Role of the Nurse Educator as a Leader
In teaching the nursing students, the nurse educators have the task and roles that they accomplish in meeting the needs of students in their process of learning. As a leader, the nurse educator applies various roles in the academic setting to smoothen the learning process. The Educator is a role model to the graduates by making conscious decisions concerning the academic matters. He or she can communicate the complexities that occur in the care of patients and share the technological skills surrounding patient teachings, monitoring, counseling, being part of the healthcare team, clinical judgment and maintaining the quality of care (Adelman-Mullally et al., 2013). Since the educator is expertise with experience in practice, the role modeling will take the form of giving examples of the practices as well as assisting them in developing skills within the faculty. The nurse educator can also show his or her leadership by coming up with and sharing a vision of the preferred future in the profession. In this case, the nurse educator can divert the attention of the students from nursing studies and practices and invent an idea or aspect of care that can change the care provided by the nurses in practice.
Besides the above contributions, the nurse educator can assist the students in learning via experimental means which is more memorable than the traditional classroom studies. Through this method, the educator uses real-life perspective in imparting knowledge and skills to the learners. The teacher can also challenge the usual systems of operations and lead changes that will catch up with the evolving healthcare system hence making the students relevant to the demands of the society. Through relational integrity, the nurse can display his or her leadership by creating trusting relationships that will inspire and motivate the learners in their studies.
In developing the knowledge and skills that are essential for leadership, one needs to be comfortable with approaching well-calculated risks (Pearsall et al., 2014). This prepares an individual for facing the problems and opportunities that are likely to develop within the nursing education and practice. Practices such as engaging in individual homework to mitigate the risks forms one of the ways of developing a nurse leader.
References:
Adelman-Mullally, T., Mulder, C. K., McCarter-Spalding, D. E., Hagler, D. A., Gaberson, K. B.,
Hanner, M. B., … & Young, P. K. (2013). The clinical nurse educator as leader. Nurse
education in practice, 13(1), 29-34.
Pearsall, C., Pardue, K. T., Horton-Deutsch, S., Young, P. K., Halstead, J., Nelson, K. A., … &
Zungolo, E. (2014). Becoming a nurse faculty leader: doing your homework to minimize
risk taking. Journal of Professional Nursing, 30(1), 26-33.
