As a nurse, you have worked hard and now it’s your dream to become a nursing faculty.
However, you have no idea what you should expect when you become a nursing faculty.
Well, I have 5 Rock Solid Tips for the New Nursing Faculty and this should be just what you need.
These tips will shorten your learning curve, ensure that you have a seamless transition and eventually bloom as a nursing faculty. Isn’t that awesome!
What it felt like during my first meeting as a nursing faculty.
I remember when I first became a clinical nurse faculty and I attended a meeting at the college and I sat in this big classroom where the nursing faculty held their meetings. It was big enough to hold at least 60 students.
I looked around the classroom and saw how the nursing faculty was coalesced in there discussing ways we can improve students’ outcomes. It was surreal. I kept telling myself that this can’t be real. I dreamed of this day for as long as I can remember but still was amazed that it was happening.
My memories took me back as a nursing student and I would be listening to my nursing faculty teach me pathophysiology during a summer semester. She did so with such ease and I got it.
Let’s talk about the dress code of my nursing faculty. One of my clinical nursing faculty was the best-dressed nursing faculty I had met. She had brains and could dress as well. I added that to my repertoire as well.
I told myself that I would like to teach like that one day. Be an exceptional nursing faculty and well-dressed. (Side note). If you’re wondering if I was able to pull both off, I would have to say, yes I did most of the time, lol. However, some colleges may require their nursing faculty to wear scrubs.
However, I didn’t go into the nursing faculty role right away. I obtained a degree in History and was going to teach history in high school even though I was already an RN. I know many of you can share similar stories of detours. Well, I never did teach history, my nursing career was beckoning my stay and I did. Lucky for me!
Tip # 1-Start!
Just start! You have heard this cliche thousands of times right? I have as well and it can be paralyzing to stand up in front of students or faculty and speak. Sometimes, you may want to give up before starting. Don’t ever do that, please!. Believe me, you can do it! Now that you have taken the leap to be a nursing faculty, let’s discuss the other 5 Rock Solid Tips for the New Nursing Faculty.
Tip # 2 -Orientation
Second, you will have an orientation with all the other hires in the entire college and then you will have a specific nursing faculty orientation in which you will learn about the policies and procedures of that institution, missions, vision, how the nursing college is run and any strategic plans or goals that are in place.
Once your nursing orientation is complete, your dean or coordinator will assign you a mentor.
You also will be given a checklist with tasks that you need to complete by a specific period of time with your mentor. Your mentor and you will schedule specific times to go through this checklist. The checklist can be online or in a paper format with dates and times.
I have been mentored by many talented nursing faculty. I have also mentored many new nursing faculty as well as some experienced ones. There’s a wealth of information to learn from nursing faculty mentors. I am passionate about this aspect of nursing too. I have taught at different colleges where I was assigned a mentor and times when I wasn’t, but either way, you can do it by asking other nursing faculty for input on what you’re doing.
Your nursing faculty mentor is someone that you can “bounce” your ideas off or brainstorm with and definitely learn from. Your mentor is also someone who has been teaching either in lecture, clinical or both and can share their experience and guide you through the process and ensure that you’re doing things accurately.
Of course, you have academic freedom. Academic freedom gives you the ability to teach the syllabus as outlined by your college, but in your unique way.
Syllabus
More importantly, your mentor would also go over the syllabus for the class that you’ll be teaching as well, whether it’s a lecture or clinical. Sometimes, the syllabus is also placed on LMS for teachers and students. The syllabus is your roadmap of what is to be taught in that class for the entire semester. It has your objectives, sometimes teaching strategies, outlines, and resources. There are some nursing colleges that teach the traditional method while others teach in a concept-based curriculum. I have taught in both for a number of years. Here’s an example of both methods.
Let’s say you’re teaching a medical-surgical nursing class in a traditional nursing college this week and you will be discussing heart failure. Your syllabus will have the name of the medical-surgical course, the objectives, outline, grading policies, nursing standards, assignments, exams schedule and you will teach diagnosis, signs, symptoms, etc.,
In a concept-based curriculum, you may teach heart failure and pulmonary edema under a concept called Perfusion whereby it’s more holistic and integrated. Your syllabus will still have the components of a traditional class, but with concept-based focused.
Does that make sense? I hope so.
At what point will I start teaching since I am new?
You may have a question like, will I be teaching on the first day of class? That is up to the agreement that you signed with the college, dean or coordinator.
You may be instructed to teach clinicals first and then transition into the lecturing role. It depends on your level of experience, the need for the college and agreement.
Your mentor may have you put in grades, take the roster and observe him or her teach for a few weeks then let you take over or share the teaching time.
Of course, the thought of standing up in front of a class for the first time may sound scary. Believe me, you can do it!
I remember one day teaching a class of about 55 nursing students. I stood there and contemplated how I was going to break the silence or do an Icebreaker as they have in Toastmasters. I knew I was a person that liked to talk a lot, especially with students. There are some people out there who may differ about me talking a lot.
Then it just happened. I introduced myself and the rest is history. Everything just seemed to fall into place after that. I even ended up talking over the allotted time. Just know that it will seem scary at first, but you know this is something that you are passionate about and you will get it better at it. Yay!
Shadowing other nursing faculty members
Rather than just observing one mentor, I recommend you following other nursing faculty members as well. When I first started as a clinical nursing faculty, I took it upon myself to go and listen to other nursing faculty lectures with permission, even though I wasn’t lecturing at the time, I knew that was the projected path I had created for myself.
As a result of shadowing other nursing faculty, I noted the diverse teaching styles and took portions from each style and created my own. You will do this as well.
Simulation
Simulation is an environment in which you are practicing to do something as if it’s the real thing. For instance, pilots have to undergo hundreds of hours of simulation to fly a plane. The nursing simulation lab is similar to that. Nursing students have a certain amount of hours of stimulation to do before they go to the clinicals and take care of real patients. Yes, they also have the skills lab.
The simulation lab which uses low or high fidelity mannequins may be able to talk, vomit or deliver a baby, etc with the controls used by the simulation faculty via the computer. The students may have to perform CPR, assess the placenta, etc depending on the scenario.
Most larger colleges have a dedicated simulation team or dedicated simulation nurse to do the stimulation for your nursing students. I worked at a college that had a dedicated person for the simulation lab, but the nursing faculty were taught how to run their simulations as well and I also worked at another college where one nursing faculty was responsible for doing the simulation with the students’ faculty member.
I was privileged to have conducted simulations for several years. Truly rewarding.
Another role of the mentor is to teach you about things like learning management systems (LMS).
Tip # 4- Learning Management Systems ( LMS)
These learning management systems are online software that is used to enter the student’s grades- for weekly assignments, midterms, finals, attendance, upload assignments, and host group discussions. Your college may use one of these LMS’ like Canvas, Blackboard or Moodle, etc.
There is also additional external software that the faculty and students use to access their ebooks like, Canvas, Lippincott, Elsevier, etc. I had the opportunity to work with all three external products and they were great. Some colleges use physical books instead of ebooks-but very few of them do these days.
Is the load that you had on your shoulders about starting a new nursing faculty role feeling lighter by now? If not, keep reading.
Tip # 5- End of semester grading and Surveys
End of Semester Grading
Students will come to you at times if they feel that their grades are incorrect. Please note that you should be entering grades throughout the term and not wait until the end of the term. This is not fair to the student and their ability to improve in a timely manner. I can attest to this because I was guilty of doing this when I started.
If the student wants to contest their grade, they have the right to do so and you are responsible for listening to their concerns and sending it up the chain of commands if you are unable to resolve it. Please know that you will not be able to please every student. It’s impossible!
Surveys
At the end of the term, the students will be given a survey on you.
This survey which is anonymous can be sent to the students by administration via a link to complete online or pencil and paper. I have worked with both situations.
The questions can range from asking if the topic or concept was covered thoroughly? Did the faculty answer your questions? Were you able to follow the syllabus?
If there’s something negative on the survey that the students say, don’t look at it and get immediately offended.
I know, we’re humans, our feelings get hurt when someone says something distasteful. I was hurt many times when I got my survey results, but I saw many of the negative comments decrease over the years because I learned from my mistakes. I made so many make mistakes?
Use the feedback as a means to improve your teaching style. There are many avenues you can use to improve your teaching. You can go to nursing conferences, watch webinars, etc. Most of the time, your college may pay for the conference or part of it.
There may also be a faculty Learning Center at your college whose job is to produce programs or classes to assist you to be the best teacher you can be. I remember going to just about every single course the faculty learning center offered even if didn’t apply to my classes at first. I feel from taking all those courses especially the technical stuff, enabled me to create videos for my classes, use software for screencasting and do my podcast and blog today even though I still have some technical challenges.
Starting a new nursing faculty role can be overwhelming, but at the same time very rewarding because you’re training the next generation of exceptional nurses. Isn’t that gratifying? I hope that after reading these 5 Rock Solid Tips for the New Nursing Faculty which includes attending orientation, gleaning everything you can from the nursing faculty mentors and incorporating your survey results into making you a better teacher will result in your success.
Thank you.
She can help you with strategies to achieve engaging classroom and corporate presentations. She has worked as a college professor, corporate trainer, as an RN in areas such as medical-surgical, emergency room, telemetry, behavioral health, and geriatrics for more than 15 years.
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