The Hat Closet: A Refl ection on Nursing Education JUSTIN MCFAIL

THE HAT CLOSET:

A Reflection on Nursing Education

BY JUSTIN MCFAIL

“I have an almost complete disregard of precedent, and a faith in the possibility of something better. It irritates me to be told how things have always been done. I defy the tyranny of precedent. I go for anything new that might improve the past.” - Clara Barton

Hats are important to nursing. Nurses often wear many hats during their day, be they metaphorical or literal. The white linen cap became a symbol of the healer and protector, but perhaps now it is a more archaic relic of posthumous age. In academia, some hats may take on the shape of consecrated bovines adorning the hallowed halls of ivory towers. In my journey to define my philosophy of nursing education I first had to adorn several hats only to realize my closet a burgeoning cacophony of discordant tones. Thus, in an attempt to alleviate the bedlam of the nursing hat rack I have grouped my collective sum into four main metaphorical hats: mentor, learner, innovator, and nurse.

Mentor (a gray woolen knit cap like those worn in the greater UK)

Teacher, leader, servant, and counselor are all synonymous, or perhaps more aptly fragments creating the mentor’s role. As a guiding hallmark, every time I teach, I like to remember the words of celebrity food personality Alton Brown, “Laughing brains are more absorbent.” I feel that the stale structure of traditional didactic learning is best augmented with interactive activities, creative expression, or even in some cases, puppets (because everybody loves puppets).

As a mentor of nursing, it is not enough to merely educate future nurses. Still, one must also become a leader capable of guiding students through a process of continued experiential growth. Unfortunately, as a leader, it is often too easy to shift from a mentor to a boss. I constantly remind myself that the best leadership is servant leadership or one who values their community’s needs over their personal aspirations. Finally, the role of the counselor, which is an often-underrepresented aspect of mentorship. Counseling can take many forms, be they active listening or sagely guidance. As a mentor, I find it essential to give mentees time to reflect on their own process of growth and development through their nursing journey.

Learner (a fashionable black beret)

Academics like to use the phrase, “nursing is a constant process of continuing education,” or something to that effect. For me, it is not just a process of continued self-improvement through education but rather a state of being in which an individual is always engaged as a learner. One can easily stand behind a podium and extoll the virtues of nursing. However, if one cannot reflect on the learners’ mindset, then the proverbial sermon is all for not.

Understanding my own learning through the application of Adult-Learning Theory, Novice-to-Expert, VAK, and Multiple Intelligence Theory has better helped to understand the need to create multimodal engagement for the learner. Scholarly articles and textbooks may provide a labyrinth of words christened as knowledge, but too often, they do not engage in a way that develops neuronal connections. In essence, one might endeavor to impart the “why” of learning, i.e., the reason something has, is, or will occur, but learning cannot truly occur until one asks “what, therefore, should we do?”

Innovation (A derby chapeau pluming with a rainbow of feathers)

One can search the internet and find thousands of quotes availing the buzzwords of innovation. To me, innovation is a highbrowed euphemism for change, i.e., a creative flourishing of new ideas molded into unfamiliar reality. The scientific method, the nursing process, change theory are all frameworks that rely on creativity to generate novel approaches. As a nurse, I often rely on my sense of creativity for innovative problem solving, such as playing arts and crafts to adhere to an ostomy appliance to my patient’s ever-gushing rectum. As a scholar, I use research as fuel for innovation. For me, it is not enough

to simply follow the precedents set by those before but to understand how these concepts came into being. As an innovator, I strive to understand the rules to fastidiously break them and rebel against the status quo. Or, to put in much simpler terms, I am never content with the notion of “but we’ve always done it this way.”

Nurse (a surgical cap, but with a sense of personality)

As I move through the corridors of academic nursing, I find it grounding to say, “I mustn’t forget what is to be a nurse,” a memento mori of sorts. The nurse is a mosaic of personalities- caregiver, teacher, secretary, nutritionist, counselor, advocate, and above all else, healer. The multidimensional aspects of nursing cannot be entirely imparted in an academic setting. It may be impossible for me to explain what it is like to hold the hand of someone who is dying, but at the same time, have I not failed as a mentor if I do prepare my student to face those challenges? Nursing is first and foremost at the bedside. While the task focused core of nursing may be the bane of many academics seeking to impart scholarly enlightenment upon their pupils, at the end of the day if a nurse is unable to provide the most basic needs for their patient, have I not failed as an educator? That is not to say the lofty intentions of academia are hogwash and tomfoolery; after all, should the nurse not be able to think critically, have I not doomed the patient? To me, education is a matter of balancing theory and practice while guiding students to the realization that one without the other is meaningless.