2015 Innovative Uses of Technology in Teaching Award

Christine Colella, DNP, joined UC in 1995 as an instructor of clinical nursing in the College of Nursing. She has served as an assistant professor and is currently an associate professor of clinical nursing, coordinator of the adult-gero primary care practitioner program and director of nurse practitioner programs for the College of Nursing.  

Colella’s clinical experience includes 40 years as either a staff/charge nurse, senior nurse or nurse practitioner at medical centers, hospitals or health clinics in Boston, New York, Cincinnati, Lawrenceburg, Indiana, and Edgewood, Kentucky. 

She is currently an adult nurse practitioner (NP) primary care provider at Lincoln Heights Health Center in Cincinnati and was the NP volunteer at a free clinic at Trinity Health Center in Lawrenceburg for eight years. She is the recipient of the 2014 Rosalee Yeaworth Teaching Award in the College of Nursing. 

Colella has a talent for engaging students with her innovative use of high-fidelity simulation to train future nurse practitioners. She developed an innovative interactive case study (ICS) for students learning at a distance in a differential diagnosis class. 

As the course moved to an online platform, Colella wanted to ensure that the distance students had learning experiences as robust as on-site students. The interactive case study was designed to engage students and allow them feel as if the patient was speaking directly to them.  

The project’s results helped secure a $900,000 ANE HRSA grant. 

Colella and her colleagues are making 15 additional case studies for use in a physician and nurse practitioner education curriculum emphasizing interdisciplinary collaboration and role modeling.  

A former student has described Colella as "vivacious in her teaching and interactions with students” and motivated by her love of her profession. 

"Her unique way of presenting complex information in a format that is comprehendible to the untrained nurse practitioner is inspiring and exciting,” the student wrote. "Dr. Colella is a prime example of an educator who goes above and beyond to enhance the classroom learning experience for her students and she has managed to transfer that knowledge, enthusiasm, and attention to detail into these case studies,” the student noted. 

Colella is a two-time recipient of the Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching and was inducted into the Academy of Fellows for Teaching and Learning at UC in 2008.