Nurse educators have a fundamental role in warranting that current and future nurses are adequately prepared to sufficiently satisfy today’s healthcare needs. One of the ways nurse educators can achieve this is by enhancing and perfecting care in the clinical setting by encouraging and supporting registered nurses that are already working using experiential learning rather than just teaching their students at the start of their course. Moreover, they can preserve the profession of nursing by ensuring that they provide on-job support in clinical and academic environments to promote positive work cultures and collaboration among nurse teams. Lastly, a nurse educator can improve or enhance nursing skills in the educational environment by taking up roles in encouraging nurses to utilize teamwork and act as mentors for their students.
My strong skills as a nurse educator are empathy and a passion for nursing to foster strong leadership. Empathy enables nurse educators to understand the need of their students by recognizing and identifying the challenges or difficulties they face. At the same time, a passion for nursing allows nurse educators to act as role models by advocating exceptional patient care.
There are two areas in my skills that need improvement, which include communication and coaching. First, communication is critical when influencing change within healthcare organizations, as nurses and other teams need to know and understand the transitions. These areas require upgrading, considering that no one is ever perfect. Flaws usually exist, and sometimes miscommunications occur even with the slightest errors. Second, coaching requires improvement since the work environment keeps changing. Being a nursing educator, there are times when coaching becomes problematic because of technological changes and upgrades within the healthcare environment. When change is taking place, there is a need for counseling and encouragement for those individuals that face challenges.
Two priority strategies to enhance my leadership skills include setting realistic development goals and embracing leadership roles outside work. First, realistic goals are significant in enabling one to improve leadership skills. It provides a way to measure achievable progress, which motivates and boosts success. Second, embracing leadership outside work, such as volunteering to manage a local physical activities club, helps create confidence. It is crucial to provide the experience necessary when handling pressure in leading change within the healthcare organization.