My first blogging experience.....

I am Jill Ricke, BSN, RN, CMSRN. In 2007, while just beginning nursing school clinicals, I accepted a job at St. Francis hospital on the Center for Geriatric Medicine as a student nurse. Upon completing college, I transitioned into an RN position and recently accepted the Patient Care Coordinator (PCC) position. In my few years as a nurse, I have found I love to teach and precept new nurses. For this reason, I enrolled in the University of Indianapolis Nursing Education program. Last year, I was able to try out my skills as a clinical instructor for the University of Indianapolis. I loved it. That experience challenged me as much as the students. After graduation, I plan on working as an adjunct professor or clinical instructor for a university (hopefully University of Indianapolis) while continuing to work in my current position. However, down the road, I would love to continue working with a university while being able to educate in the hospital system.  

In all honesty, seeing myself as the primary teacher for a class has been difficult and slightly surreal. I feel as though I have just started my career and have a lot of learning left before I should be in that position. However, I would love to begin using some of the ideas to strengthen, update, and enrich a couple of existing programs. The first course I would focus on would be the Geriatric Resource Nurse class taught by employees of the Center for Geriatric Medicine. While I loved teaching it last year, the content was presented in a fairly dry manner. This past week’s reading supplements provided a plethora of ideas to enrich learning experiences. Utilizing some of these resources could make for a more interactive and engaging course.

The second course I would love to create would be a critical thinking simulation course. This course could be in conjunction with senior nursing students’ capstones. Often times I have seen capstone students being able to fully embrace the level of critical thinking nursing can present. The critical thinking course would take place in a simulation or virtual world classroom. Each class, students would be presented with various scenarios. Once presented with the situation, the student(s) must critically think how to better the situation. While one group is working on meeting the day’s goal, a second group will be the evaluators. Objectives of the course would include: 1. Student will construct a safe and effective solution for a distressed patient. 2. Student will critique another student’s performance with adequate supportive evidence. 3. Student will be able to recognize unsafe situations for patients and families.

These last two weeks have renewed my enthusiasm for school. I have enjoyed the readings and find myself creating situations to implement some of the ideas. Bastable (2008) made a statement that I found profound, “Educators in the Information Age are becoming facilitators of learning rather than providers of information…”. With all the technology and unlimited informational resources available to people, learners must understand how to safely utilize it all. This is especially true with nursing. While the nurse must be well-rounded and have a baseline knowledge set, most nurses begin specializing right out of college. They must be aware of what they do not know and how to find it. With educators viewing themselves as facilitators, students can continue their education outside of school and become a great resource to any employer.

                My personal life is rather exciting right now. I have a fiancé named Tony and we will be getting married on September 6, 2014. Any extra time I have not working or studying is being devoted to planning a wedding with an enormous assistance from my parents. I am really enjoying being able to plan this with them.  Secondly, my brother and his wife just had the first grandchild in our family! Milo James was born on January 5, 2014. He is adorable and I cannot wait to see what his future holds! Finally, my sister just graduated college with a major in psychology and is on the job hunt. While she has ideas of what she wants, she is open to ideas. This makes me filled with anticipation and apprehension for her.

Reference

Bastable, S. B. (2008). Nurse as educator: Principles of teaching and learning for nursing practice. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, p.515-553.