Nurse Educator Philosophy Statement

Introduction

As a discipline, an art, and a science, nursing education equips students with skills and knowledge to enable them to teach and educate others. As such, nurse educators and teachers play a significant role in shaping student’s minds. Besides, they also possess a substantial responsibility of instilling philosophies into student’s minds to enable them to succeed in their nursing careers. Because nurse educators play a significant role in training nurses to prepare for their greater role of life-saving, a failure to instill the desired nursing education may adversely affect the lives of patients the nurse have a responsibility to take care of as care providers (Leena et al., 2021). As a result, every nurse educator needs to follow a specific philosophy while aiming at instilling knowledge to learners.

Nurse Education

Having completed the most common entry point to becoming a nurse educator, my application area will involve teaching students concerning emergency care. With my strong evaluation, a compassionate and caring attitude, with the ability to communicate effectively with patients and the healthcare team, I take significant interest to specialize in emergency care during my further studies. I plan to achieve this goal through open forum discussions and other clinical experiences with other nurses. I will use up-to-date teaching-learning-assessment approaches to provide my students the best experience while learning about nursing (Leena et al., 2021). I will be available and easily accessible to my students, promptly answer their emails and calls to nurture and make sure that they become successful in the nursing profession (Dermann, 2015). Because emergency care requires nurses to deal with complex healthcare issues considering the dynamic of a healthcare environment, I will impart the right knowledge and skills to my students to enable them to deal with these complex issues. I hope to apply my MSN education specialization skills and knowledge as a college nursing educator and an emergency department nurse educator. As a nurse educator, I have to ensure that all my students become experts in the provision of quality care and have the capacity to solve complex patient issues (Sibiya, Ngxongo, & Beepat, 2018). I will accomplish all these objectives while working with my students within the hospital and the simulation labs environments. I hope to utilize my new master’s level degree to expand upon these roles and become more involved with the education elements of the emergency department.

Nurse Educator Philosophy Statement

My teaching nurse philosophy is based on the students’ training to think and act, and not just teaching them the facts about nursing. As a nurse educator, I have a duty to educator nursing students not only about the facts concerning nursing but how to use their critical thinking skills to become the best nurse they can be as they wish. My goal is to assist students in training their minds to think and act appropriately. As a new graduate working in the emergency department, the completion of tasks is always my pride. There are several occasions I have wished I had done things differently, especially from a crucial thinking standpoint as opposed to formal book knowledge, to task orientated point of view. As an educator, I believe that my greatest responsibility is to establish a trusting relationship with the students. The trusting relationship must be conducive to and facilitate students’ learning while providing them with the opportunities to extend their thinking beyond the nursing basics (Sibiya, Ngxongo, & Beepat, 2018).

In the contemporary world, I believe that the science of nursing is dynamic and transforms at a faster rate than the pace at which education programs or textbooks can keep up with it.  Besides, nursing also changes too fast for students or new nurses to rely on memorization of facts, thus putting critical thinking into practice. More importantly, I always believe that learning is a lifelong process. As a result, I intend to instill this belief in my nursing students.   In nursing education, lifelong learning entails a shift from the notion that nursing is simply learning information from a book to become a competent healthcare provider, to engage in professional learning throughout the nurse’s career in an attempt to keep up in pace with new knowledge (Sibiya, Ngxongo, & Beepat, 2018). Besides, as nursing students graduate and start their nursing careers, they need to acknowledge that the need to learn will always exist. In this sense, graduate nurses need to learn that their learning continues throughout their nursing careers quickly. Students will come to realize that two or more individuals with the same condition may not respond in a similar way to treatment or display similar symptoms.

Tripartite roles of the nurse educator

Nurse educators can fulfill various roles in the field nursing education. While educating nurse leaners, it is the core duty of the educator to act as both the coach and mentor to the students (Sibiya, Ngxongo, & Beepat, 2018). Nurse educators need to apply practical knowledge as a way of leading by example to the learners. In most cases, nurses adhere by what their nurse educators educate them (Echevarria, Patterson, & Krouse, 2017). Therefore, becoming a good mentor to the students may have a significant effect on the learner’s leadership capabilities in future. The educators need to teach nursing students the importance of collaborate and emphasize on the importance of effective communication and trust in the field of nursing (Sibiya, Ngxongo, & Beepat, 2018). As a nurse scholar, a nurse educator needs to encourage nursing students to join professional nursing bodies like the emergency nurses association (Echevarria, Patterson, & Krouse, 2017).

Additionally, the educator needs to encourage volunteering and assist patients without emphasizing recognition. Many individuals often volunteer to get recognition. However, in the field of nursing, volunteering needs to be out of goodwill. In my view, I always believe that the role of an educator is to provide service to the students. Similarly, the nurse provides service to patients by providing care and comfort. A nurse educator needs to provide service to the learners. As a result, nurse educators are required to provide information, their experience, and guide the learners in promoting their growth and development in nursing. While offering services to the students, it is vital to utilize the learner-centered education technique of teaching because, as an educator, one has to respect the learning process of the students.

Significant Historical Events

Over the years, various historical events have significantly influenced the nurse educator role I am seeking to achieve. For instance, in the past few years, as a profession, nursing has witnessed an increasing demand. Because I want to make this world a better place, I only realized I could achieve it through becoming a nurse educator. As a profession, nursing has transformed from volunteering to assist persons in times of war and during epidemics to becoming one of the most vital health care careers globally (Roy, 2018). Therefore, my passion for nursing increases every day, thus motivating me to become a nurse educator so that I can teach nurses to improve their experience in the field and continue helping people.

Essential Nurse Educator Competencies

Nursing educators have several competencies that enable them successfully educate and impart knowledge to their students. For instance, an MSN-prepared nurse educator needs to function as a change agent and leader (Sibiya, Ngxongo, & Beepat, 2018). As a nurse educator, one needs to focus on leading and guiding other nurses and enhance the performance of all nurses under him or her. Again, the nurse educator needs to facilitate learning to students and nurses (Echevarria, Patterson, & Krouse, 2017). The nurse educator needs to establish a setting that can facilitate student learning to attain the desired training outcomes. Last, nurse educators need to promote quality improvements to nursing students. Overall, these competencies are vital because they will promote the growth and development of the nurses as they enter and practice in their nursing profession.

Conclusion

Overall, nurse educators facilitate both the learning and growth of nursing students. Therefore, as a nurse educator, my teaching philosophy is based on teaching students to think rather than the facts about nursing. However, for students to think practically, it is important to respect them to create an environment of trust and collaboration. When educating the learners, it is vital to utilize learner-centered education teaching techniques. An educator needs to respect the learning process of the student and focus on leading other nurses and improving the performance of the nurses. Lastly, nurse educators are also expected to enhance quality improvements in the learning process.

References

Echevarria, I. M., Patterson, B. J., & Krouse, A. (2017). Predictors of transformational leadership of nurse managers. Journal of nursing management, 25(3), 167-175.

Leena, S., Minna, T., Katharina, C., Pilar, F., Mary, K., Viktorija, K., … & Helena, L. K. (2021). The competence of nurse educators and graduating nurse students. Nurse Education Today, 104769.

Roy, C. (2018). Key issues in nursing theory: Developments, challenges, and future directions. Nursing Research, 67(2), 81-92.

Sibiya, M. N., Ngxongo, T. S. P., & Beepat, S. Y. (2018). The influence of peer mentoring on critical care nursing students’ learning outcomes. International journal of workplace health management.