Group Behaviors

Today was my last day of being with students until a couple of weeks into the next year. I teach students who are close to finishing their Associate Degree in Nursing in the clinical setting, i.e. usually a hospital. My job is to reinforce classroom teaching with the real thing. I hope too that they will expand their ability to be compassionate as their knowledge of the human experience broadens. I have five to seven students at a time, and they are with me only from two to six days. Yes, it sounds kind of confusing and crazy, but nursing is a crazy field. They might as well learn early on! But it is interesting how each group of students takes on its own personality. They may be involved, talkative, shy, or can't wait to get the heck out of there. I have taken several sociology courses, but only one teaching course during my "formal education," but I guess this is what a real teacher might find to be true, also. Recently I had a group of students who seemed not to care if they learned anything or not. But on the day when the least interested of them called in sick, I noticed the dynamics of the group changed a bit for the good. I also had a group who was able to attend something that I considered to be an interesting learning opportunity. When it was over and the patients had all left, the "leader" who must have been a teacher at heart asked them if they had any questions. Nope. None. No questions. Apparently they got it all. (I will have to make a point of studying how and why the groups vary.) The young women I had today should turn out to be fine nurses. They were bright and curious. A teacher's delight.