Lessons learned from classmates and patients

I am enjoying my class this week with Teaching Strategies.  Usually I am a very creative person but my classmates have come up with a couple that I never even thought of.  One was using a snowflake analogy in which students are different but the same.  The other that I like is using fabric to bring back memories and what that piece of fabric reminds them of something from their past.  Sometimes I teach the senior class the last term of the program and I like to make it personal and reflective.  The biggest thing I came up with is having the students do a "Thank-you" T-shirt or hat for the patient they are caring for that last term.  I have them decorate it with ribbon, applique, fabric paint and buttons.  They also have to write a thankyou note saying thankyou to the patient for letting them (the student) for learning about nursing and caring for them.  I have had many students come back to me and say how much the patients truly loved their shirt or hat.  One student told me that her patient was one that never smiled the whole time she took care of him.  He was always short and seemed unappreciative.  The day she gave him a hat decorated with his favorite hobby, fishing, he grabbed her hand and had tears in his eyes as he thanked her for being there for him.  Every person, whether healthcare provider or visitor, he proudly showed off his hat and smiled frequently that day.  The student told me this, and as she did, she had tears in her eyes and said that for the first time in the 14 months of the program, she now understood the meaning of caring for someone.  I think we forget to thank our patients because we are too busy learning from them.  It is nice to thank them for teaching us.

Technology: Is it Progress or Not?

Educational Technology is taking over the nursing world.  Bradshaw and Lowenstein (2011)believe it is growing by leaps and bounds, and I would have to agree whole heartedly.  I, for one, would never have thought that I would be doing a Master's Program on line,especially at my age of 56,  I grew up in a whole different world of nursing.  We had no computers to chart on, no electronic beds or even digital thermometers.  The clinical areas I worked on were known as "wards" and rooms had 4 patients in one room with only a curtain dividing them.  School was an apprentice approach to learning with a little theory thrown in.  Nursing education was primarily done in a hospital based program.  Today, nursing education can be taught on line.  Who would have thought?  And here I am, not only doing it online, also teaching my students with computers and mobile phones, using e-mails, texting and facebook. Oh, and I must not forget my newest addition of blogging.  So I guess where I am going with this is, what happened to the good old classroom learning where I can see my classmates faces, talk to them and watch their expressions, enjoy my instructors presentation, and actually feel like I am in class?
 My children grew up with technology.  They text to each other instead of talking, they blog, they facebook and they are comfortable with the latest technological gadgets.  Yet I see a decline in accountability, communication skills and lack of respect as a result of technology.  Yes, they can learn from whereever they are, and do the learning all on line.  Yes, they can get all resources they need without having to step foot in a library, and pick up a book.  Communication skills are as brief as the texting and many have a new language because of it.  As an older nurse (am I really?) have I missed something that technology was meant to do?  Bradshaw & Lowenstein (2011) also believe that technology is great as to assist learning but it does not replace the instructor in the educational role.  Lol.  So I as I become a big part of the aging nurse educator population, and become immersed in the technology of simulation and pyxis, electronic charting and texting, I often wonder quite frequently, is it really progress or have we really regressed in life?

Bradshaw, M.J. & Lowenstein, A. J. (2011). Educational use of technology. Innovative Teaching Strategies in Nursing and Related Health Professions. Sudbury, MA. Jones and Barlett Publishers,