A LOOK AT THE WORK OF THE NURSE EDUCATOR
© 2015- by University of Wisconsin-Eau Clair
Globalization is one of the most important driving forces in
the new millennium and researchers stress that nursing in the 21st
century has many challenges due to the globalized world 1. Nursing education
provides a greater opportunity to promote global relationships through global
networking and global work in inequalities together to achieve the universal
health coverage. The role of nursing education offers wider awareness in
nursing knowledge and contributes to a nursing profession equipped for today’s
challenges and global work with human vulnerabilities and equalities. This
poses a challenge for nurse educators to be competent to equip the nursing
students of this 21st century to meet the needs of patients and
population health. To overcome such challenges, nurse educators must have an
understanding of instructional contexts and design models, learning objectives,
and lesson plans. Today, the question of
global leadership, nursing faculty competence and discussions on nurse
professionals and nurse faculty retirement has been key issues. If global
standards such as nursing classifications (NANDA) is consistent with local
nursing practice of nursing diagnoses, then standardization in global nursing
arena would influence local practice and the role of nursing educators is vital
to fill in the gap between theory to practice 2.
There is growing concern about the quality of educational
preparation of nursing faculty. A well-educated, competent nursing workforce,
begins with competent nurse educators, is critical to the provision of quality
health services and achievement of health equity. Nurse educators must possess
the eight domains of learning and teaching integrated with core competencies
standards by World health Organization: theories and principles of adult
learning; curriculum and implementation; nursing practice; research and
evidence; communication, collaboration and partnership; ethical/legal
principles and professionalism; monitoring and evaluation; management, leadership
and advocacy 3. Each of the eight domains
has a core competency and learning-teaching domains (cognitive, affective and
psycho-motor). The competencies reflect a
need for clinical competence; sound teaching and assessment skills reflective
of an adult learning approach; and organizational and communication skills. The
understanding of the nurse educator’s competencies will help to overcome some challenges
in nursing education like fragmented, outdated, and static curricula that
produce ill-equipped graduates 4.
From my experience as pre-registration student, my lecturers
were not engage in scholarly writing and publication (competency 4.4) because
all of them do not have masters or doctoral degree qualifications 3. I was taught just the
surface level about research proposal and it was challenging for me to do my
first research at the masters’ level. But from my experiences as a student, I
believe I will make a great educator in the near future.
Moving forward, proper support for student learning in the
clinical learning environment can occur when the community of learning
(learning outcomes, learning activities and learning environment) is properly
aligned or matched. Ensuring consistency in curriculum design and lesson plans
will deliver the desired teaching-learning expectations in the learning
environment. Critical thinking is an important indicator of student learning
and is an essential outcome of baccalaureate nursing education. Therefore, it
is the role of nurse educators in the development of students’ critical
thinking, but nurse educators have to develop their awareness of their own
critical thinking 5. A nurse educator cannot
give skills to others if he or she do not have those skills.
The role of the nurse educator in the academy is one that is
very complex in nature. It involves skills not only to be an effective
educationalist, nurse researcher and active scholarly academic disseminating
findings and new knowledge to enrich the healthcare arena, but still requires
those skills that belong to that of an expert nurse 6. However, to inspire
excellent clinicians to become educators, the role of the nurse educator needs
to be fully defined. Capabilities rather than competencies may better describe
advanced professional practice 7. Even though doctoral
degree is the academic credential required for an academic nurse educator
position in a university setting; many PhD individuals lack formal teaching
courses in doctoral programs and contradict the belief that these graduates are
proficient in teaching 8. The National League of Nursing (NLN) and the
Institute of Medicine (IOM) supports the future of Nursing to meet the minimal
requirements of nurses to have baccalaureate nursing by 2030 9,10.
References
1. Kraft M, Kästel A, Eriksson H, Hedman
A-MR. Global Nursing-a literature review in the field of education and
practice. Nurs open [Internet]. 2017 [cited 2019 Jun 30];4(3):122–33. Available
from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28694976
2. Meum T, Ellingsen G, Monteiro E,
Wangensteen G, Igesund H. The interplay between global standards and local
practice in nursing. Int J Med Inform [Internet]. 2013 Dec [cited 2019 Jun
30];82(12):e364–74. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23688846
3. Nurse Educator Core Competencies
[Internet]. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2016 [cited 2019 Jun 30].
Available from: http://www.who.int
4. Frenk J, Chen L, Bhutta ZA, Cohen J,
Crisp N, Evans T, et al. Health professionals for a new century: transforming
education to strengthen health systems in an interdependent world. Lancet
[Internet]. 2010 Dec 4 [cited 2019 Jun 30];376(9756):1923–58. Available from:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21112623
6. Bono-Neri F. Pedagogical Nursing
Practice: Redefining nursing practice for the academic nurse educator. Nurse
Educ Pract [Internet]. 2019 May [cited 2019 Jun 30];37:105–8. Available from:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31132585
7. McAllister M, Flynn T. The Capabilities
of Nurse Educators (CONE) questionnaire: Development and evaluation. Nurse Educ
Today [Internet]. 2016 Apr [cited 2019 Jun 30];39:122–7. Available from:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27006043
8. Bullin C. To what extent has doctoral
(PhD) education supported academic nurse educators in their teaching roles: an
integrative review. BMC Nurs [Internet]. 2018 Dec 22 [cited 2019 Jun
30];17(1):6. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29483844
After watching the video, I was excited to read what you had written below. As I read, I surely was not disappointed. These words that you have penned (or should I say typed)really bring out the "meat" of the matter in regards to competencies required by nurse educator to meet up with the challenges ahead.
ReplyDeleteI must point out also, it's good that despite your poor experience that you're striving to bridge that gap as a nurse educator yourself. That right there is commitment: exactly what is needed by educators in this 21st century era.
On the notion of critical thinking skills, I dear say that those skills aren't necessarily taught but as educators, they can provide the ideal environment for nursing students to explore outside options and make decisions that would not be found in textbooks. Moreover, when nursing students are exposed to simulators and real life situations, it will aid in developing critical thinking skill.
The last point that you made is very critical and I definitely agree with you.
Very good research and write up.
Thank you Terrence for your input! Agree with what you said about providing "the ideal environment for nursing students to explore outside options" and studies have found that nursing education need to integrate interprofessional education. For instance, nursing students and social workers can attend sociology class together. Simulators is good for developing critical thinking skills but it also depends on the level of fidelity. High fidelity simulation will involve a lot of critical skills and clinical reasoning. But as a novice nurse educator, we all have to make our way up the ladder just like being a new graduate nurse again.
DeleteNellie,
ReplyDeleteIt was indeed a pleasure watching the video. It showed how much work and preparation goes into being a good nurse educator. Nurse educators do need to keep up with globalization and global trends: In order to do this they must be multifaceted both in nursing educator's skills and clinical competencies. Keeping themselves updated in order to keep students updated is helped by the use of digital content which keeps the students engaged.
Nelli, due to your experience with research and now that you know the level of work required to get students involved, I do believe that you will make a great nurse educator. Good Luck!!
Thank you Rajdaye Basdeo!
DeleteIt is true that much work and preparation goes into being a nurse educator. Nurse educators are also challenged to keep up with the changing health care system and population health needs in order to prepare their students for the real world out there.
Hello Nellie.
ReplyDeleteA informative work done. I strongly agree on the point where you mentioned, critical thinking is an important indicator of student learning and is an essential outcome of baccalaureate nursing education. I like the fact that nurse educator cannot give skills to others if he or she do not have those skills and I hope the skills you have will make a difference as a future nurse educator in your country. All the very best
Thank you Rasnita!
DeleteHi Nellie.
ReplyDeleteA very detailed and informative blog post. You have made a lot of effort to clearly state the nurse educators role in 21st century teaching environment. Not only the roles but also the challenges and how to overcome them is well stated. I like the fact where you have stated that community of learning will help the nurse educators to keep in the correct path and guide them with their teaching plans. Also, even I believe that nurse educators must have a masters or a PhD level qualifications in order to be able to teach nursing students as these will enable the nursing students to grasp as much as possible with the highly educated nurse educators. Also, they will be able to contribute to nurse research and increase evidence based nursing practices.