University of Mary

The University of Mary is a private Catholic university located in the upper Midwest. The University of Mary offers multiple master degree programs, and among those offered, I chose to earn my Master's in Nursing, Nurse Education. To earn this degree, 38 credit hours are required, along with 500 total clinical hours.

Clinical Experiences

As part of fulfilling the 500 clinical hours required to earn a master's in nurse education, I participated in multiple clinical experiences. These experiences included both leadership and nurse practitioner observations, and observing, supervising, and leading students in a nursing program. My area of practice focus was on adult health, and through my hours with a nurse practitioner practicing family medicine, I expanded my clinical knowledge of caring for adults through prevention and management of chronic conditions. Additionally, I observed students in lecture for various adult health courses, including one specific to gerontology. I also created multiple teaching plans for delivering content to students in adult health areas such as post-operative care and caring for the immobile patient on an acute care unit. Multiple assignments were also completed as part of the requirements for NUR 553 Advanced Clinical Practice Concepts. This course, comprised of health assessment, pathophysiology, and pharmacology, allowed for further concentration and development of knowledge specific to adult health.

Program Outcomes and AACN Master's Essentials

The University of Mary identifies eight program outcomes for the nurse educator master's degree. These outcomes are as follows:

  1. Demonstrates an expanded knowledge base of the art and science of nursing.
  2. Creates teaching environments, established by nursing standards, which incorporate the application of learning theories, implementation of varied teaching strategies, and use of diverse evaluation methods.
  3. Evaluates curricular design in regard to the student experience, the achievement of program outcomes, and the attainment of accreditation standards.
  4. Illustrates the nurse educator's responsibility to foster professional competence, behavior, and role socialization of students in teaching/learning milieus.
  5. Understands the role of the nurse educator in student development of intra- and interprofessional communication skills to advance the delivery of safe patient care.
  6. Recognizes how political, institutional, societal, and economic forces influence the role of the nurse educator.
  7. Prioritizes the nurse educator's role as a change agent and facilitator of innovation through the utilization of servant leadership principles and the Benedictine values.
  8. Articulates a commitment to the practice of lifelong learning to maintain competence as a nurse educator, cultivate nursing knowledge, and promote the scholarship of nursing.

Additionally, the University of Mary's master's program ensures that the nine Essentials of Master's Education in Nursing set forth by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing are also met.

Coursework throughout the master's program for nurse educators at the University of Mary promoted growth and development in each area of the program outcomes and Essentials. Throughout educational experiences, learning objectives for each of the experiences were determined prior and evaluated after the experience. The evaluations of the objectives provides evidence of growth throughout the experiences for both the program outcomes and Essentials.

Teaching plans are a critical tool for educators. Throughout the program, various components were studied in order to effectively develop these plans to meet learning objectives, learning styles, and learning needs. Having multiple opportunities to create and deliver these teaching plans and lectures allowed for development in this area to become more familiar and efficient in the process. The plans also allowed for growth in expanding one's creativity of methods that can be used to deliver content to learners. The following are two examples of PowerPoint presentations created from teaching plans. The first was created earlier in the program, while the second was developed near the end, displaying growth and a better understanding of delivering content to a wide variety of learners. These assignments also expanded nursing knowledge, including both the art and science of nursing.

As part of the curriculum for the master's program in nurse education, Nurse Tim webinars were viewed on a regular basis to expand upon knowledge across multiple domains. Each of these helped enhance meeting the program outcomes and Essentials. One requirement after watching the webinars was to discuss the content with a nurse educator or reflect on the webinar. This encouraged an understanding of the content and allowed an exploration of concepts that were unclear, furthering growth in the areas covered by these webinars.

Self-Assessment, Personal Strengths, and Areas of Growth

Thinking back to when I first began this program, the fear I had of presenting and lecturing made me doubt whether or not I could become an educator. My love of nursing and bringing the knowledge of nursing to others, however, did not let that fear hold me from pursuing my dream of becoming an educator. While I admit that I am still nervous at times before presenting and lecturing, I have grown a lot in this area. I know that with proper preparation and practice, I am able to better present and lecture on topics. I have also learned that while I will not always know all the answers, I also have a vast amount of hands on clinical experience, which is a personal strength. It is these experiences that learners want to hear, and those experiences help them learn. I also learned that I have just as much to learn from those who learn from me as they do from me, which has made me recognize the need to use Socratic pedagogy. I still may have to reference different learning theories, but my knowledge in theories, methods, strategies, and learners themselves has grown ten-fold. In addition to having knowledge in those areas, I also recognize the importance of why it is necessary to have that and an understanding of it in regards to education and teaching.

One area of competence that continues to emerge is to develop different strategies and activities for learners to keep them engaged and meet their learning needs. I feel that seeking out a mentor and continuing to research and learn in this area will help me continue to grow and expand upon my knowledge of better engaging students through teaching methods. It is also necessary to do so as technology makes us all evolve and think in ways we had not considered.

In addition to teaching methods and strategies, I also continue to grow in my competency to develop test questions and fit the needs of nursing students to prepare them for nursing boards. I feel I am a novice in this area, but like developing activities for learners, with a mentor and support of a team of educators, I will be able to further develop my ability to write test questions. One of my milestones is to attend at least one nursing related conference every other year, and to begin, my focus will be educational ones to help me further develop in the areas I consider myself to still be at a novice competence level.