Nurse Educator’s Role

Nursing is an art that is passed from a knowledgeable person on the proper ways of administering quality patient care and this is a role that is played by the nurse educators. Before the advent of formal education, nursing was passed from one generation to another mainly through apprenticeship (Kelly & Watson, 2015). We must appreciate the humble beginnings that saved and maintained human life globally through the fundamental practices that were performed by phenomenal nurses and educators in history.

Below is an explanation of five key historical influences on nursing practice and nursing education today. First and foremost, history influenced the exercise of leadership in nursing (Nagle, 2016). This influence is important today because it sets a basis for the development of competent leadership that prioritizes creating a lasting change for the best practice of nursing care. Besides, the impact of history on leadership in nursing has had an impact through the provision of practical life experiences for learners in the circumstances when educators teach ways in which they solve challenges in their practice.

Secondly, history provides a level of keenness in tracking the sequences of change in the exercise of nursing values within the healthcare system and society (Kelly & Watson, 2015). When the trend is followed by nursing students today, they can appreciate the little steps that led to the establishment of nursing as a distinct discipline that cares for the well-being and dignity of human life. Consequently, integrity in delivering quality nursing care for patients and clients can be sustained in the present and future generations. Besides, future generations can make this better through advancement in nursing knowledge, experience, and technology. Thirdly, history installs critical values in nurses such as persistence and commitment to service. This is because learning nurses have a chance of learning what exemplary founders did in the past and they can follow in their footsteps through mentorship or role modeling. Furthermore, research indicates that the education of nurse practitioners concerning holistic nursing values from history helps to blend their knowledge with medical diagnosis and treatment (Kinchen, 2019).

The fourth historical influence on the practice and education of nursing today is a hastened thirst for research on the old ways of practice to make the present and the future better (Holme, 2015). Therefore, this facilitates nursing educators to provide a window of opportunity for nursing learners to investigate the practice of nursing and professionalization in a multifaceted approach. For example, it would be more appropriate for educators to emphasize the significance of concepts like compassion rather than capitalizing on the originators who influenced the beginning of the practice since in the future the same practice can be improved further (Holme, 2015). The fifth key historical influence on the practice and education of nursing today impacts the scope of planning the best professional future (Schober, 2017). For example, the significance of this aspect is reflected in the level of significance that the medical history of patients weighs on the course of nursing care designed for them. Educators can reveal to their learners the gaps that exist in history and it is the duty of learning nurses to ensure that the gaps are filled in the future. Learning history earns learners a roadmap to better nursing practice in the future that builds on the mistakes that might have been performed in the past and solves the challenges that are being faced in the present (Schober, 2017).

Finally, the three trends that  I believe will impact the practice of nursing and its education soon include globalization, uncertainties concerning global pandemics, and the advancement of technology in the provision of healthcare for patients. Globalization is turning the world into a single interconnected community that is offering educators and learners from different parts of the globe to interact without discrimination (Kunaviktikul & Turale, 2020). As a result, there is positivity in the exchange of knowledge and services within different regions of the world. The occurrence of unpredictable life-threatening pandemics such as COVID-19 is a threat to educators and nurses because it evokes fear but it also provides a chance for intensified research for the invention of better ways of managing and preventing such diseases in the future (Chen, Lai & Tsay, 2020). On the other hand, advancement in technology has made the practice and education of nursing easier particularly made feasible through the development of online learning platforms and the integration of knowledge databases (Archibald & Barnard, 2017). As a result, learners from all over the world can benefit from multinational nursing expertise at any time with a simple tap on a key.

References

Archibald, M. M., & Barnard, A. (2017). Futurism in nursing: Technology, robotics and the fundamentals of care. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 27(11-12), 2473-2480. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.14081

Chen, S., Lai, Y., & Tsay, S. (2020). Nursing perspectives on the impacts of COVID-19. Journal of Nursing Research, 28(3), e85. https://doi.org/10.1097/nrj.0000000000000389

Holme, A. (2015). Why history matters to nursing. Nurse Education Today, 35(5), 635-637. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2015.02.007

Kelly, J., & Watson, R. (2015). An integrative review of the literature on the teaching of the history of nursing in pre-registration adult nursing education in the UK. Nurse Education Today, 35(2), 360-365. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2014.10.015

Kinchen, E. (2019). Holistic nursing values in nurse practitioner education. International Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.1515/ijnes-2018-0082

Kunaviktikul, W., & Turale, S. (2020). Internationalizing nursing curricula in a rapidly globalizing world. Nurse Education in Practice, 43, 102704. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2020.102704

Nagle, L. (2016). Leadership, loss, and what we wore. Canadian Journal of Nursing Leadership, 29(2), 1-3. https://doi.org/10.12927/cjnl.2016.24814

Schober, M. (2017). Strategic planning for advanced nursing practice. Strategic Planning for Advanced Nursing Practice, 9-33. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48526-3_2