“Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach.” ― Aristotle
Teachers — whether they exist in education, medicine, nursing, or other occupations — are leaders in their respective professions that wield the power to influence their students during chapters of their professional growth and development. Such influence can be positive or negative depending on the experience between teacher and student or mentor and mentee. As instructors, we must work to improve our knowledge of teaching styles, practice models, ethics, due process, scholarship, and service.
My goals as an educator can be split into two domains: 1) improving myself, and 2) improving the experiences of students (e.g. preceptees, mentees, and learners of any context). Improving student experiences can exist in a variety of ways, including: inspiration, professional leveraging, counseling and encouragement, and of course – clinical and medical instruction. If a student should begin their rotation or clinical experience as a novice who is eager but inexperienced, I hope to inspire confidence in their emerging skills and expanding knowledge-base. A student should leave a clinical rotation feeling as though they were welcomed into the experience, challenged, and possessing a renewed vigor for learning.
My goal of improving the experiences of learners can be reflected in my own endeavors, both past and present. I consider myself a life-long learner and have elected to improve myself through the pursuit of rigorous academia in my baccalaureate, master’s, and doctoral degrees. I have also participated in nursing residencies and fellowships to augment my learning experience as I became both a fledgling nurse and again as a novice nurse practitioner. I am now in a position to impact the learning experience of new providers (to include nurse practitioners and physician assistants) in this year’s cohort of the advanced practice fellowship the hospital where I am employed. Due to my own fellowship experience as well as my concurrent status as a Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP) student, my scholarly project revolves around improving the transition to practice for this population through mentorship. To further better myself, I am currently in the pursuit of becoming an adept Nurse Educator by completing certificate courses at a university level. I aspire to increase my own knowledge-base regarding teaching and learning styles, education models, theories, and frameworks, and how to address the challenges of clinical teaching. I also aim to be a preceptor for nurse practitioner students, fellows, and new hires. I believe my developing expertise in these domains will augment my position as a preceptor. My personal interest in the education, development, and professional leveraging of students and mentees is self-evident by all of the above experiences and pursuits.
My personal teaching philosophy focuses on the development of learners by emphasizing Bloom’s taxonomy of learning and ensuring learners not only understand and remember content, but begin to apply, analyze, and evaluate (Svinicki et al., 2014, p. 10) all that they have learned. In order to foster this exponential growth, I aim to create a positive and safe environment that encourages learning, be a role model for both clinical practice and medical ethics, to communicate expectations, and to customize my approaches in teaching to meet the needs of the students/learners (Koharchik & Redding, 2016).
One final lesson I wish to impart on my students is that successes and failures are stepping stones in the journey of learning. They will undoubtedly encounter both phenomena professionally and personally, major and minor. As an instructor or teacher who may only be present for a short chapter of their educational experience, I want to comfort and encourage them with this prospect so that they can rise to any subsequent challenge or difficulty with the awareness and recognition that learning is an evolutionary process. Failure is not a step backwards, but a step to the side. You can then approach your goal from a new angle.
References
GRIDS: Philosophy of Teaching Statement Staples. (2016). Retrieved from
https://ucat.osu.edu/blog/grids-philosophy-of-teaching-statement-staples/
Koharchik, L., & Redding, S. R. (2016). Strategies for Successful Clinical Teaching. American
Journal of Nursing, 116(7), 62–65. doi: 10.1097/01.naj.0000484944.01465.18
Svinicki, M. D., McKeachie, W. J., Nicol, D., & McKeachie, W. J. (2014). McKeachie’s
teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers.