From clinician to classroom: How Pima Medical Institute supports their educators

"We’re hiring medical professionals, not trained educators. Our goal is to help them translate their expertise into effective teaching."

- Jean Vanderzee, Dean of Faculty

Jean knows this challenge well - she’s spent 18 years at Pima Medical Institute helping faculty build confidence and grow their pedagogical skills. Selina Muccio, Learning and Development Manager, brings her own experience to the mission. "In another institution, I was hired as faculty on a Friday and started teaching Monday," she recalls. "No training, no prep, I had to figure it out as I went."

That’s exactly what they’re working to change. Together, Jean and Selina have made it their purpose to help clinicians become confident and engaging instructors from their first day of teaching.

A people-first approach to digital adoption

One of the most persistent teaching challenges Jean and Selina noticed was the lack of formative assessment. "For faculty who aren’t used to teaching, their comfort zone is often to keep delivering their material," Jean explains. 

That style may feel safe to instructors, but it can be quite ineffective for many learners. Faculty needed new ways to check for understanding, encourage interaction, and build two-way communication – without overwhelming them in the process.

That’s when they turned to Mentimeter – not just as a tool for engagement, but as a gentle bridge between clinical confidence and classroom confidence. Jean and Selina believed that it would allow instructors to pause with purpose, spark discussion and assess comprehension in real time, without relying on lectures alone.

They also knew a tool alone wouldn’t be enough. It had to be introduced with care. "New tools can feel overwhelming," Selina explains. "Our goal was to remove fear and replace it with support."

They began with a small pilot, inviting curious faculty to try Mentimeter, backed by one-on-one training and peer collaboration. Then they got creative. Together with the Mentimeter customer success team, they designed an engaging Mentimeter Bingo activity, packed with playful yet practical ways to explore the tool.

Behind the scenes, Jean and Selina kept things moving with empathy and energy – sending weekly tip emails, hosting peer showcases, and even introducing their own Bingo to track Mentimeter adoption.

"Everything we do is about lowering the barrier to entry," says Selina. "We make it visible, make it simple, and make it okay to mess up. We’re here to cheer people on."

Making engagement a standard in faculty onboarding

To support new educators in creating more engaging and student-centered learning experiences, Jean and Selina made Mentimeter a part of faculty onboarding.

Every new instructor completes an assignment where they design a Mentimeter activity aligned with their course objectives, whether it’s a quiz to check comprehension, a word cloud to capture key concepts, or an open-ended question to drive discussion.

The activity does more than teach the tool, it reinforces a core belief: that impactful learning begins with interaction. By introducing Mentimeter in the earliest days of training, Jean and Selina help instructors build habits of engagement from the very beginning – confidently, creatively, and with support behind them.

A culture of care, in and beyond the classroom

Today, Mentimeter is used in classrooms, orientations, career development sessions and academic leadership meetings. Faculty can access pre-built Mentimeter slides in their workspace, making it easier than ever to try something new without starting from scratch.

"We had one faculty member who would never have touched this kind of tool," Jean shares. "But because one of our faculty members had made 40 Mentimeter templates, they gave it a try. Now, they’re using it regularly. We’re happy to have created a safe space for faculty to try new things and support each other in the digital transformation."