Nursing Educational Theory By Suzanne Van Ort
Who Is Suzanne Van Ort
Dr Suzanne Van Ort received a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, a master's degree in nursing from the University of California Los Angeles, and a PhD in education from the University of Arizona.
She served the College of Nursing at
the University of Arizona first as a member of the faculty and then as Dean.
She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and a Fellow in the Great Britain Royal Society of Health.
Dr Van Ort has received a number of
honors and awards in nursing, including the Sigma Theta Tau Elizabeth Russell
Belford Founder's Award for Excellence in Nursing Education. In honor of her
contributions to nursing education, her colleagues at the University of Arizona
established the Suzanne Van Ort Peer Teaching Award at the College of Nursing.
University of Arizona.
Dr Van Ort's publications are centered on the scholarship of
teaching, with particular attention to baccalaureate and higher degree
education in nursing. In addition, she has presented a number of scholarly
papers and workshops on nursing education both nationally and internationally.
Professional Introduction
Dr Van Ort's story is one of connecting to her students, as she believes that this has been one of her greatest joys in a long career of teaching.
While she remained based at the University of Arizona for the majority of her long service in nursing education, her influence extends throughout the US and beyond as she served as faculty and mentor of hundreds of students over her years as a nurse educator.
Interest In Teaching
She was interested in teaching and in nursing from the time She was a young person. She come from a family that has a value for learning. She remember both Her mother and father encourage teaching and learning from the time She was a young child.
Our dinner conversations included, “Well, let's look that up in the dictionary,” or, “Let's go find that out". It was a love of learning and imparting of that learning that began with Her family. She attended a baccalaureate program in the late 1950s that was in the School of Nursing in the College of Liberal Arts.
There was a focus on learning the liberal arts and
sciences as a foundation for nursing. In this program She experienced good
teaching and an early interest in teaching.
In the baccalaureate program She was teaching patients and learning from some expert teachers.
She entered the Navy Nurse Corps after graduating
from the baccalaureate program and had the opportunity to teach hospital
corpsmen, which She enjoyed. Again, that reinforced an interest in teaching.
Willingness for Teaching
She had the good fortune to go to UCLA for Her master's degree in the era of Dean Lulu Wolf Hassenplug. Dean Hassenplug imparted the importance of nursing education and good teaching. So that, again, reinforced Her interest.
These experiences set the groundwork for more formal emphasis on teaching and
on the nurse educator role.
She was in the right place at the right time for entering a PhD program in higher education with a minor in nursing; She was the first graduate in higher education from the University of Arizona and was privileged to learn from experts in higher education who were brought in as the program was evolving.
She had done a number of projects on effective teaching and the doctoral program really reported Her knowledge and preparation as a teacher. Her dissertation was on curriculum in state colleges and universities.
She focused on the history and evolution of curriculum in selected state colleges and universities around the country to track some of the trends and changes as curricula evolved. Her dissertation director was Dr. Fred Harcleroad who came to the University of Arizona to begin the higher education doctoral program.
Her dissertation
evolved from Her mentor relationship with him and his interest in curriculum
Training For Teaching
She was mentored in a variety of informal ways prior to the days of formal mentorship plans. As She reflect on mentoring experiences, they were with people from whom She learned the value of teaching and teaching expertise.
Her informal mentoring started in the baccalaureate program with Dean Pearl Parvin Coulter and Dr. Gladys Sorensen. They valued nursing education and believed faculty could and should be good teachers.
Later in Her master's and doctoral programs, She was fortunate to have faculty who worked with Her in terms of presenting and teaching. She had a number of informal mentors and She have learned from many colleagues over the years.
Development as a Teacher
Initially, as a new nurse educator, She was focused primarily on covering the content and teaching what needed to be taught in the baccalaureate program. However, Her teaching evolved and the focus swung to a balance of covering the content with uncovering knowledge, and discovery.
This balancing was part of the evolution as 1 grew to value and be committed to uncovering knowledge, and to balance uncovering with covering the content. It is a different way of looking at content expertise when you also focus on what can be uncovered.
Uncovering means providing the opportunity to learn new things. Part of the evolution in Her teaching expertise has been an increase in creativity, focusing more on providing the opportunity for students to learn and the incentive to learn new things, all in the context of what needs to be covered.
There is a focus on opening doors to discovering new knowledge or new ways of looking at knowledge. This evolution occurred with a foundation in teaching that grew over time.
When you learn with the students, the excitement comes in the discovery, as well as in covering what needs to be taught less valued than doctoral degrees in other disciplines. It was a challenge, in one sense, to prove your worth, and in another sense to share a value for higher education. She was educated in the era of the nurse scientist program.
Where nurses were graduating with degrees in the disciplines of anthropology, sociology, physiology, and psychology.
She started as a nurse scientist in physiology and changed to higher education because of a health issue. She think those of us who had a degree in higher education with a minor in nursing needed to continuously try and over-achieve to show that we could actively participate in the discipline and science of nursing.
She don't know if this continues to be a challenge because we have more prepared nurse scientists in nursing at the doctoral level. It interests Her now, to sit back and smile at the rebirth of commitment to the preparation of nurse educators.
Rewarding Aspects
She have had an exciting career and Her enthusiasm continues. The most rewarding period was when She was teaching master's students in nursing education while at the same time teaching baccalaureate students issues and research.
She was dealing with two different sets of learning needs that really
challenged Her expertise to learn with the students. It was fascinating as a
teacher to think about how to plan learning experiences for both groups of
students. She thoroughly enjoyed it.
For her, the satisfaction is in learning with students and believing
that you might make a difference in students' lives, who then might impart that
to others. That is the satisfaction of teaching. She am so blessed that She have
been able to connect with students.
Least Rewarding Aspects
The least rewarding period occurred because of time issues when She was in administration for a long period of time. The combining of administration with teaching, a choice She made, was a challenge.
As an administrator She chose to continue to teach because She believe that is where administration comes alive for students. Combining teaching and continuing to be effective while being a full-time administrator was probably the least rewarding, because it could have been two 100% efforts.
She was committed to being an effective teacher, but at the same time, had other pulls on Her time. However, She believe it was a right choice.
One of the dangers in administration is that one becomes too removed from the actual learning life. If administrators get that removed, then they may not value and appreciate the concerns of faculty and students.
She know it is not intentional, but it can be a system problem. When an administrator, be it Associate Dean or Dean, becomes consumed with the administrator role, then the teaching/learning role can be far removed. She always was committed to both roles.
She had the privilege of
serving in two deanships and in both was committed to continuing to teach. She think
it made Her a much better administrator because She was sensitive to the
students and faculty, and the issues they had about the learning environment.
To this day She am very committed to the idea that administrators need to
teach.
Maintaining Excellence
First of all, certainly knowledge of the literature is important. You need to be an avid reader and be computer literate in order to maintain excellence. It is important to stay current not only in the substantive field, but also in higher education and teaching.
She continue to inquire about what is new at professional meetings and She continue learning from colleagues. She have always valued colleagues and the ability to learn with them. She believe one gains a tremendous amount of learning from others. She can remember when computers came in and computer assisted instruction was brand new.
Some of us
said, "I don't know about that." She had the good fortune to work
with a colleague who said, "Well, let's write one!" From that angle,
if you can write a computer assisted instruction and use the method, then you
can learn it and grow from the experience.
Advice for Teachers
For me, it is exciting to consider the impact on a new generation of educators. Her advice is to be enthusiastic, because you need to impart enthusiasm. Be prepared. That is, know what you're teaching and how you are going to teach, to achieve the outcomes you expect.
Probably the most important thing is being open to learning. Listen to the students. Learn with the students. She have a description of what it is to an effective teacher that She al- ways carried with Her and shared with students when She taught the nurse educator courses. Even though it is old, it is still good.
The description of an effective teacher is giving the opportunity to learn, improving the ability to learn, and improving the incentive to learn. Those are three qualities of an effective teacher that could help a new nurse educator.
Teaching is more than covering the content. Teaching is opening doors, listening to students, learning with students, and being open to and excited about teaching and learning.
Give your opinion if have any.