University Nursing Module: Teaching Experience Reflection Report

This report reflects on a challenging nursing teaching experience in a geriatric ward, employing the Gibbs Reflective Cycle to analyze the situation. The student, as a head nurse, faced difficulties teaching nursing students and newly appointed nurses from diverse cultural backgrounds. The report details the feelings of confusion and humiliation experienced due to cultural barriers and the limitations of traditional teaching methods. Evaluation of the initial teaching approach revealed the need for adult learning techniques, leading to a shift towards practical examples, cultural sensitivity, and peer learning. Analysis highlighted the importance of understanding students' and staff's backgrounds and expertise, leading to more effective teaching and the building of stronger relationships. The conclusion emphasizes the value of adult teaching techniques and suggests additional methods such as practical tests, debates, and cultural events. The action plan outlines a commitment to understanding individual learning styles, fostering a comfortable environment, and resolving cultural differences to improve healthcare and knowledge acquisition within the nursing department. The report incorporates relevant literature to support the analysis and demonstrates the practical application of adult learning theories in a nursing context.

Running head: NURSING
NURSING
Name of Student
Name of University
Author’s Note

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Learning and teaching techniques are both equally important for effective and efficient
learners. In the field of Nursing, the adult teaching techniques plays a vital role in teaching other
students and staffs, with the help of practical exposure. The use of adult teaching techniques
helps in both quality teaching and quality healthcare work, which helps the students and the
staffs to have a brief and clear knowledge about the field of Nursing.
Description: Nurses provide almost 90% of the health care and “Nursing” as a
professional career is one of the most strenuous and laborious profession and requires efforts and
skills to deal with the patients as well as the doctors (Aliakbari et al., 2015). Extra efforts are
required in the geriatric ward (ward designated to elderly patients) (Joseph et al., 2014). I was
appointed as the head nurse of the geriatric ward and was very excited. Apart from the being
head of the department, I was also asked to teach a few nursing students about the ethics and
practices of nursing (Billings & Halstead, 2015) and some newly appointed nurses about
handling and caring of the elderly patients. During my teaching period with the students and new
nurses, the different cultural background of the students and new staff was a big challenge for
me. Using Gibbs Reflective Model, I will explain my experience of teaching the students and
staffs about Nursing in geriatric ward in the following writing.
Feeling: I was feeling humiliated and confused at the same time because I did not know
how to teach the students and their nurse. I being an Australian was trying to teach them in
proper English, but some students and staff were from different backgrounds like U.S., Italy,
India, Africa and others. I felt that a cultural barrier was being formed in between me my
students. I tried to facilitate students and mentor my new staff but something was lacking behind.
Some of the students were being too friendly with the elderly patients as per their cultural
backgrounds, while some were being too strict. It was difficult for me to teach them to maintain

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the therapeutic relationship with the patients. I tried to make them understand but I did not want
to offend their cultural practice, so I was in nowhere place. The same was happening with the
staff, I was feeling that I failed being a head of the department. I was trying different learning
and teaching techniques but in vain, because I was missing some important ingredient, which is
required to teach efficiently. At first, I was disheartened but later I took this as a challenge and
started exploring other teaching techniques for efficient teaching.
Evaluation: I evaluated my teaching procedure of the few days and observed that I was
teaching them in teacher student manner, which I was doing wrong, because although they were
students but they were adults so I had to teach them using adult teaching techniques. I started
teaching the staff in a less professional way; I explained them some stuffs using practical
examples. I even conducted few sessions with the whole department including the patients and
illustrated a few major topics. I started teaching students according to their cultural background
so that they feel connected and respected. I recognized each students and staffs expertise and
then used their excellence to teach other students, because students learn better from their peers
(Omer et al., 2013). This also helped to learn few things, which are practiced in their cultures
beneficial for nursing (Harris, Rosenberg & O'Rourke, 2013). I wanted to have a good
experience from this overall teaching scenario, and I guess I did because maybe during the start,
I was not able to teach them properly but with time, I understood and used some adult teaching
techniques to teach (Merriam & Bierema, 2013). Not only I was successful but I also build a
bond with the students and my new staff.
Analysis: After few months of my teaching, I analyzed the situation that my difficulty in
teaching was only because I was not being able to understand my students, staffs, and vice versa.
I could not interpret their understandings and knowledge and I was just trying to impose my

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knowledge on them, which was completely wrong (Crookes, Crookes & Walsh, 2013). On the
other hand, it was my first time also to teach and head the department so I think I did fine
because even I felt confused and humiliated, when I gave them notebooks to read, instead of
explaining them practically (Boud, Keogh & Walker, 2013). However, eventually with the help
of adult teaching techniques, I was able to break the wall between me and my staffs and students;
I was able to teach them effectively. I further analyzed that the use of the students’ and staffs’
cultural background and expertise was an excellent idea, because that helped in efficient learning
of the entire department (Hill, 2014). In addition, I was able to make the staffs and students
understand about the ethics and practices, which are the fundamentals of the nursing, required for
building efficient therapeutics relationship with the patients.
Conclusion: Apart from the adult teaching techniques, I could have used some other
techniques like conducting some practical and theoretical tests to boost the students and staffs
knowledge. I could have encouraged and motivated them extra towards Nursing. I could have
arranged some debates based on their topic of interest to make the classes interesting. I could
have understood their way of learning because different students and staffs have different way of
learning that would have helped me in teaching them effectively. Some cultural events based on
the students and staffs interest would have made the classes more interesting and would have
entertained the elderly patients, thus making them feel happy and comfortable. All these teaching
methods would have helped all of us to understand and gain more knowledge about Nursing.
Action Plan: For the action plan, I decided that I would not try to impose my teaching
techniques to the students; instead, I will try to understand their way of learning, their interests
and their knowledge of expertise and use their capabilities to teach them. I will treat them as
adults and use adult teaching techniques and involve teaching that is more practical because that

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will help the students to have a practical exposure (Brookfield, 2013). I will also try to resolve
the cultural differences between the students and staffs and will try to make a comfortable
environment for students, staffs as well as patients for effective healthcare treatment and
knowledge.

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References
Aliakbari, F., Parvin, N., Heidari, M. & Haghani, F., 2015. ‘Learning theories application in
nursing education’. Journal of Education and Health Promotion, 4.
Billings, D. M., & Halstead, J. A., 2015. Teaching in nursing-e-book: A guide for faculty.
Elsevier Health Sciences.
Boud, D., Keogh, R. & Walker, D., 2013. Reflection: Turning experience into learning.
Routledge.
Brookfield, S.D., 2013. Powerful Techniques for Teaching Adults. John Wiley & Sons.
Crookes, K., Crookes, P.A. & Walsh, K., 2013. ‘Meaningful and engaging teaching techniques
for student nurses: A literature review’. Nurse education in practice, 13(4), pp.239-243.
Harris, R. C., Rosenberg, L., & O'Rourke, M. E. G., 2013. ‘Addressing the challenges of nursing
student attrition’. Journal of Nursing Education.
Hill, L.H., 2014. ‘Graduate students’ perspectives on effective teaching’. Adult Learning, 25(2),
pp.57-65.
Joseph, B., Pandit, V., Zangbar, B., Kulvatunyou, N., Hashmi, A., Green, D.J., O’Keeffe, T.,
Tang, A., Vercruysse, G., Fain, M.J. & Friese, R.S., 2014. ‘Superiority of frailty over age in
predicting outcomes among geriatric trauma patients: a prospective analysis’. JAMA surgery,
149(8), pp.766-772.
Merriam, S.B. & Bierema, L.L., 2013. Adult learning: Linking theory and practice. John Wiley
& Sons.

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Omer, T.Y., Suliman, W.A., Thomas, L. & Joseph, J., 2013. ‘Perception of nursing students to
two models of preceptorship in clinical training’. Nurse Education in Practice, 13(3), pp.155-
160.