Learn vs.Teach

When we last left our fledgling faculty member, she had finished her first quarter with a scrumptious looking holiday break ahead.  Fast forward almost two months:  break is long since over & mid-quarter evals start next week. Wowie, zowie--that went fast! The joys of a quarter system!
At the end of last quarter I learned that I would be changing dance cards--moving to the RN-to-be class.  They started in the middle of fall quarter & I'd not met any of them--or truthfully, paid much attention to their course-work to date.  That suddenly became much more interesting over the break when I knew I'd be hitting the ground running as soon as New Year's was over!  Just to add a little wrinkle of interest, we're a bit short staffed this quarter so the lion-share of this quarter's work has been clinical rather than classroom. I miss time in the classroom (and I miss my students from last quarter, too!)--but if forced to choose, I'd opt for the clinical time, at least for now.  My full-timers are doing two eight-hour sessions a week in the small, community hospital setting, & the part-timers have two six hour campus labs every other week--until next week when they, too, start eight hour shifts at the hospital.  That translates to about twenty advisees.

Likes:

• fostering being a 'generalist' nurse--when the prime directive of the student is to think 'specialist' 
• having students 'farmed out' in nine different settings or work areas--lots to see, do, remember!
• getting to a 10,000 step day without too much extra efforts when I get around to all of those areas!
• making a difference for many patients & getting to work with lots of different staff (who are actually very welcoming to motivated students)
• getting better at organizing my day & planning ahead for the 'teaching moments' that present themselves
• being back at the bedside with a variety of patients & families
• working evenings--that was always my favorite shift in a hospital setting (right, Julie?)

Challenges:

• having students 'farmed out' in nine different settings or work areas--what are you doing? and when are you doing it? and why, exactly?!
• much less time in the classroom--I miss it--and it's important to keep up with their current thread of content 
• being in the right place at the right time to offer support with the next big 'reality check'--you know, people don't always get better, endings we see are not always happy...
• trying to find the best way to help the beginner see: yes, the right answer to this situation is recognizing that you really don't know all the answers...
• refraining from acting like a mother bear when some staff are just having a bad day & feel better when they make a student have a bad day, too...

It's humbling, thrilling, scary, satisfying, puzzling, joyful, & sad. It's human. Humane. A journey. What a zany roller-coaster to be on! I'm loving the ride...  every day...