Ongoing Commitment To Develop And Maintain Competence (Essay Sample)

As congruously stated, the role of an educator is ‘multidimensional’ and that it requires an ‘ongoing commitment to develop and maintain competence’ (National League of Nursing pamphlet on competencies, page 6.). Pursuing continuous quality improvement is one among several competencies that enable one to fit squarely in the educator’s role.
To meet this competency, one must first and foremost be committed towards life-long learning and be able to recognize that ‘career enhancement needs and activities change as experience is gained in the role’. One way of achieving this competency is through participation in professional development occasions. This way, one will be able to increase their effectiveness in the educator’s role.
As the practicum progresses, one can still meet this competency by using feedback, especially that from students and peers alongside administrative evaluation to improve role effectiveness. Also, one must take every opportunity that may promise to promote one’s socialisation in the role so that it may allow proactive decision making.
Additionally, being an educator allows one to meet many fellow educators through platforms availed by the role. During the period of contact, one gets to discover different perspectives and new aspects of the role from the experiences of fellow educators. Knowledge gained from such interactions is invaluable to an educator because it widens the range and scope of what one knows and understands. This widened knowledge base is important in improving the quality of decisions one makes in the role as an educator.
An educator is also supposed to have a good grasp of other disciplines that may at one point or another intersect with their field. The fields of law and ethics are good examples. An educator is supposed to use legal and ethical issues relevant to higher education and nursing education as a basis for influencing, designing, and implementing policies and procedures related to students, faculty, and the educational environment. Such blending of relevant issues is quite important in streamlining a practice that is not independent; a practice that cuts across many aspects of human existence.
In an effort to meet the Competency 6, it is paramount that one in an educator’s role learns to balance the teaching, scholarship, and service demands inherent in the role of educat...