Michelle Hughes

Michelle Hughes is a registered nurse and professor in Centennial College’s School of Community and Health Studies in Toronto. She teaches in the Toronto Metropolitan, Centennial and George Brown Collaborative Nursing Degree Program. Her educational work includes open textbooks, assessment resources and virtual simulations that support nursing students’ development from classroom learning towards professional practice.

Qualifications and teaching setting

Published author records identify Hughes’s qualifications as a Master of Education and Bachelor of Science in Nursing, together with registration as a nurse. Her teaching role sits within a collaborative degree programme linking college and university education. This context is reflected in her publications, which are designed for undergraduate learners building professional, academic and clinical capabilities.

Research and student learning

Her coauthored research has examined the transition experienced by first-year undergraduate nursing students. This work considers an important stage in students’ adjustment to the expectations of higher education. More recent educational collaborations include virtual gaming simulations, with attention to the communication and feedback processes involved in clinical placements.

Simulation and transition to practice

A TMU teaching-conference presentation describes a collaborative project developing a virtual simulation to improve feedback between pre-graduate nursing students and nurse preceptors. The project draws on students’ and preceptors’ experiences to support trust, constructive feedback and increasing independence. Hughes’s involvement connects educational research with resources that allow learners to practise and reflect before or alongside clinical encounters.

Open textbooks and publications

Hughes coauthored The Scholarship of Writing in Nursing Education and Documentation in Nursing, and coedited Introduction to Communication in Nursing. She has also contributed to nursing-assessment and health-history learning resources. Across these works, the documented emphasis is on helping students communicate clearly, use evidence, record information responsibly and strengthen clinical judgement. Her shared author profile connects the three books in this batch while distinguishing her teaching role from those of her coauthors.

Books in this library

• The Scholarship of Writing in Nursing Education: 1st Canadian Edition
• Documentation in Nursing: 1st Canadian edition (updated 2026)
• Introduction to Communication in Nursing