The art of teaching

My dear friends,

When you are a women, most people assume that you can teach. Especially when you are a mother. What more when you are a nurse. Yes, off course you can teach because one the nurses role is to be a teacher. REALLY??? Do you REALLY BELIEVE that? Hhmnnn ......

Please don't get me wrong. I am nurse myself. I was a nurse educator. I've been in nursing for over 20 years now. Yes, some nurses give advice, some do teach and they do teach well but some others, they can't teach. They just can't transmit the knowledge to other people. They just don't have the skill and not everybody is born with the teaching skill. Doesn't matter whether you are a women or men. I believe teachers will definitely agree with me on this.

Why am I bringing this matter up? I will tell you why.

When I was a newly graduate nurse, I had a problem in learning my new role in the ward. There were many things thatI had to learn or search by my own. You know...... the old school way ...... the 'find out youself or you'll never learn' style. If you ask, you'll get scolded but if you don't ask, you will still get scolded and you may not even get the answer. But because you are also from the old school, you don't really mind. Most probably, that is the only way they know how to teach or they just don't know how to teach. Since then, I determine to learn the proper method of theaching so that I can help others by teaching them effectively and ....... guess what?  I went for a teaching methodology class.

Now, I'm back to the clinical area. An area that is full with new things to learn. An area where you'll always see new faces coming to join the nursing team. Yes, this is an area where the newly graduated nurses will come in to get their first real nursing experience. So, supposingly the organisation should have prepare this area with someone who can really teach them how to survive in this new working environment. I believe that they still assume that everybody or anybody can teach. They assign nurses who are experienced but not trained to teach. They tag the new staff with another staff. The new will get all the scolding whenever they make any mistakes. So, what did we learn? .......... nothing.


The ART of TEACHING need to be learn. There are organisation that offer courses for this. For those who always need to teach the new nurses ............. please get some help with your teaching skills. SCOLDING is not a teaching. YELLING is not teaching. SARCASM is not teaching. We are in the 21st century ..... everything is a click away. Click and upgrade yourself ....... then you can help others better.