Attitudes Matter

Maybe after all these years of teaching I am a little sensitive to the concept of attitudes as I have one as a teacher and so do students.

I tried a little experiment the other day. I asked the class to divide themselves into two groups. The first group I explained were experts in respiratory therapy and were teaching a student about PEEP and how to do PEEP studies on a patient. They were very busy but took the time to demonstrate the procedure, explain it to the student, and show them were the policy and procedure manual was for the procedure so they could study it.

The second group were also RT experts but they were now with the student the very next day and were going to discuss their learning and how help the student understand PEEP studies.

I, as the instructor, was the "student".

So I set it up that the second group were meeting me, the student, and they correctly were trying to determine what I needed to know and what they could help me with. They asked appropriate questions such as; What did you learn yesterday? What is your understanding of PEEP? Can you describe the steps to performing a PEEP study?

To all of these questions I stated that I did not know. That I didn't learn anything from my preceptor. I have no idea how to do or what a PEEP study is.

This is where it gets interesting. The second group, who are taking over the teaching, were quick to point out that the first instructor / preceptors must be a very poor teacher. It was almost unanimous in the group that the Preceptor needed more training and needed to learn how to be a more effective instructor.

I let this play out in a class as a discussion. As an instructor and preceptor I know this type of scenario often happens.  The class basically went on to describe how preceptors need more training. What I would like to put forward for consideration is were is the responsibility of the learner in this scenario. Why did the students not consider that the student who spent hours with a preceptor reviewing a procedure not be responsible for anything. How can they just state "They didn't teach me anything". Where is the personal responsibility for learning? Also I suspect that if I had been the preceptor spending time with the student and learned how they can offload the responsibility and basically blaming the instructor for their lack of involvement I think I, as their teacher, might be very insulted.

Attitudes matter and I suggest students consider taking responsibility and even if they don't understand or can't recall everything demonstrate a positive attitude by using comments like; I know we reviewed this yesterday but I'm still unclear of how to do the procedure. I'd like to review the policy and procedure again to refresh my mind and learn the procedure better know that I've seen it. Or even try: I know we went over this yesterday but I need more time to learn all the details, can you help me by demonstrating and explaining this again.

This sets up a positive learning environment where preceptors are supported and the needs of the student can be met. I have personally heard many time in the hospital students report to preceptors: They never taught us that! This blames the school and their teachers. Good preceptors know this is not true but you would be surprised at how often we get complaints from preceptors asking us why we don't teach effectively and the student's don't know anything. Informed preceptors know the student is just passing the buck. They now have a poor opinion of that student.

I suggest student demonstrate more responsible and positive attitudes.

Al