Considering being a nurse instructor

Katie5 · Feb 15, 2011

While I'm not a Nursing Educator (yet), I am an EMT-instructor, so I thought I would throw my 2 cents in. The idea of the drill sargent instructor being the best instructor is still rampant in EMS - however, I don't find that that approach works. I am 23 y/o but I have solid experience and good background knowledge (I'm a bio major, graduating in may and I have 100s of continuing education hours). Because I'm younger than most of my class (some of my students are old enough to by my parents), I have to be strict and put up with no non-sense. In lecture, they have unannounced reading quizzes usually once a week, and other day they are given a worksheet on the reading to take home and fill out. Not doing their reading in unacceptable and I will know if they do it or not. I start class at exactly 8:00, not 8:02 or 8:05. We have a coffee machine in the back of class, if they want to use it they can get there at 7:55, because I don't want the extra noise distracting my class. Questions are encouraged, both during lecture, breaks, and after class (class is 4 hours so I give them a break in the middle). I never belittle a student for anything! In class I incorporate relevant clinical experience to make the material more interesting. During labs, if they kill a patient, I tell them so - in a dead pan serious tone. And then ask "why is your patient dead?" followed by what could you have done differently, and how are WE going to fix this in the future. I want to know what they need from me to improve. Extra help? More practice? Them writing an assessment plan that I check? I never tell them they're stupid or lazy (even when I'm thinking it) - which makes me different. All my students love me (literally, every eval read "excellent"), because they know that even if they fail, we've worked together to make them as successful as possible.

Very Impressive