SAN ANTONIO, Aug. 25, 2026 — The University of Texas at San Antonio School of Nursing has earned a second Center of Excellence in Nursing Education designation from the National League for Nursing, placing the school among a small group of nursing education programs recognized nationally for sustained innovation, evidence-based teaching and measurable contributions to student development. The new designation honors the school’s work in “Student Learning and Professional Development,” an area focused on how nursing programs help students acquire clinical judgment, professional identity, leadership capacity and the habits of lifelong learning required in a rapidly changing health care system. The recognition adds to a previous NLN Center of Excellence designation awarded to the school for “Promoting the Pedagogical Expertise of Faculty.” Together, the two designations highlight both sides of the educational process: the preparation and continuous development of instructors, and the outcomes experienced by the students they teach. In an era when health systems face persistent workforce shortages, increasingly complex patient needs and accelerating technological change, the recognition offers a powerful signal that nursing education is becoming a laboratory for innovation rather than simply a pipeline into clinical practice.
The San Antonio school is one of only 19 nursing education programs in the United States selected for the 2026 NLN Center of Excellence class and one of just two in Texas. It will receive the honor formally during the Honors Convocation of the 2026 NLN Education Summit in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 25. The designation also gives the institution a distinction that is unusual even within the state: it is the only school in Texas currently holding two active NLN Center of Excellence designations. The school remains the only nursing program headquartered in San Antonio with an NLN Center of Excellence designation and is one of only six designated programs statewide. Fewer than 100 institutions among the thousands offering nursing education programs across the country hold a Center of Excellence distinction in at least one of the NLN’s five designated areas. Those areas recognize sustained excellence in faculty development, student learning and professional development, research, public service and other dimensions of nursing education. The designations are valid for five years and may be renewed, meaning that recipients must continue demonstrating impact rather than relying on a one-time achievement.
The “Student Learning and Professional Development” designation addresses a technical challenge at the center of modern nursing education: how to translate knowledge gained in classrooms, laboratories and simulation environments into safe, adaptable decisions at the bedside. Nursing students must integrate physiology, pharmacology, communication, ethics, public health and clinical procedures while responding to patients whose conditions can change within minutes. Effective programs therefore assess more than memorization. They examine clinical reasoning, situational awareness, teamwork, communication and the ability to interpret evidence under pressure. Professional development extends beyond graduation, encompassing leadership, reflective practice, continuing education and the capacity to adapt as treatments, technologies and standards evolve. The NLN recognition is designed for programs that demonstrate sustained, evidence-based innovation in this process and document whether their approaches are producing meaningful results. It also acknowledges schools that use continuous quality improvement, a structured cycle of measuring outcomes, identifying weaknesses, testing interventions and evaluating whether changes improve learning.
At the UT San Antonio School of Nursing, the designation reflects a collaborative model involving faculty, staff, students, clinical partners and community organizations. Sonya Renae Hardin, PhD, APRN, FAAN, dean of the school, said the goal is to create an educational environment in which students are challenged to grow as clinicians, professionals and leaders. That growth depends on more than adding new content to a curriculum. It requires aligning classroom instruction with clinical realities, giving students opportunities to practice decisions before they encounter them in patient care and creating feedback systems that allow both learners and instructors to improve. Evidence-based teaching methods can include high-fidelity simulation, case-based learning, structured clinical evaluation, interprofessional education and deliberate reflection after complex experiences. In simulation, for example, students can manage a deteriorating patient while instructors measure not only whether an intervention was correct, but also how rapidly the student recognized danger, communicated with colleagues and reassessed the patient. Such methods make invisible reasoning processes observable and provide a safer environment in which errors become opportunities for learning rather than sources of harm.
The school’s first NLN designation, recognizing the pedagogical expertise of faculty, provides an important foundation for the new honor. Pedagogy refers to the theory and practice of teaching, including how educators design instruction, assess learning and respond to different student needs. In nursing, pedagogical expertise has direct clinical implications because the quality of teaching influences how future nurses recognize risk, prioritize care and respond to uncertainty. Faculty members must remain current not only in their clinical specialties but also in educational science, assessment design, learning technologies and methods for supporting students from varied backgrounds. The relationship between faculty expertise and student achievement is therefore dynamic: instructors refine their teaching, students receive more effective learning experiences, and the resulting data inform the next cycle of improvement. Azizeh K. Sowan, PhD, RN, FAAN, professor and associate dean for strategic initiatives, described the school’s culture as one in which faculty advance teaching practices, staff support the student experience, learners actively engage in their education and clinical and community partners connect academic preparation to the evolving needs of patients and the profession.
That connection is increasingly important as nursing moves into a more technologically sophisticated and medically complex environment. Nurses now work with electronic health records, remote monitoring systems, predictive analytics, digital decision-support tools and increasingly specialized treatments. Yet technology does not replace fundamental clinical judgment. A patient’s vital signs may be summarized by an algorithm, but a nurse must still determine whether the data are reliable, recognize a subtle change in behavior, communicate concern and decide when escalation is necessary. Education that combines scientific knowledge with practical reasoning can help graduates navigate this tension. Students must learn to interpret data without becoming dependent on automated recommendations, to recognize bias or missing information and to preserve human-centered care when clinical encounters are mediated by screens and devices. Professional development also prepares nurses to lead quality-improvement efforts, participate in policy discussions and collaborate across disciplines. These capabilities are central to the school’s stated mission of preparing graduates for evidence-based practice, professional leadership and lifelong learning.
The program’s reach extends beyond degree preparation. The School of Nursing offers BSN, MSN, DNP and PhD programs, along with specialty certificates intended to develop nurse leaders through education, research, practice and community engagement. Its academic structure spans entry into the profession, advanced clinical practice, executive and systems leadership, and investigation into the scientific foundations of health care. First-generation college students make up one-third of the school’s enrollment, a figure that underscores the importance of support systems designed to help students persist in demanding programs. Advising, mentoring, academic coaching, financial guidance and early identification of learning barriers can all influence whether capable students complete their education. The school also operates a growing patient-care practice, providing primary and acute care through nurse practitioners on campus and at community partner sites. These settings can create a feedback loop between education and service: students encounter real community health needs, faculty and clinicians observe emerging challenges, and the curriculum can evolve in response to populations that may face barriers to care.
The school supports the academic health center and health system known as UT Health San Antonio, the region’s only academic health center and a major health sciences institution serving South Texas and beyond. Its schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions, graduate biomedical sciences and public health collectively support more than 2.5 million patient visits each year through inpatient and outpatient facilities staffed by medical, dental, nursing and allied health professionals. For nursing education, that environment can provide access to a broad range of clinical conditions, patient populations and interdisciplinary experiences. It also places education within a living health care system, where changes in public health, demographic patterns and treatment practices become immediate educational questions. Community partnerships are particularly significant in South Texas, where health outcomes are shaped by access to preventive services, chronic disease burden, socioeconomic conditions and cultural factors. Preparing nurses for this context requires technical competence as well as cultural humility, communication skills and an understanding of how social conditions influence health.
The NLN said its Center of Excellence program is intended to distinguish organizations that demonstrate substantive and sustained innovation, conduct research documenting the effectiveness of that innovation, maintain high internal standards and commit themselves to continuous quality improvement. Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN, NLN president and CEO, said the 2026 honorees show how nursing schools can transform the academic experience from the classroom to the clinic and campus life. The award is therefore more than an institutional accolade; it is a public claim that educational practices have been developed systematically and tested against defined standards. For students, the recognition may signal an environment built around active participation, professional growth and measurable support. For health systems, it identifies a potential source of graduates trained to adapt rather than merely repeat established routines. And for the wider public, it underscores a scientific reality often overlooked in discussions of health care: patient safety begins long before a nurse enters a hospital room. It begins with how knowledge is translated into judgment, how judgment is practiced, how performance is evaluated and how educators respond when evidence shows that a better way is possible.
Subject of Research: Nursing education, student learning, professional development and evidence-based teaching innovation.
Article Title: UT San Antonio School of Nursing Earns Second National Center of Excellence Designation
News Publication Date: Aug. 25, 2026
Web References: National League for Nursing Center of Excellence program: https://www.nln.org/detail-pages/news/2026/08/12/nln-honors-the-2026-centers-of-excellence-(coe)-in-nursing-education; UT San Antonio School of Nursing: https://uthscsa.edu/nursing/; UT Health San Antonio Center of Excellence information: https://uthscsa.edu/nursing/national-league-nursing-nln-center-excellence-coe
References: National League for Nursing; UT San Antonio School of Nursing; UT Health San Antonio institutional information; statements from Sonya Renae Hardin and Azizeh K. Sowan.
Keywords: nursing education, student learning, professional development, nursing faculty, evidence-based teaching, clinical reasoning, simulation, health care workforce, UT San Antonio, UT Health San Antonio, National League for Nursing, Center of Excellence in Nursing Education
