In reflecting as a student in the BSN program not long ago, there are wishes and hopes to be assigned to an effective nurse educator who is passionate and loves to teach with a positive personality, preparing students for success and using excellent strategies to motivate and provide a meaningful learning experience to students. Nurse educators have a critical role in a student's success and can tremendously impact the nursing career of students. They are crucial in advancing nursing students to achieve the program objectives (Soroush et al., 2021). In addition, the effective nurse educator can assist the student nurse in integrating and applying the theory learned in clinical practice and improve clinical decision-making skills and critical thinking. Sadeghi et al. (2019) pointed out that nurse educators are paramount in improving nursing students' clinical competence.

There are nurse educators who play a significant role in a student's life and a nurse's career; they serve as role models. These nurse educators will never be forgotten; even years will pass by. In reflection, the qualities of the best nurse educators that stand out have encountered where most of them love nursing and enjoy teaching students, sincerity in supporting students to succeed in their nursing program, competence, being well-prepared to teach, and having good relationships with students. It can be challenging to list the qualities of the worst nurse educators; perhaps they still need to prepare for this role and eventually will develop over time. While in the article of Sadeghi et al. (2019), they listed characteristics such as autocracy, low clinical competence, and weak self-esteem, where the ineffectiveness of the nurse educators can inhibit the growth and clinical competence of a student nurse. Most of these nurse educators teach in academic and clinical settings. Some have dual roles; they are faculty members and teach in clinical.

I am interested in pursuing a professional development type of educator. I would love to put my energy into planning staff development sessions, specifically in wound and ostomy specialty care, that can improve patient care. In addition, I love to learn and have an interest in teaching this to others.

Identify the many healthcare trends (social, economic, political, legal, and ethical) that affect nursing practice and the role of the nurse as educator. Elaborate on the degree of influence these trends have on the responsibilities of nurses.

The trends in healthcare aim to cut cost unnecessary healthcare expenses, people receive high-quality healthcare, improve health outcomes, and have a quality of life. These various healthcare trends speak to the critical role of nurses as educators. Therefore, recommendations for nurses have existed to enhance their parts in the delivery of healthcare where they need to function to the full extent of their education and scope of practice. Furthermore, nurses play a significant role in meeting the demands of patients and their families to have increased knowledge and skills in caring for themselves and preventing disease. Thus, patient education is central to the practice of nursing (Bastable & Gonzalez, 2019).

Nurses recognize the responsibilities and need to develop their expertise in teaching to keep pace with the required needs of patients and families, staff, and student education. In addition, nurses as educators realize their significant roles as health care providers that have continuous contact with the patients, where patients can have the most accessible access to sources of information (Bastable & Gonzalez, 2019).

References

Bastable, B. S., & Gonzalez, M. K. (2019). Overview of education in health care. In B. S. Bastable (Ed.), Nurse as educator (5th ed., pp. 3-33). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Sadeghi, A., Oshvandi, K., & Moradi, Y. (2019). Explaining the inhibitory characteristics of clinical instructors in the process of developing clinical competence of nursing students: A qualitative study, Journal of Family Medicine and Primary care, 8(5), 1664-1670. https://doi: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_34_19 

Soroush, A., Andaieshgar, B., Vahdat, A., & Khatony, A. (2021). The characteristics of an effective clinical instructor from the perspective of nursing students: A qualitative descriptive study in Iran, BMC Nursing, 20(1). https://doi: 10.1186/s12912-021-00556-9 Carmela G.

May 27, 2023