This assignment incorporates the knowledge, theory, research, population assessment, and
reflection skills you have acquired to analyze behaviors and practices used in teaching and
nursing education.
Draw on your knowledge, experience, research, and other material , to analyze key
practices and behaviors that impact the role of the nurse educator as faculty, clinical
educator, and a patient-community educator.
The assignment is divided into three parts:
Part 1 is an overview of the key points, characteristics, and behaviors of teachers and nurse
educators in practice.
Part 2 is a review of the literature regarding education, nursing education, and working as
a clinical nurse educator (for example, instructional materials/methods, technology, nurse
educator as faculty, clinical teaching, and patient-community education).
Part 3 is an analysis and refection of these practices and behaviors from the perspective of
a nurse educator.
Part 1: Overview of Education Practices and Behaviors
Define key educational practices and behaviors (for example, instructional methods and
materials, technology, impact of change and resistance, and literacy).
Describe how identified key educational practices and behaviors impact learning and
teaching from a learner (for example, student, patient, family, or population) perspective.
How do they impact learning and teaching from a teaching and nurse educator
perspective?
Part 2: Review of the Literature
Assess the literature on the education practices and behaviors you defined in Part 1. Your
assessment should concentrate on those practices and behaviors that have the most impact
on nurse educators such as: 1) faculty; 2) patient educators; 3) clinical educators; and 4)
community or population-based educators.
Part 3: Analysis and Reflection of Education Practices and Behaviors
Analyze the educational practices and behaviors that you identified in Part 2 with an
emphasis on how they impact teachers, nurses, and nursing education.
Reflect on your own experience and knowledge of these education practices and behaviors.
What do you foresee as having the greatest impact on you as a nurse educator? What will
have the least impact? Why?
ANALYSIS OF NURSE EDUCATOR PRACTICES AND BEHAVIORS 2
use the author Susan Bastable on “Nurse as Educator” 2014 edition. Please don’t forget the
references 7 at least peer-reviewed.
Overview of Education Practices and Behaviors
Many scientific and quantitative studies have proved that education has a substantial
effect on the competencies and knowledge of nurses. It is generally assumed that nurses who
have a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degrees (BSN), are better equipped with the necessary
knowledge and expertise that their demanding field of practice requires (Chambers, Thiekötter,
& Chambers, 2013). BSN qualified nurses are attributed with high skills of leadership, critical
thinking, health promotion, case management, and their flexibility that allows them to operate in
all environments involving both in-patient and outpatient cases (Bastable, 2013). While this form
of education has been widely appreciated in the nursing faculty, the one-on-one mentorship
program that is facilitated by nurse educators also plays a central role in the development and
enhancement of health practitioners’ skills. Nurse educators are registered nurses whose
education levels are advanced, and are qualified to practice as teachers. More often than not,
most nurse educators work partly as nurses, before signing up for a full-time teaching job of
future nurses.
Being people with advanced nursing and educational skills, nurse educators usually form
the technical team of the nursing faculty, designing lesson plans, teaching courses, overseeing
clinical students’ practice, serving as their role models, and evaluating the curriculum as well as
ANALYSIS OF NURSE EDUCATOR PRACTICES AND BEHAVIORS 3
the educational program. These individuals teach and prepare Registered Nurses (RN) and
Licensed Practical Nurses (LPN), as they enter into practice positions (Bastable, 2013). Their
circumference of practice is not only limited to schools, but can also participate in patient care
settings to continually provide both the RN and LPN with more educational skills.
The key educational practices and behaviors in the faculty of nursing have been on a
constant change over time, due to the rapid integration of technology into the learning process.
For instance, in this profession, instructional methods that are used have significantly changed,
from the traditional lecture formats to the modern and current trends used in facilitating active
learning. However, unlike other teaching settings, the clinical one is a bit complicated since it
involves real situations, where real patients are used instead of the hypothetical situations that
have defined the mode of teaching in most classrooms (Chambers, Thiekötter, & Chambers,
2013). It is imperative to note that while practical teaching strategies have a greater significance
for nursing students, sound theoretical knowledge still remains a central pillar that must be cast
before any solid foundation of practical teaching can be instituted. Some of the instructional
methods used include lecture method, discussion, small group discussion, lecture-cum-
demonstration method, simulation, panel discussion, symposium, workshop, project method, role
play, filed trip, and exhibitions (Williamson, 2011; Porr & Egan, 2013). The materials used to
facilitate such learning strategies have been widely dictated by technology, until currently, even
students that are separated by physical barrier could still collaboratively discuss on online
platforms such as wikis, blogs, and other interactive segments. The nursing faculty is defined by
unique behaviors including high degree of responsibility, practicality, accountability,
trustworthiness, and caring attitude. Without these principle behaviors, one can hardly become a
nurse; leave alone a nurse educator.
ANALYSIS OF NURSE EDUCATOR PRACTICES AND BEHAVIORS 4
Just like in any other faculty, the nursing education sector has not been spared from the
challenges facing the integration of new ventures and innovative techniques within its workflow
system. While the impact of the change from primitive means of giving instructions is largely
obvious, the skepticism and resistance to such changes have subsided. Many educators are still
using the old instructional methods, which are not particularly beneficial to the leaners. As such,
the resistance to change to new technological advances has slowed down the transformational
process of reinventing new methods and materials in the learning practice. Due to this, the
projected increase in the number of RNs has not been met, and there is still a looming shortage
of healthcare practitioners as compared to the general world population (Porr & Egan, 2013).
However, it is appreciable that the level of literacy has significantly increased, with many
community healthcare workers receiving modern educational trainings, skills enhancement, and
practical evaluations, which have boosted their expertise in a great way. Consequently, deaths
experienced as a result of patients being handled by inexperienced and uneducated practitioners
have greatly subsided, thereby stabilizing the world population (Bastable, 2013). From a
learner’s perspective, these emergent practices and behaviors have helped to achieve great strides
in meeting career objectives; bettering the education system in terms of mainstreaming key
principles and ideas within the curriculum; providing useful platforms for collaborative
discussions with distant student colleagues; and creating an environment that is ripe with
continuous improvement as well as useful innovations (McSherry, Pearce, Grimwood, &
Mcsherry, 2012). From a teaching and a nurse educator’s perspective, these key educational
practices have enabled the accomplishment of tasks easily and within a short time frame, so that
the teaching process is simplified, and highly successful.
Literature Review
ANALYSIS OF NURSE EDUCATOR PRACTICES AND BEHAVIORS 5
A number of systematic qualitative and quantitative studies have ventured into the impact
of education on health provision through the practice of nurses. Health education and behavior
change are two crucial aspects of the healthcare process, which must be continuously improved
in order to achieve a better management of illnesses. Lux, Hutcheson, and Peden, (2014)
elucidate that using educational theories and practices in crafting interventions can be more
fruitful than those developed without informed theories. In the past, most intervention methods
were largely based on intuition, knowledge on literature, experience, and inherited skills.
However, the increasing complexity of clinical cases has prompted practitioners to use
modernized practices in tackling emergent issues in the hospital and community care settings.
The use of modern instructional methods in nursing education has, thus, enabled nurse educators
to disseminate useful knowledge and skills to students, who have in turn, become great nurses. In
the nursing education faculty, nurse educators have been made to replace general knowledge
lecturers, who do not possess the right expertise to design tailor-made courses for the nursing
students. (Williamson, 2011). As such, experienced and highly educated nurses have taken over
the faculty management, to form the majority of the staff members, and key course planners.
According to Hebenstreit (2012), this development has seen to it that the nursing department
produces students who had both hands-on skills and theoretical knowledge to handle delicate
clinical situations that arise at the workplace.
Apart from nurse education, patient education has been noted to have a great impact in
the process of achieving a successful healthcare practice. Patient educators, just as the former,
also require appropriate practices and behaviors in order to function properly. Leena et al., (n.d)
point out that the caring character is very crucial in patient education, as it helps in the creation
of a cordial and participatory relationship with the patients. For clinical educators, various
ANALYSIS OF NURSE EDUCATOR PRACTICES AND BEHAVIORS 6
methods have been identified to be useful in the current way of practice: bedside clinics, nursing
rounds, nursing reports, individual conferences, and group conferences. According to Lux,
Hutcheson, and Peden, (2014), the use of these methods are very effective in facilitating
continuing education among RNs and LPNs, which is essential for skills enhancement, sharing,
and teamwork in a healthcare setting.
The continued application and integration of technology in the nursing education sector,
according to Bastable, (2013), is bound to increase the number of RNs and LPNs, so that the
ration to patients to nurses will be favorable. With the introduction of electronic teaching
methods powered by the internet and computer aided instructions, it has become easier than
before to initiate learning processes in a successful manner. In addition, there is a lot of
information that has been availed in the internet, which is used by community or population-
based educators, as well as other educators, to learn new ways of doing things, and to help them
keep abreast with current developments in their fields of practice. Hebenstreit, (2012) posits that
traditional educators favored theoretical forms of knowledge than delving into the practical
aspects. As such, education was not directly correlated with an improvement in the performance
of nurses, since other factors such as on-job training and experience had to be factored in. As
opposed to those medieval approaches, current innovative improvements have allowed the use of
sophisticated means of instruction. According to the inference made by Lux, Hutcheson, and
Peden, (2014), all nurse educators are only faced with the challenge of accepting the new
changes brought in by improved technology, so as to increase the literacy levels of all healthcare
practitioners, including community-based workers.
Analysis and Reflection of Education Practices and Behaviors
ANALYSIS OF NURSE EDUCATOR PRACTICES AND BEHAVIORS 7
The emerging education practices and behaviors are no doubt very exciting and ripe with
prospective opportunities for improvement in the healthcare sector. The positive changes
experienced in the medical innovations, novel tools used for health promotion, strong evidence
base as opposed to the traditional hereditary experience, urbanization, industrialization,
globalization, and increasing life complexities all call for better methods of giving instructions to
upcoming nurses. On the other hand, impacting positively on the behavior of all healthcare
professionals is an important aspect of the planned change process, and which must be fulfilled
in order to realize the millennium dream of a universal healthcare.
Particularly, the rapid change in technology has had a great impact on the educational
practices and behaviors of all the nurse educators, as well as the leaners. Through the use modern
ways of facilitating learning, it is clear that literacy levels would certainly go up, thus improving
the quality of services offered by these nurses. For instance, one key behavior that governs the
nursing faculty is accountability, where each practitioner must be able to stand up for all actions
taken, and safeguard the secret and the life of the patients being handled. Summarily, these
practices and behaviors encourage teachers, nurses, and the entire nursing education to be
responsible, trustworthy, pragmatic, and research-oriented. Furthermore, the propensity of these
parties to accept and integrate changes processes within their workflow systems is a great
definitive factor in assessing the quality and value of each. I, particularly, have been able to
benefit greatly from these practices and behaviors. For instance, my skills and experience have
improved enormously, due to the emergent of new and innovative practices, as well as the
change of behaviors in the nursing education faculty. However, the use of such methods as
seminars and panel discussions are less likely to improve my performance as a nurse educator,
ANALYSIS OF NURSE EDUCATOR PRACTICES AND BEHAVIORS 8
since it is undeniable that this profession needs more practical instructional methods than
theoretical ones.
References
Bastable, S. (2013). Nurse as educator. S.l.: Jones & Bartlett.
Chambers, D., Thiekötter, A., & Chambers, L. (2013). Preparing student nurses for
contemporary practice: The case for discovery learning. Journal Of Nursing Education &
Practice, 3(9), 106.
Hebenstreit, J. J. (2012). Nurse Educator Perceptions of Structural Empowerment and
Innovative Behavior. Nursing Education Perspectives, 33(5), 297-301.
Leena, S., Stolt, M., Koskinen, S., Katajisto, J., & Leino-Kilpi, H. (n.d). The competence and the
cooperation of nurse educators. Nurse Education Today, doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2012.09.008.
Lux, K. M., Hutcheson, J. B., & Peden, A. R. (2014). Ending disruptive behavior: Staff nurse
recommendations to nurse educators. Nurse Education In Practice, 14(1), 37.
McSherry, R., Pearce, P., Grimwood, K., & Mcsherry, W. (2012). The pivotal role of nurse
managers, leaders and educators in enabling excellence in nursing care. Journal Of
Nursing Management, 20(1), 7-19.
Porr, C., & Egan, R. (2013). How does the Nurse Educator Measure Caring?. International
Journal Of Nursing Education Scholarship, 10(1), 1.
ANALYSIS OF NURSE EDUCATOR PRACTICES AND BEHAVIORS 9
Williamson, M. (2011, January 1). Nurse Educators’ Lived Experiences with Student
Incivility. ProQuest LLC.