From Ha-Ha to a-Ha!: Using Humor to Transform Nursing Education by Shirley K. Trout, PhD, MEd

SURPRISE!

(Now that I have your attention…)

Does an educator dare surprise the learner?

Only if you want to make the best use of your time with your students, you’ll use the element of surprise to shorten students’ time to discovery. Surprise is a result of incongruity, which is one of the leading theories on why humor works. Read more

A great resource for Nursing Students

Brought to you by The Web Nurse, The Top 50 Blogs to Learn About Medicine With sections on Research, Medical Education, Industry Insiders, Government Health Policy and High Tech, this page is a great resource collecting lots of useful links in one place!

From Ha-Ha to a-HA!: Using Humor to Transform Nursing Education by Shirley K. Trout, PhD, MEd

Probing Questions: The perfect set-up for a nursing joke!

Okay, readers. This month I’m taking a risk. I need to discuss the concept of “probing questions,” but I’ve been around enough nurses to know that simply saying the word, “probing,” sends them off into a world OB nurses and proctologists know all-too-well.

Perhaps I could use the alternative term, “open-ended.” But, again, my mind jumps directly to hospital gowns.

This is a real distraction!

Jumping in, regardless: 6 core questions

Despite my mental images of all the take-offs you’re going to launch into, it is important that nurse educators be fully armed with one of the most powerful teaching techniques available for the professional educator: asking probing (open-ended/higher-order) questions. By open-ended, we mean those that cannot be answered by a simple yes/no or fact. By higher-order, we mean those that cause a person to think and to integrate a range of information in the generation of their answer.

Have you ever stopped to realize that there are only six types of questions? That’s right. SIX. Regardless of what words a person chooses to use, you are always trying to get at six questions or some derivative of them: who, when, where, what, how and why. Read more

From Ha-Ha to a-Ha! Using Humor To Transform Nursing Education by Shirley K. Trout, PhD, MEd

A Curious Side Note about “Evidence”

This month’s column is, admittedly, not focused on humor. Sorry about that, but I had a conversation recently that I just have to share as I scratch my head in disbelief. My conversation was with a nurse-friend who was telling me the realities of her days on the floor of the hospital where she works. As is probably normal for most nurses, she had to be prepared to hit the ground running from the first second on duty to whatever time she was able to leave (she often covers double shifts because, as a per diem nurse, she can use the extra money).

She knows I’ve been working on nursing education transformation with Dr. Jan Boller, an associate professor and director of nursing leadership programs in the College of Graduate Nursing at Western University’s College of Health Sciences in Pomona, CA. My friend and I began talking about “evidence-based” nursing care. Her comment to me startled me and has been on my mind ever since.

She said, surprisingly defensively, “When I have a patient that needs [some kind of care procedure], am I supposed to run to the staff lounge and look up how to do the procedure properly? I don’t have time to find the evidence for what I’m doing.”

Hmmmmm. Is this a typical interpretation? Read more

The Sweetest Thing…

We have a patient who has a terrible time complying with his diabetes diet. This came up in conversation after I checked his fasting sugars and found them to be 300+!!!

Thinking this was the ideal time to do some patient education, I started talking about his food choices. It turns out he had a real passion for baked goods: donuts, crullers, danishes — if it came out of an oven, it was likely to go into his mouth.

So we’re talking about this, and he keeps insisting that all of these items were ’safe’. Dunkin’ Donuts wouldn’t sell him anything unsafe apparently! And so I’m patiently trying to explain this, and he’s insisting that it’s all safe and finally his wife loses patience and says, “Yes, dear — all of that’s safe — right until you put it into your mouth!”

I’m glad SHE said it, so I didn’t have to!

Name withheld by request

What’s the funniest thing a patient’s ever said to you about their diabetes? Or anything else, for that matter? Send them to us at Cindy@journalofnursingjocularity.com — let us know if you want us to use your name or keep you anonymous!

From Ha-Ha to a-HA!: Using Humor to Transform Nursing Education by Shirley K. Trout, PhD, MEd

Use Humor to Capture Their Attention

Another late-August. Another group of students rolling into our colleges and universities, so full of excitement, fear and curiosity about their respective futures. Some are away from home for the first time. Some have made it through that transition and are involved in their next one – whatever that may be. Yet others may be stepping back into the college scene, having never attended or re-entering the world of “studenthood,” as adults.

Regardless of their personal status, as their professor, you get the opportunity to orient them to your course, its requirements and technologies, and your way of teaching. And of course (you tend to assume), every student is taking your course because of their burning interest in the material and in the great reputation you have built as the professor to learn from.

Hmmmmm. I wonder if that’s really what they’re thinking the first day of class? Read more

Lighten Up! by Loretta LaRoche

LIGHTEN UP!

The Authentic and Fun Way to Lose Your Weight and Your Worries

By Loretta LaRoche

Weight loss, exercise, and stress management have become a national mania. Not a day
goes by without an article appearing in the media that reveals how certain foods could
be harmful or helpful to our health. Our meals have become either demonic or divine.
We’ve forgotten how to be in a “right relationship” with one of the greatest pleasures
we have in life: eating. As a result, we’re fatter than ever and more stressed out
about being fat!

Loretta LaRoche is sick to death of diets and diet books . . . so why is she writing a
book about losing weight?

“One of the reasons why I feel compelled to write this book is simple: I can’t stand
it anymore! The other is the desire to encourage you to develop a more pragmatic and
optimistic approach in relation to food, movement, and life’s inevitable ups and downs.

I’ve struggled with this problem, I’ve watched countless friends suffer because of it,
and I’ve helped tens of thousands of people deal with the stresses that bear down on
their lives, often because of weight and health issues.

There are a variety of solutions in LIGHTEN UP! that you might not have explored up to
this point. They require taking action. These answers aren’t simple, but they’re much
easier to incorporate into your life than expending your time and energy on useless
diets, gadgets, and faux scientific cures. They take commitment, common sense, and the
ability to learn emotional self-regulation.”

Learn to eat well, move with joy, and live a more balanced life. Order LIGHTEN UP!
Now! Here!

In this humorous and informative book, Loretta shares her expertise as an international stress consultant, former aerobics instructor, and owner of a wellness center. LIGHTEN UP! can offer you perspective and help you set healthy, realistic goals with its numerous tools and techniques.

* Develop a sane relationship with food

* Stay committed to your goals

* Be passionate about eating nutritious meals

* Develop tools to reduce stress

* Focus on your successes

* Experience more mindfulness in the way you approach food

* Create health AND well-being

Weight loss is a physical, mental, and spiritual process. Learning how to work on these aspects together will help you maintain a relationship with food that will nurture you, fuel you, and give you joy.

Lighten up, slow down the pace, and make mealtimes a vital part of your day. Order LIGHTEN UP! and start down the path to a happier, healthier life!

In celebration of the release of LIGHTEN UP!, Hay House is offering a variety of prizes, including a chance to see Loretta LIVE! View all of the Prizes and Enter to Win:  here!

Don’t miss Loretta’s latest Public Television special! If you haven’t seen Loretta LaRoche in action, you’re in for a rare treat. Loretta’s seventh public television special, “Juicy Living, Juicy Aging,” begins airing this month. Armed with her amazing wit and refreshing candor, Loretta challenges us to embrace our lives by being wiser, healthier, happier, more enthusiastic, and juicier! Check your local listings to find out what times Juicy Living, Juicy Aging will be broadcast in your area!

Get a Life By Loretta LaRoche

Yesterday I went to a local restaurant and as I left I went into the rest room to wash my hands. The room was filled with at least seven women in a circle, surrounding a little girl who couldn’t have been more than two years old. Each of the women exclaimed how wonderful it was that the child had sat on the potty and performed her duties. Over and over the accolades continued followed by applause.

I couldn’t help laughing as I thought of how often children are applauded for the simplest things like going to the bathroom, taking their first step, or saying their first words.

As we get older the applause lessens. Let’s face it, when’s the last time you got a standing ovation just for sitting on the toilet, walking across the room or just saying “hello”?

As children, validation and encouragement are par for the course, unless of course you have been surrounded by individuals who didn’t have the ability to do so.  I was blessed with a family that thought much of what I did was fun and they would display my precocious ways to anyone who would watch.

However, there came a point where my mother in particular would chastise me for the very things she thought were cute and adorable. Her favorite mantra was “You’re just too much, you can’t be acting silly all over the place. What will people say”?

My teachers, the good Sisters of St. Joseph, would consistently tell my mother I was bright, but liked to laugh too much. In addition, I would try to make other people laugh as well!

The good news is that I never stopped either of those traits, and ended up making a living from them as well.

Over the years I have found that many individuals forget their childhood exuberance in lieu of becoming adults. They often become terminally serious.

We all need applause, and often for the more mundane practices in life.

Get your co-workers together and give each other standing ovations for coming into work.

Applaud your husband or wife for making breakfast or just getting out of bed.

Clap for the clerk that bags your groceries, or for the hygienist that cleans your teeth.

Sounds crazy?  Maybe, but I think if we all applauded each other more often there would be a lot less anger and hostility in the world.

Loretta LaRoche writes the Get A Life Column for the Patriot Ledger.

From Ha-Ha to a-HA!: Using Humor to Transform Nursing Education by Shirley K Trout, PhD, MEd

The Twist Just Keeps Showing Up!

So you know how keen I am about the role of “The Twist” in creating a curriculum that sticks with your students. You know that it’s the Twist that shifts a classroom (or other learning environment) from “Yaaaawn,” to “pedENG!” (the exclamation one hears when a student is turned on to learning through a pedagogy of engagement).

This week, I’ve been engrossed in a lengthy book on CDs titled, Influencer, which looks at leading organizational change.

Different term, same concept!

And was I excited to hear the narrator discuss one of the key tools for leading organizational change – change that engages a person in doing, rather than just talking about change? Read more

Publisher’s Message

Hi Everybody! Welcome to the March edition of JNJ, our Student Nursing Spectacular!

Student nurses are near and dear to my heart: over the years I’ve been both a student nurse and a nurse instructor. It’s precisely when you’re learning the ropes and routines of nursing that humor proves its value.

The humor we need — for ourselves, and for our patients — is therapeutic humor. This is the healthy, healing humor that can be used to lift the spirit. Make no mistake: healthy, healing humor can be dark at times, sophomoric and silly at others. Laughter happens when we’re confronted with the uncomfortable, unpleasant or unusual — which is pretty much a normal day in the life of a student nurse! Read more