Using Social Media for Microlearning in Nurse Practitioner Education.

Dr. Tennyson is a board-certified Acute Care Nurse Practitioner who provides evidence based care to advanced heart failure and critically ill patients in the Duke University Health Systeml. Her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree was awarded in 2016. She is an Associate of the American College of Cardiology and a Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator.

She is the Director of the #1 ranked Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner program in the United States at the Duke University School of Nursing and an Assistant Professor in the Masters of Science in Nursing programs. She is an avid advocate for Advanced Practice Nursing, particularly their role on the Cardiac Critical Care team. Her research interests include resuscitation quality improvement, Family Presence During Resuscitation, and microlearning education.

Benjamin Smallheer, PhD, ACNP-BC, FNP-BC, CCRN, CNE, FAANP joined DUSON’s faculty in 2016. He served as the Director of the Adult Gerontology Nurse Practitioner-Acute Care major within the MSN program, and is now the Assistant Dean of the Master of Science in Nursing program.

Smallheer earned his BSN at Florida State University in 1998, and his MSN in 2004 and PhD in 2011, both from Vanderbilt University. He has also completed a post-master’s certificate in Family Practice from Tennessee State University in 2016.

Smallheer came to Duke from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, where he had been a faculty member since 2006 and an Assistant Professor since 2011. At Vanderbilt, he worked with both pre-licensure and Adult‐Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner students. He was also engaged in faculty mentoring in both the clinical and academic environments, receiving recognition for his work incorporating innovative teaching methods and the use of technology in the learning environment.

As Nurse Practitioner, Dr. Smallheer has practiced in a variety of clinical settings, including the Emergency Department, high acuity Medical-Surgical Intensive Care, Long Term Acute Care, and has been the lead responder on a Nurse Practitioner based Rapid Response and Code Team. He currently practices as an Acute Care Clinician in the Critical Care Unit at both Duke Raleigh Hospital and Duke Regional Hospital, within the Critical Care Medicine teams.