Nurse Educator’s Role in Developing Students

 

The nurse educator plays an important role in developing student’s professionalism. Apart from advancing their knowledge by providing theoretic information, the nurse educator has to develop the student’s practical skills of caring for the patients, and develop their abilities so they may use them effectively in the clinical setting. In other words, the nurse educator has to link the medical and nursing theory with the clinical practice, develop the learners’ natural abilities, and boost their passion for caring for patients.

Critical thinking in nursing comprises the use of logic and intellect in combination with the analysis of the data from the current research to provide patients with the care and medical assistance of the highest quality. The nurse has to be clear and precise in their judgments to eliminate possible mistakes or irrelevant information when caring for their patients.

To develop critical thinking, clinical judgment, and innovative communication in their students, nurse educators may use two following strategies:

1. Give the students tasks which require self-reliant research and analysis. For instance, it is possible to give the students case studies with imaginary patients who have diseases that the learners have not studied before (but, clearly, they must have enough background knowledge to figure it out).
   The students will learn to act in a situation when they have to gather information about a disease unknown to them (using the innovative means of communication, for instance, by searching medical databases), combine it with their current knowledge (develop critical thinking), and prescribe the treatment for the patient (use clinical judgment).
2. Another option is to create a “role game” where a nurse has to deal with a patient (who has a disease that requires the nurse to look for new data to treat it properly), as well as with other individuals involved in the process of treating and caring: relatives, multiple physicians, other nurses.
   This situation contains the benefits of the previous approach, developing the critical thinking, clinical judgment, and innovative communications skills in the same way, but it also adds additional practice of clinical judgment, for the nurse has to take into account the wishes, attitudes, and opinions of the other parties. To realize this method in practice, it is possible to use the virtual reality.

Conclusion

To sum up, we have studied the case of Charles Gibson, evaluated his physical assessments, described the pathophysiological mechanisms of his disease, and provided pharmacological options for his treatment. We have also explained the role of a nurse educator in the nurse teaching process. It is important to stress that understanding patients on an in-depth levels helps the nurse educator develop their students’ skills by e.g. showing how important the information and attitudes of the patients are for their treatment.

References

Carey, L. M. (Ed.). (2011). Stroke rehabilitation: Insights from neuroscience and imaging. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

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