Responsibility of a Nurse as a Teacher

 

Table of contents:

1. Introduction

2. Responsibility of a nurse teacher

3. Conclusion.

 

Introduction:

 

A nurse educator is a nurse who teaches and prepares licensed practical nurses (LPN) and registered nurses (RN) for entry into practice positions. They can also teach in various patient care settings to provide continuing education to licensed nursing staff.   

 

Responsibility of a Nurse Teacher:

 

A.  Deciding what the students need to learn:

In the process of teaching and learning, the teacher will have some responsibility in deciding what the student should learn.
Deciding what to teach is largely a question of the total curriculum. The decisions about what should be included and what should be left out is a course are taken by several different groups of people :

 

1.   The ministry of health may be involved.

2.   There may be curriculum committees.

3.   The students may have an important contribution to make in this decisions.
And

a)  The teacher has the job of interpreting general curriculum on syllabuses.

b) The teacher has to decide how much details or depth in a particular area is appropriate.

c)  The teacher has the responsibility of explaining to students why some things are more important to learn than others.

 

B.  Helping the student to learn:

The responsibility of the teacher is to do all those things which will help the student to learn. Learning is a personal experience and not all learners will require the same conditions for learning. In fact that is one of the most important things for teachers to remember there are differences among students which affects their learning.

                Helping learning involves:

a)  Asking appropriate question for the student to answer.

b) Organizing exercises and simulation in which the students have to make plans and reach decisions.

c)  Managing practical experiences which enquire students to apply facts and questions and develop their attitudes.

d) Solving a film or photographs.

e)  Arranging laboratory work and experiments.

f)    Encouraging students to learn from each other.

 

C.   Checking that learning occurred :

 
    Telling students and /or showing student does not mean that the student will inevitable learn .since students do not always learn everything that is covered in the course it is a vital part of a teachers job to find out how much the student have learn.

This is an important for several reasons:

a)  Regularly testing the students tells the student how well they are getting on and where they need to spend more time to correct weaknesses.

 

b) The result of the testing also tell the teacher what part of the course have been learnt and which parts will require additional teaching on perhaps should be taught differently for the future courses.

 

 

c)  The testing will help to determine which students are suitable to work in the different setting.

 

d) For checking that learning has occurred, methods of assessment should match the ability on skill which the teacher wants to test.

 

 

e)  Checking of learning is necessary to make sure that the student is sufficiently competent to be of benefit to the community and hospital before allowed to practice as recognized health workers.

 

f)    Regular checking can be used to detect what teaching on learning had to be repeated and so provided guidance to both students and teachers and so help to improve the quality of the both teaching and learning.

 

 

D.  Taking responsibility for students welfare:

Although the major responsibility of a teacher is to help students learn, but a teacher also responsible to the aspects to the other aspects of the students live example:

1.   What happens to them outside the classroom?

2.   Do they have problems in their living conditions?

3.   Do they need some organized social events?

4.   Do they have personal problem?

 

Conclusion:

 
The role and responsibility of the nurse teacher, it would appear, is a dynamic one that needs to engage actively the needs of the student. Nurses therefore need to be dynamics in their approach in order to respond to both local and global demands and ensure that students become competent, professional, knowledgeable and caring in their approach.              

Responsibility of a Nurse as a Teacher

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