What would you look for in a nursing instructor?

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So I'll be starting my master's this fall, Nursing Educator. This is strange because I really hated nursing school, although I didn't really hate the instructors, just the way the whole thing was done. The stress was very deliberate, nursing care plans are ridiculous compared to real practice, and some nursing diagnosis are very convoluted.

Who were your best instructors and why? What was different about the best over the worst? Who inspired you and how?

Specializes in Med-Surg, Wound Care.

""you're not RN material. And you never will be." "

Memories!!!!! I was told by an instructor early on that I would never make it!! I was devastated and quit. Fast forward, returned to the same school graduated with a 3.9 GPA and Clinical Excellence Award. Oh revenge is sweet!!

Instructors have to walk a fine line between professional and personal feelings about a student. Please be careful not to cross the line and inject your personal feelings about a student. They may not have your ideal personality, but variety is so important with the vast needs of the medical community.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Telemetry.

The only thing I have to add is be prepared for the pretentiousness of many PhD nursing professors. They look at MSN's as second-class citizens...but of course we MSN's look at them as pretentious fossils. Personally, I think your students will be a breeze compared to some of the politics among the professors. I lasted 2 semesters...as a part-time-clinical faculty!!

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My favorite instructors in nursing school were the ones who had actually done bedside nursing within the last 10 yrs. My worst were the lecture/ ivory tower types that droned on and on about theory and had no earthly idea how to apply it in the 'real' world..

Gotta add I learned 'something' from all my instructors...even if it was how I did NOT want to be when I turned out. :chuckle

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Thanks for all your replies. I have heard back from supervisors that my student nurses have enjoyed their preceptorship with me. I hope that's not the students just stating what they think the supervisor wants to hear.

I have always loved working with students, whether nursing or medicine. I started thinking about teaching pretty quickly while I was a teaching assistance in anatomy and physiology while I was completing my nursing program. My love of it grew once I got my first few students under my belt at the hospital. Soon, every time I turned around, I was given a student to take care of, even during busy surgical cases. And every summer for the last 4, I've been involved in SNAP (Student Nurses Apprenticeship Program) at the hospital, where I get one student for 3 months in the summer full time. Each time, I've turned out a nurse ready to work as a very competent circulator, if they chose that route on passing their board.

I hope I've chosen the right route for my master's. I think this board will really help me stay in touch with other students and nurses, after all, I'll be one myself for the next 3 years (student, that is).

Thank you again for your kind attention. :)

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Specializes in Gerontological, cardiac, med-surg, peds.

I am a relatively new nursing instructor in a small community college. One thing that really took me off guard was horizontal violence that is practiced among nursing faculty.

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What is horizontal violence? Please enlighten me, never heard that term and not sure what you are talking about.

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When I went to school I had one instructor who made all the diference in the world. She was truely passionate about nursing. She also was still working the ED occasionally. So, she was up to date with all that is happening in nursing. She was a patient advocate. But more importantly to the students was that she was a student advocate. No, question was considered stupid. She inspired us. She inspired many of us to go on with with schooling.

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Specializes in Gerontological, cardiac, med-surg, peds.
What is horizontal violence? Please enlighten me, never heard that term and not sure what you are talking about.

Two very good websites:

http://www.acegraphics.com.au/articles/hastie02.html

http://www.bullyonline.org/workbully/amibeing.htm

More common term for this unfortunate phenomenon is "nurses eating their young" (this is so pervasive throughout nursing, I'm sure you've heard of it).

A more scholarly definition is quoted from the first article above:

"Horizontal violence is hostile and aggressive behaviour by individual or group members towards another member or groups of members of the larger group."

You often see this behavior within oppressed groups in society--often a manifestation of self-hatred and low-self esteem. The violence is turned inward. A perverted way of making oneself feel or look good (at least temporarily) by destroying someone else.

There was one faculty member in particular who was out to destroy me professionally and made my life a living hell at the school for a whole year until she (thankfully) left for "greener" pastures. (I still haven't figured out why she picked me as her target.) Another faculty member left in a fit of "angst" because she was passed over for a promotion which she thought she deserved. This particular faculty member has a lot of sway in the local and extralocal "nurse community" and has been undermining our nursing program ever since she resigned. Nurses at a certain clinical site have been openly hostile towards our instructors and students because of this former instructor's influence.

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Sad isn't it Vickie...no wonder the backstabbing in nursing is so prevalent...it is witnessed and experienced by the students just starting out...and even perpetrated by some instructors, sadly enough. Thanks for being a positive role model to our young students. The trick is keeping the right attitude and not getting sucked into the ugliness some nurses propogate, isn't it? Its a real challenge out there in many hospital environments, where management fosters a dog eat dog mentality from the top down. :(

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Specializes in Gerontological, cardiac, med-surg, peds.
Sad isn't it Vickie...no wonder the backstabbing in nursing is so prevalent...it is witnessed and experienced by the students just starting out...and even perpetrated by some instructors, sadly enough. Thanks for being a positive role model to our young students. The trick is keeping the right attitude and not getting sucked into the ugliness some nurses propogate, isn't it? Its a real challenge out there in many hospital environments, where management fosters a dog eat dog mentality from the top down. :(

Yes, it was a very difficult situation. One that tried my soul and left a lot of wounds. Particularly on the clinical site, the nurses were SO nasty that the students could not help but notice (like having a clinical in a snake pit). It has backfired on the hospital (which is desperately short of nurses). Not surprisingly, very few of our students want to work there.

I am not perfect, but I am trying very hard to be a good role model. And I tell the students that every experience they encounter, whether good or bad, is an opportunity to learn and to grow. They have learned a lot about 'horizontal violence' from their experience on that clinical floor.

And actually, the atmosphere at our school now is MOST collegial and supportive, since the other instructor left.

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Keep us posted on your book, lots of instructors I know need something real to go by!!

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Keep us posted on your book, lots of instructors I know need something real to go by!!

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