Nurse Educator: Interview and Reflection

Nurse Educator: Interview and Reflection Interviewing my site supervisor was one of the most rewarding and illuminating experiences of my career. Creating the list of questions allowed me to reflect on the truly multi-faceted role of the nurse educator and engaging in the interview allowed me to enjoy some of the most thoughtful answers I had ever heard.

How has the process of becoming and the daily life of being a nurse educator more or less demanding than what you expected? Both the journey to becoming a nurse educator and the day-to-day life of being one is incredibly demanding. As a student in the arena of nursing education, you're constantly being challenged to figure out and better understanding strategies to make education and knowledge more lucid to yourself so you can make it more lucid to your students.

As an actual nurse educator, my job is demanding in that I'm always trying to make information more accessible and more attainable for my students. In what ways have you experienced role stress/strain? How do you handle it? Teaching is stressful by definition; you're responsible in part for the understanding and proper dissemination of large chunks of information by large groups of people. You constantly have to anticipate the unique needs of your students and try to meet them. Every class is different.

I deal with stress in the same way people from other professions do: I listen to music, I do yoga, I meditate. How have you fulfilled the expected roles of teacher, scholar, change agent, leader, clinician, and service provider? I feel that life is a journey and I'm constantly working to fulfill those different roles and continually wearing different hats. Thus, I feel that I have fulfilled those different roles and yet continue to work hard to fulfill them.

The work I do in the classroom fulfills my role as teacher. The work I do to prepare for my work in the classroom fulfills my role as a scholar. The different manners in which I adapt my teaching style to more profoundly impact my students allows me to function as a change agent. I feel my work with my students and the way I try to lead by example gives me the power to work as a leader.

My patients can still attest to my skills and strengths as a service provider both to them in the community and to them individually. How did you make the transition from simply being a nurse and a giver of information as all nurses are, to someone who facilitates the learning process (Bastable, 2008)? The transition was truly made in my training.

The unique and specific training that I received as a nurse educator really showed me the different learning style my students all might possess and the different ways that I could best meet their needs. My training really gave me confidence as a nurse educator to know that I could adapt my teaching methods in a moment to promote better understanding and showed me the most effective ways of doing that.

Do you think all nurses could become nurse educators? I think all nurses who want to become nurse educators can. However, naturally, not all nurses have that desire, so they don't. Becoming a nurse educator is so nuanced and rigorous, I think only those who truly want to achieve this can complete the role effectively. How do you bring yourself to the classroom as a teacher? I try to allow my personality to take over as much as possible.

I like to keep things structured and organized, but in an informal and chatty manner so that students feel comfortable to ask questions. What is the most valuable lesson you've learned as a nurse that you've tried to impart to your students? Get to know your patients. You can make a valuable human connection with any of your patients, if you just put in the attempt. Their care will be so much more effective and your time at work will be all the more richer.

How do you build awareness of the personal attributes of your students (Clark, 2008)? I try and see my students outside the classroom to get to know them. I need to be aware of their personal attributes and how those can benefit them as nurses to be. Thus, I try to arrange picnics, pizza parties and other outings with my students so that we can all relax and get to know each other better.

How do you make some of the more intricate educational theories more attainable for your students? I try to bring everything back to a real-life example that they'd encounter in nursing. This way even the most intricate theories seem relevant if you can constantly apply them to something concrete and real. Learning Experience I would organize an ethical decision making scenario where I would hire actors to act out a scene where a patient had suffered a stroke and was on a ventilator and blood pressure stabilizer.

The act-out would demonstrate how his condition was deteriorating as his family gathered around him. His will have a "do not put on life support" clause. The family considers withdrawing life support while the patient's youngest child says she felt him squeeze her hand. Students would then have to take turns engaging with the actors and role-playing with the actors as they help the family deal with this ethical decision. This activity would be designed to address the gap the students have in ethical decision-making.

This activity taught me to think outside the box when it comes to engaging my students (Utley, 2011). This new knowledge would force me to continue to tweak teaching situations so that they better reflect creative approaches. Best practices generally support theory based and structured teaching processes, which even creative approaches like these can more fully embody.