|
Course Outlines
See Appendix
Graduate Student Supervision
Masters Theses
Nursing student self-efficacy expectations and performance of
helping relationship behaviours, S. Ford. Completed June, 1994.
Independent Studies
Health Promotion in Acute Care Nursing Practice. Lori O'Neill.
Completed September,1994.
An evaluation of the health status of young people in Oxford County.
B. Saul. Completed August, 1993.
Graduate Student Supervision
Supervised Functional Practica
Nursing education practicum in family nursing. Candice Bane.
Completed December, 1995.
Clinical teaching in a family nursing course. Barbara Melner.
Completed December, 1994.
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
I believe that learning and teaching are a shared responsibility and
that both students and teachers are inquirers helping each other in the shared pursuit of
knowledge. Learning is a lifelong process influenced by a person's awareness, unique
perspective and interpretation of all that is perceived. I believe that developing
personal knowledge and insight as well as expanding one's awareness of the world that
surrounds us is best achieved through reflection (inner dialogue) and interaction with
others (dialogue).
My relationship with my students is very important to me. I like to
see the "whites of their eyes" on a regular basis and working in a small faculty
has allowed me to have the personal contact I enjoy with my students. I try to create a
safe environment in which students can openly share their opinions, questions and
concerns. I pay particular attention to this because promoting health and healing in our
clients requires a similar approach. Authenticity, compassion, empathy, egalitarianism and
caring are key qualities to student-teacher and nurse-patient relationships. Learning how
to nurse families often triggers some troubling memories about the relationships in a
student's family. I try to be sensitive to these struggles and will invite students to
discuss their concerns with me if they wish, whether in their journal reflections or in
person.
Part of my role as a teacher is to purposefully design learning
activities that promote dialogue and reflection on the concepts and principles that are
inherent in professional nursing practice. As I have become more knowledgeable about the
educative-humanistic paradigm in nursing education, I have made a concerted effort to
design and select learning activities that help students to develop insights, to see
patterns and to reflect critically on their own life experiences, be it personal and
professional. I like to use a variety of media and modes of instruction to invite the
active participation of students in their learning.
Since nursing is a practiced-based discipline, clinical practice
enhances the quality and relevance of my teaching. As a Clinical Associate with the
Middlesex-London Health Unit, I maintain my clinical skills in the School Health Program.
Attending education and research conferences in my field of practice provides another
avenue for keeping abreast of changes in the field. My community work with the District
Health Council, the Kids Count Program and community development activities in the
Francophone community also provide rich experiences that I can bring into my teaching to
illustrate nursing practice and health issues. Since learning is a lifelong process, I
engage in ongoing professional development and reflection to enhance my teaching.
TEACHING INNOVATIONS
Novel Teaching Methods or Course Materials
1993-95 Culture, Health and You: Video and Workbook Project
I joined a team of educators in nursing, family medicine and social
work and clinicians working at the Intercommunity Health Centre to develop a series of
trigger tapes and a workbook to assist professionals in becoming more comfortable with
transcultural health care delivery. I co-authored two video vignettes and three chapters
in the workbook. In the third video, Culture, Health and Your Board, I was one of
the actors in the video. The videos and workbook have been distributed across Ontario and
to some provinces. The workbook and videos are used in several nursing courses in our
faculty.
1993-94 Nursing families and communities: A pilot of Peer
Teaching in Clinical Learning
This initiative attempted to develop a new kind of clinical
placement whereby 4th year students would be assigned to work with a community and 3rd
year students would visit families in the same community. Fourth year students who had
developed some expertise in nursing families were able to assist 3rd year nursing students
in problem-solving and in developing approaches to working with the families. Observations
of conference discussions and analysis of clinical journals revealed that both groups were
able to identify similar themes that impacted on families living in this community. While
I was excited about expanding this type of learning experience, other duties and
responsibilities prevented me from repeating the experience with a more formalized
evaluation process.
1993-94 Learner Designed Clinical Experiences in the Nursing
Communities Course
Consistent with my teaching philosophy, I am open to suggestions
from students who propose new ideas for their own clinical learning experiences. I will
provide two such examples: The Humour Resource Project, and a second placement where two
French speaking nursing students used a community participation approach with a French
first language school. The first clinical placement built upon the ideas of three
Registered Nurses who wanted to establish a Humour Resource on a Palliative Care Unit in
their local community hospital. The students established a steering committee composed of
hospital and community representatives. Two of the students went to Clown School and
completed a research paper on the positive effects of humour. They succeeded in acquiring
private funding to buy materials for their Good Humour cart. While the students did not
have sufficient time within the course to complete the project, they continued to work
with the Steering Committee who eventually took ownership for the entire program.
The second team of French speaking nurses provided badly needed
health promotion programs to a French First Language elementary school. They again invited
students and teachers to form a Healthy School Committee to identify health and social
issues that needed attention. The school benefitted because it had been unsuccessful in
securing the assistance of a francophone Public Health Nurse on a consistent basis.
1993-1996 The Reflective Journal for Professional Practice/The Reflective Journal
Review
During the past three years, I have taken responsibility for
developing guidelines and in revising this component of clinical learning. This work
continues to evolve based on our collective experiences with this learning tool and on
developments that are being reported in the literature and at education conferences. This
tool encourages ongoing dialogue between student and teacher and the development of
critical thinking and writing skills.(See Appendix).
1991-present The Cross-Canada Workout
All faculty have taught a class at a time of year when students have
been coping with heavy demands especially at mid-term or end of term and are often
sleepy-looking in class. So I have adapted a little health break routine that takes us
across Canada doing a variety of physical activity that could be associated with a
particular province. It gets people laughing and moving and then I let them go off and get
a snack or beverage. I have had fourth year students who have later requested the
"workout" routine for use in their community nursing practice (See Appendix ).
Contributions to the development of new courses or
revision of existing courses
1994-present Professional Nursing Practice--Nursing 052 (New Course)
This course is being developed for the new UWO-Fanshawe College
Collaborative BScN Program to be implemented in September, 1997. I have assumed a
leadership role as Co-Team Leader in developing the clinical learning experience and
learning activities that will complement the Health and Chronic Health Challenges course
(Nursing 051).
1992-1994 Nursing of Communities N485/486
In collaboration with Catherine Jones, we invited the Assistant Director of the Teaching
Health Unit Program of the Middlesex-London Health Unit to join us in completely revising
a 13 week nursing course in community health.
|
