CHAPTER 3

Power of Faculty: The Tact of Teaching

It is critical that nurse educators identify strategies to empower nursing students and new graduate nurses to implement caring behaviors in their own practice. In order for nurses to learn the importance of implementing caring behaviors with their patients and peers, it seems imperative that they see caring modeled for them in their educational experiences. Van Manen (1991) uses the term “tact” to describe a teaching approach that embodies thoughtful, mindful, caring interactions between faculty and students. Van Manen (1991) envisions tact as the space between theory and practice, noting that this tactful teaching can help us overcome the problem of separation between these two concepts. The tact of teaching is an important concept for new clinical nurse educators to address in order to help students apply theoretical knowledge in a learning context that values them as individuals.

THE STORIES

This chapter presents findings from three qualitative research studies that collected stories of undergraduate nursing students’ experiences in the clinical setting. Nurse educators, as they struggle with day-to-day conflicts in implementing their role, often feel that they do not have a great deal of power. The stories here, however, illustrate that faculty, through their approach to connecting with students, have a great deal of power to create a caring learning environment. Stories of caring and uncaring experiences with faculty are presented first, followed by stories focused on how cultural factors and incivility may affect student learning in the clinical setting.

Stories of Caring and Uncaring

Twenty-one undergraduate students participated in a phenomenological study in which students described caring and uncaring incidents they had experienced in the clinical setting (Redmond & Sorrell, 1996; Sorrell & Redmond, 1997). As students in this study talked about experiences with their teachers, it was clear that faculty had a great deal of power and influence on the learning of their students—even though they may not have realized it.

Caring Behaviors. One student, Joan, described an incident when she needed to talk about a crisis she had with her patient and how helpful the faculty member was in providing an opportunity for her to do this:

Joan talked about how moved she was that her instructor cried with her. It made her feel that it was okay to have these feelings of extreme sadness after watching her patient die. It also helped her to see that even as a student, she had been instrumental in helping to provide comfort and calm in her patient’s last hours.

Another student, Carrie, reflected on an experience that happened many years earlier on her first day in the clinical area. She had been assigned to care for a young woman in the ICU who had leukemia. The patient suddenly began bleeding and died that day. No one explained to Carrie what had happened to cause her patient to die. Carrie described her feelings, “I remember thinking, feeling like I was floating, what did I not see?” Fortunately, the next day one of the nurses from the ICU made a special effort to seek out Carrie, who was then on a different unit. This nurse talked with Carrie about possible feelings of guilt that she sensed Carrie might have. She explained to Carrie, “You couldn’t have done anything. Nobody knew that it would happen.” As Carrie shared her story, the tears streamed down her face. Even though the incident had happened years earlier, it was clear that for her, the memory of that day was still very fresh:

If this nurse had not gone out of her way to ensure that a student nurse knew that she was not to blame for her patient’s death, Carrie may still be wondering whether she had caused harm to her patient.

Sharon described a simple incident that might have seemed insignificant to the faculty member but made a big impact on the class of stressed nursing students:

Sharon’s story illustrates the importance of anticipating students’ needs in order to intervene appropriately. Her instructor monitored the nonverbal behavior of students in her class to identify the stress that they were experiencing. With the challenges teachers have preparing for classroom and clinical teaching, it is easy to forget that students are undergoing similar or even greater amounts of stress. Failing to identify this and intervene to reduce the stress may result in poor performance by the students or even their withdrawal from the program.

Nancy shared a humorous incident that illustrates the importance of faculty working together to help a student. She described how she naïvely dressed to attend a campus board of visitors meeting in her t-shirt and shorts, with her hair “all ratty looking.” When the nursing dean explained that the meeting was formal, Nancy realized her error. Nevertheless, the dean went into action—she quickly gathered some faculty members to tell them of the problem and the faculty worked together to get Nancy prepared. They actually switched clothes with Nancy so that 15 minutes later she entered the board room with a professional (but undersized) suit, panty hose (barely reaching above her hemline), and nice pumps (almost two sizes too large). With hair now neatly combed and a blank piece of paper on which she pretended she had her speech, Nancy was ready for action. She said:

After graduation, Nancy made important contributions as a nurse in working with patients and students in developing countries. She obtained a master’s and a PhD degree and is currently working as a nurse researcher and educator, implementing caring behaviors with her own students.

Uncaring Behaviors. Some of the “uncaring” stories that students shared were surprising to the researchers, who could see themselves unwittingly acting in similar ways with students. It is doubtful that the faculty members described in the following three stories realized the negative impact their actions had on the students.

Sarah, a beginning student with English as a second language (ESL), shared this story about the impact that a simple comment by her instructor had on her ability to think clearly and confidently:

Marie described the experience of giving her first injection to a patient. Probably every nurse remembers how difficult it was to “stick” a patient the first time, but with so many things to think about as a nurse educator, it is easy to forget the reassurance needed by students for this first injection. Marie described it this way:

With the current shortage of full-time nurse educators, many schools are employing part-time faculty, especially for clinical teaching. The part-time faculty are often excellent clinicians and teachers but they are often somewhat isolated from the day-to-day course planning in which full-time faculty are engaged. Emily’s story helps us see how important it is to include part-time or adjunct faculty in the planning of clinical teaching approaches. Emily described this experience:

Emily’s comments point out that learning is not confined to the classroom or clinical setting. Gathering outside of the classroom where faculty and students share food or converse in a faculty member’s home can provide opportunities for learning in a welcoming environment other than the classroom. It is important, however, that all students have equal opportunities to experience this.

Stories of Caring and Culture

Culture can be defined broadly as the attributes, language, physical characteristics, values, or behaviors that a group identifies as its own (Long, 2012). As the nursing profession becomes more diverse, it is critical that nurse educators consider how cultural issues may affect their students’ learning. Students’ stories from one study in an associate degree nursing program revealed how the insensitivity of faculty and others in the clinical environment can negatively affect learning (Glasgow, 2014). The research study focused on perceptions of faculty and students regarding factors that influence the communication and clinical skills of ESL nursing students. Using a qualitative case study design, the researcher interviewed five nursing faculty and entry-level ESL students to explore their perceptions of important supports and barriers to their learning. The researcher identified four themes that influenced the development of entry-level ESL nursing students’ communication and clinical skills: (a) Lack of culturally sensitive teaching practices, (b) limited internal program cultural supports, (c) diverse cultural background barriers, and (d) insufficient cultural diversity training. One theme, lack of culturally sensitive teaching practices, is discussed here as an especially important consideration for the novice clinical nurse educator who is attempting to meet learning needs for a diverse student body.

Faculty participants in the study described their desire to create a culturally sensitive learning environment for their students but realized that cultural shortcomings existed within their teaching practices. One faculty member stated:

Another faculty participant described her experiences with ESL students’ nonverbal behaviors and attitudes:

Stay updated, free articles. Join our Telegram channel

Join