Building relationships between nurse academics and students in Higher education

Many of us will be familiar with the need to support student nurses to develop good relationships with the people they care for and the team they work with whilst in practice learning environments. This twitter chat will give the opportunity for nurse educators to consider how they model good relationships in their interactions with students during their educational journey.

“Researchers contend many nursing students feel a disconnection between the nursing profession being caring and supportive, and what was modelled in practice (Del Prato, 2013; Greene Ryan and Dogbey, 2012; McEnroe-Petitte, 2011; McGregor, 2005). If students are expected to be caring, then caring must be modelled by those who teach them this core value of nursing (Labrague et al., 2015). The strong correlation between support and caring is evident in the literature. Nursing students argue when there is mentorship, and educators are approachable, they not only feel supported but cared for by throughout their studies (Luhanga et al., 2010; McEnroe-Petitte, 2011; McGregor, 2007; Read et al., 2013). In turn, this combination results in improved academic outcomes as evident through students' success and educators' morale (Lee, 2007; Li et al., 2013; McEnroe-Petitte, 2011)” 

INGRAHAM, K.C., DAVIDSON, S.J. and YONGE, O., 2018. Student-faculty relationships and its impact on academic outcomes. Nurse education today.  71, pp. 17-21

Prior to the tweet chat, you may wish to read the article above to provide some food for thought. 

Questions for TweetChat

1.What should the nurse academic/ student relationship look like? 

2. What are the benefits to a good working relationship with students?

3.What are some of the barriers or challenges to achieving this connection?

4. How do you establish a meaningful rapport with student?