Frustrated Nurse Educator

indie · Sep 18, 2003

Barbara:

I found that you posting echoed my teaching experiences in USA nursing schools, although were the opposite of my experiences in the UK.

I have lived in the USA for many years, but in the UK would-be nurse educators were required to obtain a teaching credential as well as having an appropriate clinical background. The teaching credential was usually obtained by full time attendance at a teachers' training college or Uni, thus ensuring interaction about education and teaching methods and not just about teaching nursing.

In order to obtain this coveted place on the course, the general background of the RN was viewed in the light of how much demonstrated interaction there had been over the years with students and active involvement in informal/voluntary teaching. And any student evaluations of clinical experiences that mentioned the RN.

The credential was only obtained on completion of teaching practice in schools of nursing outside of the area to which the educator would return to teach.

I recall this learning experience as very thought provoking and fostering much creative teaching. Subjects taught included philosphy of ed.; psychology of teaching/learning; experiential learning; curriculum studies; low and high tech visual aids; evaluating learning materials; assessment (=evaluating students' progress), all the domains in Bloom's taxonomy, writing objectives, board and display work; voice modulation; student centered learning, practice and more practice in 'helping people to learn' (not 'teaching') using everything from 5 minute sessions to being evaluated on a longer series of sessions.

We were expected to be able to manage everything from a 2 hour lecture to a five minute skill session to achieve objectives and to keep our students alert and interested. All sessions were evaluated by a minimum of 2 - usually a peer in the classes and a professor of ed.

I was horrified when I started to teach here in the USA and found my peers were criticized by students for reading from the text, that exams were not standardized, that many 'educators' knew no educational theory, had no classroom techniques to use, did not know how to 'manage' a class of 50 or a group of 4 students with different techniques; did not adhere to professional standards regarding fair rules; adequate time for students to prep something etc. etc. Psyche. teachers who did not understand the importance of consistent approach or realistic expectations.

I battled the system here for six years, culminating in dragging 35 colleagues to a form of consensus over the writing of a new curriculum. I have never met such apathy and inability to produce what they promised at each meeting; yet these were the same people who made ridiculous demands of their students.

I was very fortunate in having a 'content expert' who, although without formal education training, was a superb people person with natural organization and fairness. Together we battled the time crunch and got literally scores of students thru to competency. But the other issues never changed thru succeeding DONs and minor shifts in administration.

The DONs spent much time and energy on team building with little result. I still believe the basic issue is that USA nursing educators usually have no formal training in education issues and have not had to pass rigorous assessment of their teaching skills in a variety of settings. Until this happens, 'ineffective educators' will be the norm.

Managing huge classes every day is very stressful and students naturally bring issues with other teachers/students/courses to an understanding ear. Our courses received great evaluations from the students and we were proud of our achievements, but of course there were things we could have done much better.

Time, as you say, is a problem, and the more experience I gained the more I kept that little distance from the students' issues and maintained focus on teaching my portion of the curriculum. I did this because experience showed that I wasted my time. A quantum change in educators' attitudes/abilitiies was not going to be achieved by me alone.

The students should have some sort of forum or rep attendance at the faculty meetings as a channel for this sort of communication of theirs and I would foster their use of these vehicles. My usual advice to students, however unfairly treated, was to put it behind them, focus on the RN and realize that in a year or so they would be in an enjoyable nursing position, earning reasonably and that this current episode or grade or student or teacher issue was not going to change that. That it was not worth their effort in the long run.

But my colleagues' lack of skill did embarrass me and I look back with some sadness at the time that ineffective educators wasted in our students' lives. So many of our students were older, juggling families and children's needs during an accelerated program. Many showed more organization and focus than the educators.

Another issue of mine is that so many USA educators just teach in the classroom; clinical and classroom should be an essential mix to maintain current practice. And in order to maintain credibility, these out of date educators make the course unnecessarily hard academically for the students - your last paragraph addresses this in part - on some sort of power trip, ignoring curriculum objectives. Ridiculous.

So, no solutions, except to improve faculty teaching skills. But I do validate what you say.

renerian, BSN, RN · Sep 18, 2003

Not all nurses are teachers which makes teaching a very hard job and makes life very hard on students.

renerian

barb4575 · Sep 19, 2003

Thank you very much for your comments...wish there was an immediate solution, but did not count on that either.