Nursing Students: What do you think of your instructors?

Nursing Students General Students

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Hello All! :)

I am currently in a masters program with my ultimate goal of being a nursing instructor in addition to a bedside nurse. Although I remember some of my instructors from school, I am just curious from all you nursing students out there, what makes your instructors good at what they do? What do you like about the way they teach? What would you change or what do you hate?

Any feedback would be appreciated!!

One of the best nursing instructors I had used her experience and teaching to learning into a game. She had a game she called "Name that Assessment" and would say things like, "A 20 year old, sexually active woman presents to the ED with complaints of pain 8/10 in her abdominal area," and basically we would all ask her assessment questions as if she was the patient. In the end she'd tell us the story of the patient and what happened to the best of her knowledge.

My last semester I had an instructor who made us hand write the full head to toe assessment on two patients every shift, and write full nursing notes - something that was really lacking in other rotations. She also made you think through medications before you gave them asking you to think ahead about what could possibly happen with that medication(s) and how you would act if something did happen. I was very impressed with her as it was her first semester teaching.

For theory instruction the more interactive a class is - the better. The problem is usually theory instruction turns into power points and a room full of people taking notes. There is also little continuity between teachers. One teacher might give you some direction while the other one says to know everything because you have to. It's difficult and quite honestly students want to get by on as little work as possible.

I think there needs to be more reflective journaling in nursing school honestly. I also think instructors need to give out more ways to learn material. I've did a lot of tutoring and mentoring through nursing school and it honestly surprised me how so many people had no idea how to study or prepare for a test. You open their text book and it looked like rainbow brite and her band of highlighters lived in there and note cards became extra sheets of notes that no one could recall. Students need to be taught how to take information and phrase, and rephrase, until they can be asked from multiple angles about a process, medication, or intervention and be able to answer the question.

Specializes in Skilled Rehab Nurse.

Make sure not to get way off topic in class. We have one student in our class that constantly volunteers to speak--she always has some personal life story (about people or her pets!) that may or may not vaguely relate to what we are discussing in class. Our Fundamentals instructor would always call on her and we would get way off topic for the next 15 to 20 minutes or so. As a result, we barely covered some of the units. In med-surg 1, our one instructor would just ignore her half the time. The same med-surg instructor would constantly talk about what a good teacher she was and how she was doing everything right. That got VERY annoying. A good instructor shouldn't have to brag about how good she is. The teaching should speak for itself. Also, don't force students to sit in places in the classroom that don't work for them learning wise. We actually had assigned seats at one point (haven't had those since high school and I'm 35!) and I got stuck by the door. Even if we shut the door I got distracted by the students who randomly get up in the middle of class and leave and come back....

Specializes in Cardiac.

I know this thread is older but I had to post... I'm a recent new grad working on a cardiac step down unit. Now that I'm out in the "real world" I can see a lot of what was helpful and what wasn't.

First, please don't just teach me the book. Give me stories, examples, make me do a case study (ok we hate those in nursing school but guess what it helps put together the bigger picture). Next, drill assessment skills in! When you're talking about a specific disease or disorder, give me examples of what to look for - labs, physical signs, and pt presentation. When I first started my job I knew a lot of textbook stuff... But I had no idea how it was all related to the specific disorders. Creatinine for examples - I knew the norms, knew what the lab measured, but couldn't tell you why it's important in CHF or why it's "normal" for a dialysis pt to have a 5.8 creatinine and no one is panicking. Those things seem simple once you're in practice, but to me as a student I didn't get a put together view of the pt like I do now...

And last - during my critical care Semester, the best instructor I ever had made up these sheets for clinical... Tons of questions of them... Head to toe assessment, abnormal labs, procedure & results, tx for abnormal labs, presenting problem, symptoms ... And then we'd follow it up with a care plan. Even though she wasnt a clinical instructor she asked us to bring them and turn them in & give a quick report on our pt to the class. This was the most helpful exercise I ever did in nursing school!

Sorry this is so long! Good luck to you in your program! I'm hoping to one day also teach!

I really enjoyed reading this thread. After 25 years working at the bedside and mostly in intensive care I have decided to apply for a teaching position at a community college. I have always enjoyed working with the nursing students and providing education to new nurses, patients and family members. The repeating theme seems to be sharing real life experiences that are tied to the subject matter makes the lecture more exciting and relatable. I can do that! I may need to brush up on my pathophysiology but I am a very warm and sincere person who wants to see the students succeed.

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