A Writer's Learning Journey

Learning can be a journey with paths that cannot be predicted and are unexpected, this student has experienced much in this current doctoral pursuit, particularly with writing the allnurses articles.

Updated:  

A Writer's Learning Journey

Like the teen going to Summer camp, I have had on my journey the anxiety; did I bring with me what I needed? Yet I had, like the teen in Summer camp, the excitement of discovery while leaving behind the known and finding the new. The experiences gathered along the way were invaluable to my practice and my life. Yet wisdom is fleeting, and I have many more questions than I have answers. The most recent leg of my journey, my doctoral effort, has led me down paths both circuitous, narrow, and unexpected, but the learning has changed me in ways I could never anticipate. 

The writing of articles for allnurses was at first daunting and difficult, however, this became a part of the learning process.  Also, it resulted in the realization of the joy of creation.

Article #1

I started with The Overlapping Roles of Nursing Faculty article as I became aware of the challenges of nursing faculty shortages coupled with nurse shortages and the pressures to produce more nurse graduates such as expectations in fulfilling the nurse faculty role, the lack of mentorship, and the compensation at roughly 1/3 of hospital compensation for comparable roles. In that article, I spoke of possible coping, with an eye to prevention as I became more aware of the high risk of burnout for nursing faculty members.

Article #2

My next article, Degree or Not Degree, That is the Question, was the result of my continuing interviews with experienced nursing faculty members.  They reported and I began to observe the student perception of a successful nurse.  For many nursing students, it was not working at the bedside, nor was it a calling to care for others. It was financial gain. There was much discussion in the responses to that article of the relative dedication to expertise and commitment of the nurse graduate intent on the immediate goal of a greater degree.

Article #3

My reading of research of nursing faculty doctorally related and nursing students/graduates from the previous article with continuing nursing faculty members’ conversation regarding their frustrations led to the next article, What is Wrong with These Students?  Millennial students were of primary discussion as the greatest challenge in accommodating educational efforts for learning. That article garnered some almost strident commentary.  Also, the article commentary revealed some assumptions of the composition of prelicensure bachelor program students as opposed to other level programs.

Article #4

The article after that one, Are Nursing Students Burned Out Before or After They Graduate? did not seem to strike a similar note as did the previous article although there was a commentary of skepticism of the existence of burnout in general as well as nursing students and graduates experiencing it.  Also, the commentary did lean in the direction of burnout as a state of mind that can be prevented or resolved with a change in mindset rather than an understanding of the seminal and current burnout research that has established the Maslach Burnout Model as the gold standard.

Article #5

The article, Burnout, the Literature, and Understanding, drew the least response. It was composed as an attempt to present what I had discovered in my doctoral pursuit as an understanding of burnout.

An article-length response to the lack of burnout understanding that I discovered in the commentary of the article, Are Nursing Students Burned Out Before or After They Graduate?  A synopsis of the commentary to Burnout, the Literature and Understanding, is difficult due to so little commentary. However, one wonders why so few responses?  The tone of the article was different as it was a discussion of research literature as opposed to the previous articles that addressed issues current in the nursing faculty experience and maybe that led to less commentary.

Which brings this article and this author to this point...

What is this article’s purpose?

It is to recognize the path taken as a teen does experiencing Summer camp; a door opening to the world.  I experienced the input received, and the learning that happened with the participation.  I wrote the articles with assistance at first to fledgling sole flight later; the learning was truly an adventure in the process.  I am nearing the point of posting here on allnurses, the research invitation for participants.  I can see the leg of this journey's goal before me, finally, as it has been long, however, I see learning as never-ending, bending, turning, and taking me down yet another adventurous path.

Resources

American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2019). Nursing faculty shortage [White sheet Fact sheet].

 American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2019). Special survey on vacant faculty positions for academic year 2018-2019.

American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2019). The impact of education on nursing practice [White Sheet].

4
Up Vote Up Vote ×
PamtheNurse

About PamtheNurse, BSN, MSN

PamtheNurse has 25 years experience as a BSN, MSN and specializes in Simulation.

5 Articles   58 Posts

Share this post

Share on other sites
Specializes in Sm Bus Mgmt, Operations, Planning, HR, Coaching.

Thank you @PamtheNurse for all your participation on allnurses.  Along with the lessons you learned as you wrote and published your work, you helped many fellow nursing professionals who also were enlightened by your contributions.  We look forward to hearing more about your nursing journey.

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Education.

Julie,

I appreciate your comment and support!  My nursing and now journey in the education of nurses has been an interesting one to-say-the-least.  In nearing the research phase, and therefore the end of my doctorate pursuit.  I am looking forward to beginning a new chapter I hope it, the new chapter, will be not only interesting but exciting as well.

Be safe,

PamtheNurse

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment