How do I enact Instructor Caring?
Step 4:
How can you begin to enact these caring qualities?
- Begin by reviewing your journal, or reflecting on the caring qualities that you already possess. How do you portray those caring qualities to students/faculty/patients/family members? Is there a difference? Why is there is a difference?
- Caring comes in many different forms. Did you know that staying current in your field is a sign of caring? When you study evidence based research, you enter the classroom with confidence and knowledge that will be useful to your students. This knowledge that you share enables them to stay ahead in the nursing profession also.
- Preparation. When preparing for class, organize your lecture/presentation/interactive activities in an organized fashion. This lessens confusion and allows the classroom to run smoothly. When you are an organized presenter you gain the respect of your students and they believe that you truly care for them.
- Think back to a time when you had a teacher that was disorganized, were you frustrated, confused? Did you feel that the instructor cared about you?
- Being firm and rationale in your expectations of the students is a sign of caring. How can this be? To be caring is to teach a person to be self-sufficient and to strive beyond what they ever imagined. If you remain firm with the rules that you have established, life lessons will be remembered and retained. Being firm and rationale does not mean that you cannot feel empathy for that student, but if the student is always allowed an excuse, what lesson have you taught them? As an instructor you do not want to come across as a pushover, nor do you want to be considered a controlling tyrant, this can be a sign of insecurity. A caring instructor understands that there are situations that cannot be controlled, but even when those occur, at times, expectations must still be maintained.
- Setting rules at the beginning of the class is key to being successful. The students will come to appreciated the guidelines and the order your bring to the classroom or clinical setting. If the students help to create these rules they are more likely to abide by them.
- Feedback. Caring instructors want their students to be successful. What better way to accomplish by simply giving them praise and constructive feedback. When students do something wrong, they are more than likely aware of it. Focusing on their faults is not helpful, instead correct and guide the student in a way that gives them a feeling of self-worth. Making a mistake in nursing could be deadly, there is no questioning that, but there is a way to correct a student in a dignified, professional manner in which their self-esteem does not deteriorate.Tips:
- Speak to the student privately, do not questions them in front of their peers
- Use a calm, even tone when communicating
- Ask them for their reasoning behind their behavior, wait and listen.
- Never forget that they are students, mistakes are supposed to be made when your learning, it is how those mistakes are corrected that will make a difference. If the approach of the instructor is harsh and accusatory, the student may shut off, not comprehending the error that was made. If the instructor approaches in a caring, calm manner, the student is more likely to listen and appreciate the error and work to correct it.
- if the approach is negative, the student may come to fear approaching the instructor with a problem, this in itself can lead to unethical, uncaring behavior.
- Write out a plan of improvement, and discuss it with the student. This shows that you care enough to help them improve and become successful.
- Challenge. When a student is being challenged they feel they have earned their degree. Remember though, that you must challenge them within their learning curve. If your tests/assignments are so easy that their 3 year old nephew/niece can do them, or if your tests are so hard that everyone is failing, you are not doing your students any favors.
- Challenge students based on their capabilities, you want your students to reach a little higher than their comfort level. When they accomplish the task, no matter how difficult and trying it was, they will appreciate the fact that they were able to complete it. It empowers them, and changes their thinking to “I can do just enough to pass” to “I can strive to improve myself beyond what I thought I was capable of.”
- Prepare assignments that encourage your students to think. We want our students to “get it” because if they accomplish that in the classroom, they will be able to carry that into their nursing professions. Critical thinking is essential to being a knowledgeable, caring nurse.
- Love your profession. Talking positively about the nursing and teaching profession encourages students to continue in their own education. When you embrace this passion and enthusiasm with your students, they begin to change and embrace it themselves.
- Remember the positive stories and use them to enhance your lectures, students love to hear about them. Also, remember the not so good stories, share them, and allow the students to know that you questioned things at one time, but in the end your love for the profession speaks loudly. We are all human, and sometimes good things happen and sometimes bad things happen, but we all persevere.
- Care about the topics that you are teaching. If you care about the topic, build upon it, make it exciting and interesting, then the students will feel that you care enough about them because you took the extra effort.
