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Teaching Philosophy

As a nurse educator, my philosophy of teaching is derived from my love of nursing, and my personal and professional experiences.  I have over 30 years of nursing experience and I see my role in the classroom as a facilitator by using my experiences to help enhance students’ learning objectives. I accomplish this in the classroom through case studies and discussion of actual patients that I have cared for as well as the students’ own personal and clinical experiences. As an educator, my goal is to prepare potential nurses with the ability to think critically and to make clinical decisions based on the evidence presented.

Students entering the field of nursing today are not just recent high school graduates.  Some are entering nursing from other disciplines and making career changes.  Also, we are seeing older, more mature students as well.  These students bring a certain level of experience and knowledge into the classroom, therefore, understanding of adult learning theories are essential for meeting the challenges of this diverse group of students.  As an educator, I feel it is important to recognize the experiences of others and use it to foster and enhance learning.  I use experiences as a key component to developing critical thinking skills; I view knowledge construction as a collaborative and interactive process where techniques are used to facilitate students’ learning and understanding. Caring for patients in today’s health care environment involves a more multidiscipline approach.  Therefore, creating a classroom climate that encourages sharing of one’s experiences will help expose nursing students to other ways of thinking and addressing a problem, thus improving their care of patients.

I like to incorporate innovative and relevant learning opportunities in the classroom experience. For example, in Research in Nursing (57:705:411) I implemented an assignment called “Research in the News.” The purpose of this “assignment” was to make students more aware of research and how research is reported and used in everyday situations. Each student had to identify a current research story (within the last 90 days) in the news, (It had to be related to health, i.e., “New research shows that a low salt diet is not effective in preventing heart disease.”).  Students were assigned questions to answer regarding the significance of the research; they had to discuss whether or not care should be changed based on this study, why or why not? This assignment helped students see the importance of research and its relevance within nursing, health, and health care.

In Spring 2017, I received the “Excellence in Professional Nursing Practice” Award from Rutgers School of Nursing-Camden. Oftentimes, I bring in examples from my clinical practice to provide realistic scenarios to enhance classroom discussion and to illustrate important clinical points.  I enjoy teaching and offering students practical experiences as a means of guiding their path. I feel this quote highlights the vital role we play as educators and how influential our roles are: “A teacher affects eternity he can never tell where his influence stops”– Henry Brooks Adams.