Tag: graduate nursing education

Lessons from my First Year of University Teaching

Last term I taught the 3rd year data analysis course for nursing students at Western.  Boy, was it a ton of work!  Overall, I really enjoyed the experience and learned a lot about how teaching and learning has changed since I first began university back in 2001.  Currently I am teaching a graduate-level course in post-positivist (quantitative) research methodology and that is a super fun!  I really enjoy in-depth intellectual discussions about research with a small group (18 students) rather than talking at 120 undergrads who don’t care about statistics at all and want the “right answer” (which isn’t always possible).

Here are the top lessons I learned about teaching so far (I am sure there are many more to come!)

1. I am a dinosaur.  I grew up going to the library, reading hard copy books, writing out essays on paper with a pencil, etc. Students these days have always had the internet at their fingertips and they will sit there and Google everything that you say like fact-checkers at a political debate. Take home message: I need to learn how to use technology to my advantage and not waste valuable time in class lecturing off of PowerPoint slides when I could be using more engaging activities during face-to-face time.

2. Students need structure more than I realized.  One of the assignments last term was to do a content analysis of transcripts from interviews or online forum discussions by patients with different conditions.  Rather than embrace the freedom of interpreting the data for themselves, many students were frustrated because there was no certain correct answer (like so many things in real life).  We gave them a reference for an article that told them step-by-step how to conduct a content analysis and about 1/3 of the class did not read it, resulting in them doing the assignment in a way that did not make sense. Somehow the fact that they did not read the article that they were explicitly told to read was my fault. Interesting.  Take home message: Repeat key instructions in class, post them on slides, etc. Give them explicit instructions.

3. TAs are like a box of chocolates. Seriously though, you never know what your TA will be like and they may not know the course material or mark assignments the way that you would like them to be marked.  They are also graduate students with their own coursework, lives, etc. so be realistic about expectations. Despite having good rubrics, the assignments that we had in the course were lengthy and complex which also made it challenging for the TAs. Also, students will blame you for delays in marking and mistakes on their rubrics, even if you make sure they know their TA does the marking.  Take home message: Design assignments that are staged so that they are easier to evaluate by someone with little content knowledge of your course.

4. PhDs do not prepare people to be awesome teachers.  I really thought that my experience teaching lifeguarding and first aid, personal training, and coaching basketball would make teaching easier but university teaching is very different.  It is kind of sad that students pay so much money for school and the quality of teaching is so varied.  I really like that tenure-track teaching positions are becoming more prevalent and that most schools are providing support for teaching.  I feel lucky to be able to gain some teaching experience and attend workshops and courses at Western’s Teaching Support Centre during my doctoral program. I cannot imagine how difficult it must be to pop into a tenure-track job and try teaching for the first time while trying to apply for grants, publish articles, and commit to service.  This job is crazy.  Don’t get me wrong, it is what I want to do (and as an RN I know that I have lots of other options), but I am also not naive to the demands of the career path I am pursuing. Take home message: I need to devote more time to learning to be an effective teacher so I can have a successful transition into a tenure-track position.

Now to get back to working on that dissertation proposal!  (It is almost done and I am planning to defend in the Spring so that I can get started on data collection!).

So you want to be a Nurse Practitioner?

np

First let me say that Nurse Practitioners (NPs) play a valuable role in our health care system.  As nurses with clinical expertise from years of experience working with patients and advanced educational training, NPs have a lot to offer patients, healthcare teams, and organizations.  NPs are awesome and job opportunities for nurses in this role are increasing, in part because they are a more cost-effective healthcare resource than general physicians.

However, in talking to nursing students, reviewing scholarship applications, and entering survey data from new graduate nurses, I have noticed that everyone and their dog seems to want to be an NP.  I have also fielded lots of questions from people about how to get into the NP program, mainly “what GPA do I need?” and “what’s the minimum amount of experience I need before I apply?”   Another thing that I have noticed is that many people who did not choose nursing as their first career choice wanted to be doctors which makes me wonder if some people see nursing only as a means to become an NP, under the misconception that NPs and doctors are pretty much the same thing.  Let’s unpack this a little bit.

1. We need more NPs but we need way more nurses.  I hate to bust your bubble but from a resource planning perspective we need way more RNs in the workforce than NPs.  It’s actually more competitive to get into nursing and Canadian NP programs than medical schools. To boot, in Ontario you are only allowed to apply to one program per year so if you don’t get in (which is highly probable), better luck next year.

2. If you don’t want to be a nurse, do something else.  This may seem ironic coming from someone who’s career goal is to becoming a nursing professor but I wholeheartedly love being a geriatric rehab nurse and if I didn’t care so much about the bigger picture I would be happy to work full-time as a staff nurse.  I believe that most nurses who become NPs really want to make a difference in that role and I admire that.  However, I think that one of the things that makes the NP role so valuable is the wealth of nursing experience that people bring with them.  You can’t skip that part and if you don’t like getting your hands dirty working in the trenches, perhaps you should reconsider your career choice.   After all, chances are pretty good that you will work as an RN rather than an NP for most of your career.  There are also tons of other people who would love to be a nurse and you are taking their spot.  I’d also like to point out that if you wanted to be a doctor and end up working as a staff nurse you might end up really hating your job and being resentful.  Maybe not the best life choice.

3. 2 years of experience is not enough for most people and who cares about your GPA, really.  Some of my research work is on new graduate nurses and we consider a new graduate nurse anyone with less than 2 years of nursing experience (and sometimes even 3 years or less).  Patricia Benner also outlines the stages of development from beginner to expert nurse, stating that it takes about 3 years to become competent and at least 5 to become an expert.  Given that we know that it takes several years to develop nursing expertise, it baffles me that nursing schools allow nurses with a minimum of 2 years of clinical practice to apply to their NP preparatory master’s programs.  Moreover, it concerns me that some people are in such a rush to become NPs without considering the amount of responsibility that comes with their new role and the benefits of having more experience (to their patients as well as themselves).  There are exceptions I’m sure but I really think we need to reconsider the minimum experience requirements, especially considering that there is high demand for NP education.

While I’m on the topic of NP education, I don’t think GPA is necessarily a good indicator of an excellent nurse or of someone who will make a fantastic NP.  That isn’t to say that you can’t have a high GPA and also be an awesome clinician.  My point is that there are amazing nurses who are highly knowledgeable and skilled, with high levels of emotional intelligence and leadership skills that may not have achieved a 4.0 in their undergraduate nursing program.  I don’t think we need to throw the baby out with the bathwater here because the NP program is demanding and rigorous but it would be nice to see other elements included in the application process.  In real life it doesn’t matter what your GPA was if you have limited social skills or can’t apply the knowledge that you learned in a meaningful way.

Before you jump on the “I want to be a Nurse Practitioner” bandwagon, I hope that you will take some time to engage in self-reflection about where you are in your career and what skills, knowledge, and experience you have to offer, as well as areas that you want to develop further.  Just because you have a perfect GPA and can apply to an NP masters program after 2 years of working  doesn’t mean you should. Not everyone is cut out to be an NP and being an RN can be as rich and rewarding a career as you want it to be.