, PhD, RN, CEN
Founder and CEO

Keith is an author, nurse educator, and expert clinician with more than 35 years of experience in various settings, including the emergency department, critical care, and rapid response. Keith obtained an associate degree in nursing at a local community college, followed by his baccalaureate degree.

To pursue his passion for teaching, Keith obtained his master’s in nursing education and his PhD in nursing education and administration from William Carey University.

In 2012, Keith presented his innovative teaching strategies and clinical reasoning case studies at a national nurse educator conference, which led to founding KeithRN whose mission is to transform nursing education using educational best practices.

He’s zealous about reforming nursing education to its original purpose; preparing nurses for real-world practice so graduate nurses are better prepared to provide safe patient care. Do this, and we can also bridge the academic-practice gap once and for all!

More about Keith.

Maria Flores-Harris

Maria Flores-Harris, DNP, RN, CNE
Nurse Educator Consultant

Maria is an accomplished registered nurse with experience in clinical, academic, and business settings. She received her B.S. and M.S. in Nursing with a Geriatric Nurse Practitioner focus from Clemson University.

After working in medical-surgical nursing and long-term care, Maria taught at the Practical Nursing and Registered Nurse levels and served in clinical director and director roles.

She obtained her Doctorate in Nursing Practice focusing on Nursing Education Leadership. Maria has also served as a nurse consultant with colleges and universities, providing support to improve student outcomes and faculty development.

She’s passionate about helping new educators transition from expert clinicians to expert educators.

More about Maria.

Keith Rischer, PhD, RN, CCRN, CEN
Founder and CEO

Keith is an author, nurse educator, and expert clinician with more than 35 years of experience in various settings, including the emergency department, critical care, and rapid response. Keith obtained an associate degree in nursing at a local community college, followed by his baccalaureate degree.

To pursue his passion for teaching, Keith obtained his master’s in nursing education and his PhD in nursing education and administration from William Carey University.

In 2012, Keith presented his innovative teaching strategies and clinical reasoning case studies at a national nurse educator conference, which led to founding KeithRN whose mission is to transform nursing education using educational best practices.

He’s zealous about reforming nursing education to close the academic-practice gap so graduate nurses are better prepared to provide safe patient care.

More about Keith.

Our Topics

Clinical Judgment

“Improving Clinical Teaching to Develop Clinical Judgment”
Learn strategies to strengthen all areas of clinical judgment, including critical thinking, clinical reasoning, and reflective thinking.

“Transform the Classroom to Prepare Students for Practice and Licensure”
Learn educational best practices and practice-based strategies to develop clinical judgment in the classroom to better prepare students for the complexities of real-world practice and NextGen NCLEX.

“Transform Teaching in Clinical to Prepare Students for Practice and Licensure”
Learn to control the learning environment by providing supplemental activities and clinical paperwork that reinforce clinical judgment skills.

“How to Write Clinical Judgment Test Items”
Learn practical strategies for writing a case-based scenario with a series of questions that mimic the thinking in each step of the Clinical Judgment Measurement Model.

“How to Develop the “heART” of Nursing”
Summarize the relationship between caring and clinical judgment and formulate specific strategies for integrating caring into the content and curriculum.

Active Learning

“How to Use Case Studies to Practice the Thinking of Practice”
Empower educators to use case-based learning, an evidence-based best practice, to contextualize content and practice clinical judgment.

“Best Practices of Active Learning”
Delve into the science underpinning active learning by examining evidence-based strategies to enhance student engagement and optimize learning outcomes in the classroom.

“Combatting ‘Infobesity’ to Deepen Student Learning”
Identify components of a concise practice-based classroom presentation and how to decrease clinical paperwork to focus on essential learning.

Culture & Professional Identity

“Addressing Incivility in Nursing Education”
Define incivility, explore why it occurs in nursing education, and strategies to prevent and address it.

“Preparing Students to Address Incivility in Practice”
Explore the fundamentals of organizational civility in nursing practice and how to confront and respond to incivility as a nursing student or new nurse graduate.

“Creating a Culture of Academic Integrity”
Explore why students cheat, how faculty are partially responsible for cheating, and what educators can do to prevent it.

“Importance of Creating a Professional Identity”
Define professional identity and its four pillars and examine the role a strong professional identity has in increasing job satisfaction, retention, and patient outcomes.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

“How to Appropriately Use Artificial Intelligence in Nursing Education”
Explore the applications of artificial intelligence in both educational and clinical environments to augment student learning, while also considering the circumstances under which its use may be inappropriate.

Keith and Maria Speaking

Invite Maria or Keith to speak at your event.

Start the Conversation

Recent Presentation Highlights

2024: New Jersey League for Nursing Convention
2024: Connecticut Center for Nursing Workforce Student Day
2024: Nurse Educators Conference in the Rockies
2023: Michigan Council of Nurse Education Administrators Conference
2023: Nurse Educator Institute Conference
2022: NCSBN NCLEX Conference

What Participants are Saying

What a wonderful staff development day! Keith was funny, engaging, passionate and very knowledgeable. He is able to transfer this passion to faculty through his content delivery and many "pearls" of learning that he is eager to share!

— Rhonda Rawls Moore, RN, MSNMeridian Community College, Meridian, Mississippi

Keith conducted a full day workshop for our nursing department that was an awesome day filled with immediately utilizable applications for both theory classes and clinical experiences. The faculty were so excited and eager to use the tools and strategies you shared!

— Nan WaltersAustin Community College, Austin, Texas

I got so much out and took away so many great ideas from your presentation.

— Amber Patrick, MSN, RNSamford University, Birmingham, Alabama

What an outstanding presentation! Your strategies, tools, and processes have reminded our faculty on the importance to teach students to think like a nurse.

— Donna Nickitas, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, CNE, FAAN ProfessorExecutive Officer of Nursing PhD Program at CUNY Graduate Center, Editor of Nursing Economics

The energy that Keith brought to our conference and his command on the topic of men in nursing history as a topic was wonderful!

— Bill Lecher, DNP, MBA, RN, NE-BC, PresidentAmerican Assembly for Men in Nursing Foundation

The most important thing I took away from that experience is that our clinical judgment is going to be one of the most useful tools we have as nurses. We will be using clinical judgment constantly to determine the best approach for the everchanging situations we will surely be put in.

— Student, Minot State UniversityNW Region ND Collaborative Nursing Conference