Nurse Educators Care

Nurse Educators are the heart of caring!

SurveyMonkey: Take the survey on caring in nursing education

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YMRYCR8

Caring is the Nursing Framework that is used at the College where I teach Nursing Students

As nursing teachers at my College of  Nursing, there is a committment to providing competent and compassionate nursing care to the students. In turn, the students understand the care we give to patients and families who entrust their health to us. Our most important goal is to improved patient outcomes through good mentoring of students. The concept of Caring is the nursing framework that is used at the college. It focuses on the student’s expectation of care and helps nursing teachers meet those expectations in order to allow this framework to influence caring for the patients in the student’s clinical rotation (Gelazis, 1990).

     Although each nurse eventually learns to care for patients in her own way, the college provides a foundation for continuous opportunities for students develop professionally. They learn to become empowered through leadership and over time, becoming authorities for the provision of patients and their caring.

                                                           Reference

G       Gelazis, R.  (1990). Creative Strategies for Teaching Care.  In M. Leininger & J. (Eds.),

         The Caring Imperative in Education (pp. 155-165).  New York: National League for Nursing.
McCance, T. V., McKenna, H. P., & Boore, J. P. (1999). Caring: theoretical perspectives of relevance to nursing. Journal Of Advanced Nursing, 30(6), 1388-1395. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2648.1999.01214.x

Does Empathy = Caring?

Empathy in Nursing:

The nurse can sense the emotions of those around her/him. The nurse can feel what they are feeling as though their feelings are their own. Intuitively, they are able to see the world through another's eyes and share their perspective. The nurse does not necessarily agree with each person’s perspective. The nurse does not necessarily feel pity for each person’s predicament; this would be sympathy, not Empathy. The nurse does not necessarily condone the choices each person makes, but does understand. This instinctive ability to understand is powerful. You hear the unvoiced questions. You anticipate the need. Where others grapple for words, the nurse seems to find the right words and the right tone. You help people find the right phrases to express their feelings to themselves as well as to others. The nurse helps them give voice to their emotional life. For all these reasons other people are drawn to empathetic nurses.

Caring per Jean Watson's Caring Theory:

Transpersonal caring relationships encompases connections that embrace the spirit or soul of the other through the processes of full, authentic, caring/healing attention in the moment (Sitzman, 2010). Transpersonal caring refers to the fact that the nurse consciously focuses on self and other swithin interpersonal exchanges that are rooted in the present moment, while at the same time going far out of the moment and opening to new ways. The nurse values the presence of the other's inner and outer views and
seeks to acknowledge the connection that is existing between self and others. The real transpersonal caring exchange supports and enhances technical care, comfort measures, pain control, sense of wellbeing, and transcendence of suffering (Sitzman, 2010). Each person in the exchange is viewed in their entirety and complete.

                                                       
                                                         Reference

Nurse Together (2012). Empathy in Nursing. Retrieved from http://www.nursetogether.com/Career/Career-Article/itemid/1635/Empathy-in-Nursing.aspx

Sitzman, K. (2010). Student-Preferred Caring Behaviors for Online Nursing Education. Nursing Education Perspectives, 31(3), 171-178.

Visit Voki for Mind Mapping Happy Face! Learn how to care for your patients better!

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Nurse: A World of Care. Video on the global roles that nurses play in providing health care to people at every stage of life

A Nursing School Philosophy

If I had to create a nursing philosophy for my school of nursing, it would encompass the concepts of caring and integrity. Here is my proposed philosophy:

         “Our nursing program prepares students to develop the knowledge, skills, and values to serve effectively in the nursing role. The College promotes nursing education that is focused on teaching outstanding care, in which nurses are leaders, and practice their craft with integrity for worldwide health care needs. This global perspective encompasses an environment of caring, compassionate interaction, and nursing intentions that are carried out with integrity for the wellbeing of people. The role model of the professional nursing teacher is essential to nursing education. Through the guidance, wisdom, competence and support of the mentoring teachers, the nursing students will develop into qualified professional nurses who carry themselves through their profession with nursing integrity” (Singh-Rao, 2011). 

                                                         Reference

Singh-Rao, A. (2012). Proposed Nursing Philosophy.  Author of blog’s personal view.

Nurse Educator: Someone Who Dares to Care!

Jean Watson: Embrace Loving Kindness

Jean Watson,(2012) states that a person can make a choice to utilize the caring perspective as “theory, model, philosophy, ethic or ethos for transforming self and practice, or self and system”. A very interesting quote from her website states “Are we humans having a spiritual experience, or are we spiritual beings having a human experience?” (Watson, 2012). This quote may assist a person to see their position within the caring model. As one such as a nurse or nurse educator, spends time understanding the caring framework, it can also bring into perspective, their own personal involvement and growth. Watson asks the question how involved are you with your own caring development and your caring journey in regards to the universe. What is truly one’s view……?

Reference

Watson, J. (2012). The implications of caring theory. Retrieved from http://www.watsoncaringscience.org/index.cfm/category/88/the-implications-of-caring-theory.cfm

Making a World of Difference with Care

Enjoy! Making a World of Difference with Care- In Honor of Nurses Everywhere :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJViQ1-APWo&feature=related

Voki, The Caring Heart

Hi Everyone, please click the link to my voki to learn about the importance of caring in nursing :

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Kaplan Cares!

Kaplan believes that nursing is an art and a science based on caring, with a foundation in an evidence-based body of knowledge that holistically focuses on the person(s) for the purpose of “protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations”, as stated in the American nurses association’s social policy statement (Kaplan Student Handbook, 2010).

 Caring, at Kaplan College, is considered  a purposeful compassionate interaction intended to benefit another by increasing health and well-being; increasing knowledge of health; decreasing pain, discomfort, or distress; and fostering an environment that allows desirable outcomes to occur. Caring is a critical component of nursing and can be developed with wisdom, knowledge, compassion, and competence (2010).

     As nursing teachers at Kaplan, there is a committment to providing competent and compassionate nursing care to the students. In turn, the students understand the care we give to patients and families who entrust their health to us. Our most important goal is to improved patient outcomes through good mentoring of students. Jean Watson’s Model of Caring is the nursing framework that is used at the college. It focuses on the student’s expectation of care and helps nursing teachers meet those expectations in order to allow this framework to influence caring for the patients in the student’s clinical rotation.

     Although each nurse eventually learns to care for patients in her own way, the college provides a foundation for continuous opportunities for students develop professionally. They learn to become empowered through leadership and over time, becoming authorities for the provision of patients and their caring.

                                                         Reference

Kaplan University (2008). Student Handbook. Retrieved from            http://online.kaplanuniversity.edu/uploadedFiles/KU_Online/Online_Documents/KU_bsn           _handbook.pdf

“I love what I do as a Nursing Instructor”

           I wanted to begin my first entry to my blog by mentioning why I love being a Nurse Educator. I have been a nurse for over 20 years. I became a nursing instructor for a nursing college 6 years ago. My reason for becoming a teacher is because I wanted to share my knowledge and passion for nursing. Along with this, I wanted to show students how to mentor compassion and caring for our patients. It is done so with Integrity and caring.

            The concept of integrity and caring go hand in hand in teaching academic integrity to nursing students. When the student understands the true meaning of caring and integrity in the nursing field of study and how we as professional nurses embody this in our core nursing values, it becomes translated to them in the form of academic integrity. Being a clinical instructor, I wanted to show my School of Nursing college could use the concept of integrity and caring to instill in the students through academic integrity teaching. 

            In my view, nursing is seen as a calling. It is essential to train student nurses appropriately to ensure that they graduate quality nurses. Students who wish to join the nursing profession should have an innate desire to help heal the sick. Along with this, the nursing instructor can help students understand the type of profession they are embarking on and the integrity of caring that it takes to be a good nurse. It is not just a matter of learning skills and concepts from a textbook. It is the integrity that you bring to the profession that sets you apart as a true nurse. Ethical practices must be taught. A good teacher will make sure that her students have met all the required standards of caring through academic integrity. Thus good nursing care, which is performed with integrity, is part of the professional nurse’s role (Widang & Fridlund, 2003).

          Students need to be taught that nursing is a caring profession. They must come to this realization and decide if this is truly their passion. There should be empathy for the patient. The teacher’s job is to teach and role model nursing with the integrity of caring. Teachers need to be mentors to the students as well as a model for the new nurse to follow. Students are made aware of the nurses’ code of ethics but are shown how to put it into practice by shadowing their instructors. Nursing responsibilities should be carried out with quality care, compassion, respect, advocacy, and commitment to the patient. In other words, performing nursing with integrity. This integrity must be displayed by the teacher so that novice students grasp the importance of what nurses’ practice. I believe that nursing teachers also have an obligation to promote further education in the profession in order to advance our caring practice for the sick.

           I have come to see just how much I love the profession of nursing, whether at the patient’s bedside or with the nursing students. Each new group of student I receive, I have learned something new about me since each group comes with its own set of dynamics. However, the one thing that remains constant in my teachings is that I am proud to be a nurse mentor to teach compassion, integrity and caring to our future nurse generations. The teacher who cares is professionally competent; s/he has genuine care and concern for the student as a learning person, and has a positive demeanor who is professionally committed to the well-being of the student (Galazis, 1990). 

References

             Galazis, R.  (1990). Creative Strategies for Teaching Care.  In M. Leininger & J. (Eds.),

                     The Caring Imperative in Education (pp. 155-165).  N Y: National League for            Nursing. 

             Widang, I., Fridlund, B., and Martensson, J. (2007).  Women’s patients’ conceptions of integrity within health care: A phenomenographic study.  Journal of Advanced Nursing 61(5),540-548.