Competency 1 – Facilitate LearningNurse educators are responsible for creating an environment in
classroom, laboratory, andclinical
settings that facilitates student learning and the achievement of desired cognitive,affective, and psychomotor outcomes. To facilitate
learning effectively, the nurse educator:
· Implement a variety of teaching strategies appropriate to learner
need and desired learner outcomes, content and context.After nine semesters at the current university I have watched the level of anxiety
generated among students involved in medicine and surgery courses. There is little learning taking place
in high school that will transfer to a medicine and surgery nursing course. This is a different transition
from high school geometry to college geometry. Because of the above, students arrive with much anxiety.
Each class period I ask the students to share feelings with respect to how they perceived the lecture. Usually there
is much distress because lecture goes so fast and feelings of being “lost” are regularly expressed.
“What is going to be on the test?” is a question asked frequently in an environment where it has been repeatedly
stated “The test material will come from the information on and surrounding the power points and lectures given during
class period.” Over the last 3 semesters I have attempted to alleviate test anxiety through:a. Making more tests open book. The final is open book.b. Offering weekly case studies from the clinical setting which correlates to the lecture
materials. c. Encouraging students to associate themselves
with the books they have purchased for the course through offering assignments where they use the electronic book for reading,
copying and pasting into their case studies
.·
Engage
in self reflection and continued learning to improve teaching practices that facilitate learning.After each lecture the student is asked to reflect upon
the lecture which I delivered. The student is asked to answer three questions:a.
What went well
today?b. What went poorly today?c. What would you suggest?I read each of these after class and I make changes in that lecture
content or my delivery of the lecture content as needed. I discuss the changes with the students so they
will understand why any changes may have been made.
