Planting the health policy seed has become increasingly important to professional nursing organizations, nurse educators, and even nursing students who applaud the call for integrating health policy and advocacy content in today’s nursing curricula. As nursing students become acquainted with the policymaking process, they are also encouraged to familiarize themselves with the various professional and specialty nursing organizations who advocate on behalf of the nursing profession and the patients/consumers they serve.
Numerous nursing organizations including the American Nurses Association (ANA), National Council State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN), and National League for Nursing (NLN), to name a few, work to ensure that nursing’s voice is represented during policy discussions on issues that impact health care delivery, patient outcomes, nursing workforce development, and other issues of concern to the profession. These and other organizations advocate to ensure that students have financial support to attend nursing school, have access to loan repayment programs, and support to advance their nursing education and training. These organizations work diligently to help ensure that today’s nursing workforce is well prepared to meet the demands of providing high-quality health care services in an ever-changing complex and challenging health care environment.
Suzanne Miyamoto
In this article, we present information about the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) and share insights from AACN Chief Policy Officer Suzanne Miyamoto, PhD, FAAN, RN.
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing
Since 1969, AACN has been a leader in advancing nursing education, research, and faculty practice. Moreover, AACN serves as a national voice for baccalaureate and graduate nursing education. In addition to creating standards for designing and delivering quality nursing education programs, AACN represents over 810-member schools and colleges of nursing nationwide. The AACN has a Government Affairs Committee and a Health Policy Advisory Council that coordinate and spearhead several public policy initiatives and activities focused on advancing nursing education, research, and faculty practice. Currently, the association’s federal policy agenda focuses on four key areas: workforce, higher education, research, and models of care—all ongoing public policy imperatives.
Here, Miyamoto shares some insights about her organization and health policy advocacy.
Describe Your Role and the Role of the AACN in Preparing Today’s Nursing Students in Becoming Influential Advocates in the Health Policy Arena.
As Chief Policy Officer, I oversee AACN’s policy and advocacy work at the federal level working with all three branches of government. My role and that of our team can be described as strategist, lobbyist, and analyst. To ensure we meet the needs of our member organizations, the association has a Government Affairs Committee and Health Policy Advisory Council that provides guidance when we are reviewing legislative proposals or federal regulations. We want to ensure that what we support, oppose, or remain neutral on is in line with the experiences or challenges of our member institutions. AACN is in a unique position that we represent the schools of nursing, which includes the deans, faculty, and students. This requires our advocacy work to be nimble and abreast of the key issues Congress and the Administration are discussing. It is our role to not only develop the strategy but to educate and inform our membership on our position and why we take it. Information is the best offense and the best defense. That is why AACN fully supports all members of a nursing school to be engaged in our advocacy efforts. We have a grassroots network with other 11,000 students, faculty, and deans. This network has great potential to grow and offers real-time, advocacy opportunities.
What Are Some Top Priority Policy Issues Impacting the Profession and Health Care Today?
Some key issues impacting the profession today include
• Securing funding for Nursing Workforce Development Programs, Title VIII of the Public Health Service Act, National Institute of Nursing Research, National Health Service Corps, among others
• The Title VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act (H.R. 959, S. 1109)
• Health reform
• Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
• Public Service Loan Forgiveness
• Opioid epidemic
What Can Students Do Within Their Area of Influence to Advocate for the Profession?
It is important that students stay informed of the issues. Students need to be active participants in their own learning. To understand what is happening at the federal level, a student must embrace the policy from multiple lens. It is not enough to read one source or one disciple. To truly garner the depth and breadth of the issue, the more voices, for and against, the better one’s understanding becomes. Securing a basic level of knowledge on an issue that may impact one’s education, research, or future practice is an excellent starting point.
Grassroots campaigns are central to any of our efforts. We can be more effective if we know how our national organizations are weighing in on issues. It’s also important to listen to all perspectives. Again, policy think tanks like the Center for American Progress or the Heritage Foundation may have different political viewpoints, but on some issues, they may see eye to eye. Their rationale for getting there may be different, but it is that difference that can help further an argument depending on the audience. Students can also join forces with faculty and others to reach out to legislators at the federal, state, and local level on issues important to nursing. Discussing issues with nursing faculty, who can serve as tremendous mentors for those interested in policy, can ignite a passion for this work in the future. That is how I came to seek a career in health policy and advocacy. It was the foresight of my faculty mentors who gave me the opportunities to succeed.
What Resources Are Available for Nursing Faculty Who Are Preparing the Next Generation of Health Policy Activists?
AACN established a Faculty Policy Think Tank that worked to prepare a set of recommendations for AACN’s Board of Directors on this exact question. The charge of the group was to inform and improve the state of health policy education in undergraduate and graduate education. The ultimate goal was to consider ways that will help create a generation of future nurses who understand the micro and macro drivers that impact policy—most importantly, how nurses in the future can continue to skillfully insert nursing expertise into policy discussions. The report was released in October 2017.
Turning to the continued need for policy advocacy at the student level, AACN also offers a three-day student policy summit open to undergraduate and graduate nursing students enrolled at AACN member institutions. The program helps to prepare students to engage in policy advocacy and the federal policymaking process. For more information, visit http://www.aacnnursing.org/Policy-Advocacy/Get-Involved/Student-Policy-Summit.
As mentioned earlier, AACN’s 2017–2018 Federal Policy Agenda is well suited to serve as a foundation for shaping policy discussions during online and classroom discussions as well as during virtual and/or actual lobby days. Students are encouraged to speak with their deans and faculty at their nursing programs to learn more about what’s happening within their institutions regarding public policy advocacy efforts that impact nursing education and nursing practice.
Seeking Federal Support for Nursing Workforce Development Programs: A Clarion Call for Continued Advocacy
Very central to this discussion is the need for ongoing advocacy to secure funding to support Title VIII programs. Title VIII programs are administered under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration. The Nursing Workforce Development Program (Title VIII of the Public Health Service Act) continues to benefit countless numbers of nursing programs, practicing nurses, faculty, students, patients, and communities. In fact, numerous minority nurses continue to benefit from diversity grants because of Title VIII funding. During 2015–2016, the Nursing Workforce Diversity grants supported 7,337 students. Numerous other minority nurses, including minority nurse faculty, have received funding through this program to support their advanced nursing education or pay back student loans. To learn more about how Title VIII programs are making a difference for nursing students, practicing nurses, academic institutions, and communities at large, visit http://www.aacnnursing.org/Policy-Advocacy/Title-VIII-Community-Impact.
As a nursing student, speak with your faculty and professional organizations about how you can play a role in policy advocacy. Throughout nursing’s history, nurses have made a tremendous impact in advancing the profession and the delivery of health care by advocating for issues of importance to them. Developing your knowledge base about these and other issues impacting the profession is a great first step to becoming an influential advocate on behalf of the profession and the patients and communities you serve.
After four years of rigorous schoolwork while working as a full-time assistant professor, I was physically and mentally spent when I started writing my doctoral dissertation. But despite this unimaginable exhaustion, I felt inspired, empowered, and euphoric because now, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was almost at the completion of something I had worked so hard to accomplish. It took me almost a year to complete my dissertation while working overseas in Okinawa, Japan. I remember how writing the last chapter of my dissertation was the most challenging, as I was getting more impatient just to present and defend my research. Throughout this entire experience, I found my positive self-talk helpful each time I found myself unmotivated to get going: “Just try to write, even if it is just for a few minutes.” So, that was what I did.
I struggled with this dissertation at the worst time of my life. I was just about to start my dissertation when my mother’s health began to deteriorate. Almost three decades ago, I left my family in the Philippines, the people who had given me everything to be where I am today, to move to America. I felt obligated to take care of my mother. To be closer to her, I decided to take an overseas job and move temporarily to Okinawa, Japan. However, her condition turned worse, and she finally passed away after months of being in a vegetative state. To say that I was in a state of turmoil is an understatement.
My parents never graduated from college, but they understood the value of education. They worked very hard to support us and never asked us to help them. For them, our only job was to go to school and obtain a college degree someday. My doctorate was my greatest tribute to my mother’s sacrifices for her children’s education, but she did not live long enough to see it. My grief made me temporarily lose my motivation. Grief is a very uncomfortable place to be stuck. It is so easy to get trapped in that paralyzing sadness. Many times, I had to convince myself not to give up: “Give it a go because you’ve come this far. Don’t give up.” This self-talk served me well when I almost lost all my will and determination to complete my dissertation. With the help of my family and academic advisors, I was able to deal with my sadness my way to be able to move on. Their understanding and patience allowed me to feel, say, and think whatever it was I needed to heal. In the end, my dissertation saved me and gave me back my focus.
The road to success is not easy to navigate, even for the most talented people. Would I have predicted that my life would turn out this way three decades after my husband and I moved to America? No. I came from a rural area in Cebu, Philippines, a typical small town devoid of big city luxuries. I was shy as a child because I felt so insignificant. My past is consequential to who I am today. To remember my humble beginnings is important to me. My roots made me who I am today.
When I started my doctoral program, I was extremely excited but was also very intimidated. I felt intensely inferior to the other students because they all seemed smarter and better educated than I was. With English as my second language, academic writing did not come easy. My insecurities and self-doubts were the driving forces that made me work harder. I probably studied twice as hard and wrote twice as long as everyone else. I worked harder and longer to compensate for my shortcomings. I still remember how I struggled during my first course and how frustrating it was when I accidentally erased my paper and had to write another one. My will and determination helped me to overcome my fear of failing. Writing my dissertation has been the most demanding, exhausting, yet highly rewarding endeavor in my life. It was a long and arduous journey not just for me but also for my husband and sons who had supported me throughout the process. From my experience, it is easy to get lost along the way, procrastinate, and give in to distractions. But with perseverance and hard work, the finish line is attainable.
I will always remember what my father taught me to help me overcome my inferiority complex as a child: “The harder you work, the luckier you get.” My life would have been completely different if I took a different path 25 years ago. As a first-generation immigrant in the United States, I am proud that I have gotten this far. Of course, there were many hardships and setbacks, but there were also many successes in my life. The little successes I had slowly built my confidence so that over time, I started to believe that I could dream big.
It has been a year since the conferral of my doctoral degree. It was a transformative process for me, a self-discovery experience of how much I could persevere to accomplish something I consider worthwhile. My graduation was a life-fulfilling moment for me—an accomplishment of a lifetime that I am so proud and grateful. The experience made me realize that I am more than I ever thought I was. It changed me. I came out stronger and better. Although it was largely an intellectual endeavor, the physical endurance to multitask and the emotional resilience to persevere when life-changing events happen were critical elements that made my dream a reality. Because I overcame my fears and shortcomings, I came out more hopeful of what the future brings.
One of the most commonly heard phrases right from day one of nursing school is “critical thinking.” The common consensus is that everyone has to develop sound critical thinking in order to be a safe and effective, registered nurse (RN). This necessity is magnified when it comes to critical care areas where one decision by the RN can change the patient’s outcome. Nursing has changed from a simple caregiving job to a complex and highly responsible profession. Hence, the role of nurses has changed from being task-oriented to a team-based, patient-centered approach with an emphasis on positive outcomes. Strong critical thinking skills will have the greatest impact on patient outcomes.
So, what is critical thinking and how do we develop this? A precise definition was proposed in a statement by Michael Scriven and Richard Paul at the Eighth Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking and Education Reform during the summer of 1987. “Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness,” reads the document.
Simply put, critical thinking in nursing is a purposeful, logical process which results in powerful patient outcomes. “Critical thinking involves interpretation and analysis of the problem, reasoning to find a solution, applying, and finally evaluation of the outcomes,” according to a 2010 study published in the Journal of Nursing Education. This definition essentially covers the nursing process and reiterates that critical thinking builds upon a solid foundation of sound clinical knowledge. Critical thinking is the result of a combination of innate curiosity; a strong foundation of theoretical knowledge of human anatomy and physiology, disease processes, and normal and abnormal lab values; and an orientation for thinking on your feet. Combining this with a strong passion for patient care will produce positive patient outcomes. The critical thinking nurse has an open mind and draws heavily upon evidence-based research and past clinical experiences to solve patient problems.
How does one develop critical thinking skills? A good start is to develop an inquisitive mind, which leads to questioning, and a quest for knowledge and understanding of the complex nature of the human body and its functioning. A vital step in developing critical thinking for new nurses is to learn from those with a strong base of practical experience in the form of preceptors/colleagues. An open-minded nurse can learn valuable lessons from others’ critical thinking ability and will be able to practice for the good of their patients.
Critical thinking is self-guided and self-disciplined. Nursing interventions can be reasonably explained through evidence-based research studies and work experience. A strong sense of focus and discipline is also important for critical thinking to work. If thinking is unchecked, nurses can be easily misguided and deliver flawed patient care. A constant comparison of practice with best practices in the industry will help guide a nurse to think critically and improve care. This makes it easier to form habits which continue to have a positive impact on patients and colleagues. Every decision a critical thinking nurse makes affects not only the patient but also his or her families, coworkers, and self.
In summary, the take-home message for nurses is that critical thinking alone can’t ensure great patient care. A combination of open-mindedness, a solid foundational knowledge of disease processes, and continuous learning, coupled with a compassionate heart and great clinical preceptors, can ensure that every new nurse will be a critical thinker positively affecting outcomes at the bedside.
Here come brand-new nurses with their brand-new scrubs, clipboards, nursing shoes, and stethoscopes, eager to start the adventure as a nurse in the real world of nursing. Securing the very first job as a registered nurse is one of the most exciting—but also terrifying—events that any new graduate nurse experiences. No more simulation labs and clinicals, but real lives (and your license) are at stake. A recent report suggests that nearly 30% of new graduate nurses leave their job within the first year. You had been asking yourself if you would survive the nursing school. Now, you have to ask yourself this question: Am I going to survive the first year as a nurse? Here are some real-life tips from one new graduate nurse who just survived the first year working as a bedside nurse to another.
Cherish Your Orientation Period
New graduate nurse residency programs, such as Transition to Practice programs, are excellent opportunities to receive extended orientation periods, labs, and classes. It is true that often you may feel like you are back in school again with extended orientation time. However, it is critical for new graduate nurses to take this opportunity to learn, practice, and experience as much as they can during this period because once the orientation is over, you will be on your own without preceptors to back you up. After the first couple of shifts on your own, you may miss the orientation days.
When in Doubt, Ask!
The biggest mistake that a new graduate nurse can make is to assume things. “There is no such thing as a stupid question. We are not worried about new nurses asking endless questions regardless of the content, but we will be worried if a new graduate nurse has no questions,” says Jo Burney, who has more than 20 years of bedside nursing experience and frequently mentors and precepts new graduate nurses. Asking questions doesn’t make you look like an incompetent nurse at all. Providing inadequate, or unsafe, care because you weren’t sure what to do but didn’t ask questions about it will make you not only incompetent but also a reckless nurse.
Find Out the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Nurses are only human. There are experienced nurses who are excellent teachers and mentors to new nurses professionally and personally. However, there are also experienced nurses who have nothing to offer to you, meaning that they don’t want to teach you and you probably don’t want to learn anything from them either. New graduate nurses should be able spot these different types of nurses. If you haven’t figured it out on your own, ask your preceptor at the end of your orientation for a list of nurses who can be great resources around the unit.
Study
Nursing school may be over, but the education continues. It is highly encouraged to study about the specialty of nursing that you are in, such as the common patient populations, diagnoses, medications, pathophysiologies, protocols, and policies. You may even consider opening the textbook that you said you would never open again after nursing school is over! Do so when you have downtime at work if you can’t make time outside of your work. Having the knowledge behind the nursing tasks you do will increase your ability to critically think and analyze the cases.
Be Personable, but Stay Away From the Drama
You don’t have to be best friends with your coworkers, but it doesn’t hurt to leave a good impression and to get along with them. Introduce yourself to the other nurses and nursing assistants and remember their names. Smile and greet! Simple and small courteous actions will make a difference. If it seems appropriate, you can also share personal things such as family and pets. You want to treat each nurse as an individual rather than just another nurse who happens to be working the same shift as you. However, never gossip or badmouth other nurses even if everyone else is talking and gossiping about a certain person in front of you.
It’s All About Listening
Listen to your patients and their family members. Listen to other nurses, nursing assistants, secretaries, providers, social workers, and other interdisciplinary team members. You can always learn something from anybody, whether it is how to transfer phone calls or how to program an IV pump, as long as you keep your ears and minds wide open for all the million things that you have to remember as a new graduate nurse.
The first year as a new graduate nurse will pass in the blink of an eye, and you will become a novice nurse who is somewhat comfortable but is still a little nervous with unfamiliar cases and emergent situations. You will be so very proud with that one year of bedside nursing experience under your belt, but the journey to become an experienced nurse will always continue.
There have always been challenges facing nursing students. What are the biggest ones today, and how can students deal with and overcome them? Some experts weigh in.
Frederick Richardson, a BSN student and the Breakthrough to Nursing director for the National Student Nurses’ Association, had no doubt about how much of his time would be taken up when he began attending nursing school. Yet, he says, this seems to be one of the toughest aspects of attending nursing school that students struggle with.
“One of the biggest issues that nursing students face is time—making time for everything,” explains Richardson. “Nursing school is very demanding, and when you add in the coursework, reading for homework, and the clinical work, there usually isn’t time for anything else.”
Richardson says that he was fortunate enough to learn about this before choosing to attend nursing school. His older brother had attended nursing school, and Richardson saw firsthand how often he didn’t see his brother during that time. “He would be at the library studying, at class, or at clinicals,” recalls Richardson. “When I’d see him, it would be late at night. And he would be out of the door first thing in the morning. At the time, I recognized that when I would get to nursing school, I would probably have a similar schedule, and sure enough, it’s been exactly the same way.”
To overcome this, Richardson says that students need to have perspective and be realistic regarding what they can accomplish in their lives while attending such vigorous programs. “Our schedules can get really hectic. But I think that when you get into nursing school, you have to recognize that you’re going to devote the majority of your time to your nursing program. A lot of students don’t realize that,” he says.
Students need to set their priorities straight and decide how they are going to organize their time. Richardson, for example, says that he had to learn how to plan his time, organize his life and tasks on a calendar, and then follow that calendar every single day. From his perspective, quite a lot of students expect to attend nursing school and still have an active social life and do everything they did before, like watch all their favorite television shows.
“I think that the trouble students run into is they believe they can have everything—do well in nursing school, have an active social life, et cetera. If they go in with that kind of view, I don’t think they’re going to survive nursing school,” says Richardson. “They’re going to have to sacrifice a lot of that time, but once you get into it, it gets a bit easier.”
Martha A. Dawson, DNP, MSN, FACHE, assistant professor and coordinator of Nursing and Health Systems Administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing, as well as the current historian for the National Black Nurses Association, agrees that having enough time can be an issue for nursing students. Traditional nursing students still face challenges that relate to study time, finances, and part-time work. In addition to the challenges of traditional students, however, second degree nursing students, such as those in a BSN to MSN bridge or other accelerated degree program, may also have immediate family obligations, explains Dawson. For instance, some may be primary caregivers for older parents. “Many students in these new and emerging programs are older, and these added life demands can lead to both high stress and exhaustion,” she adds.
Money, Money, Money
Richardson and Dawson agree that financial issues can also be a big challenge for nursing students. Dawson says that with the varying nursing programs and the older student population in them, these students may have greater financial obligations besides school, like a mortgage. “The current economic climate is making it more difficult for students to gain access to scholarships, trainee grants, and other forms of funding without going further into debt,” says Dawson.
In addition to taking out loans to attend nursing school, Richardson says that there are a number of scholarships available for students. Believe it or not, though, not a lot of students are applying for them. “There are a good number of scholarships available,” says Richardson. “After speaking with some people who have scholarships or who fund scholarships for students, I’ve discovered that they’re not getting a lot of applications. One reason is because of the time. A lot of students don’t know that the scholarships exist, and a lot who know they exist feel like they don’t have the time to fill out the applications because of the high demand of nursing school.”
The reality, Richardson says, is that studying takes up so much of the students’ days that many don’t think they could take the time to do what some scholarships may require in their applications—like get a letter of recommendation, write three essays, get transcripts, and the like.
Recently, Richardson had a heart-to-heart talk with a student who was frustrated because of going to school, clinicals, and a part-time job. “I said, ‘If you took about three hours applying for a scholarship, you would get more money to help you out with your school fees,’” says Richardson. He continued to explain to the student that he was working twice as hard and putting in twice as many hours at his part-time job to make the same amount of money that he could get if he applied for a scholarship—which would ultimately free up more of his time. “It would help the student more in the long run,” says Richardson.
Family Support
Along with not getting enough financial support, some nursing students don’t have as much family support, says Rebecca Harris-Smith, EdD, MSN, BA, dean of Nursing and Allied Health at South Louisiana Community College. “Nursing classrooms across the nation are filled with an intergenerational, multicultural group of students that range from millennials to baby boomers,” explains Harris-Smith. “This nontraditional classroom of students has many that are parents who frequently do not have siblings, parents, or other relatives to assist them with child care. The expense of child care, transportation, and after-hours coverage often impacts the nursing student’s classroom, clinical, and study time.”
Richardson says that family support and encouragement is often needed, but not every student has it. “I noticed immediately that I needed a lot of support,” says Richardson.
Communication
“In my personal experience, soft skills as they relate to interpersonal people skills have become an issue for nursing students. The ability to communicate both verbally and in writing appears to be a challenge,” says Harris-Smith. She says that because Gen Xers and millennials have grown up with a lot of technology, they have spent a lot of their early years communicating that way.
“Basic socialization has changed in that the younger generations would prefer to text over having a verbal conversation. The lack of appropriate communication skills has an impact on the students’ ability to work collaboratively with physicians, fellow nurses, and other members of the health care team,” explains Harris-Smith.
“Effective communication is essential due to the intra- and interprofessional team collaboration essential in the health care arena,” Harris-Smith explains. “Additionally, nursing students must learn flexibility, professionalism, and a strong work ethic—which are essential to the development of the new nurse graduate. Being able to adapt to an ever-changing environment is important as health care facilities have staffing issues often requiring nurses to work beyond their shifts.”
Challenges for Minority Students
Although the challenges for nursing students are often the same for students of color and those who aren’t, “students from underrepresented groups in the nursing profession and in society . . . have them on a much larger scale,” says Dawson. “There are barriers and biases that these students experience such as academic skills, perceived perceptions about their abilities, lack of faculty role models, limited peer support, and major financial issues that ‘majority’ students do not have to deal with on a daily basis. Many minority students also struggle with the very basics of housing and food.”
An additional burden that minority students face, says Harris-Smith, is that of access and equity in education. “A selective admission process is used by schools of nursing across the nation, and this very process can serve as a barrier for students of color. Academic profiling of students ensures admission of the most academically prepared students that rank highest among their peers, but students from underrepresented populations are often the first-generation college students that struggle with the issues of being the first in the family to attend college. This situation places a heavy burden on the student because s/he may be dealing with the pressure of being the ‘savior’ for the family. These students are generally not savvy enough to apply for multiple college programs, have difficulty completing financial aid forms, and generally come to college with limited resources,” says Harris-Smith.
“Nursing programs tend to address diversity in their mission statements but fail to explain how this is accomplished. Merely placing the statement in the mission statement does not explain how the school of nursing addresses the issue. To ensure transparency, each school of nursing could better address this issue by providing information on the way in which this mission is accomplished,” says Harris-Smith. For example, she says, schools could use a statement that’s more explanatory: This school of nursing addresses diversity via academic profiling of students but is careful to admit a diverse student body that resembles the demographics of the community in which we live.
“There is a need for schools of nursing to restructure their admission process to address the lack of the underrepresented students in attendance at their colleges and universities,” Harris-Smith adds.
Richardson says that’s why he is a part of the Breakthrough to Nursing committee because its goal is to increase diversity in the nursing profession. Another challenge he’s seen is that some minority students don’t last in nursing school because they have different ways of learning. “Culturally, students from different backgrounds learn differently. I’m a kinesthetic learner. If you show me how to start an IV, I will know how to start an IV more efficiently than reading three chapters about how to start an IV,” Richardson explains. “A lot of nursing school is geared toward your textbook. But a lot of students are visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners.”
He says that there are also students from various cultural backgrounds who don’t know how to study. “For students who come from the other side of the world to America to learn, their views are different from yours, and when you have a different perspective, you’re able to become more aware. You’re able to see a different view. It actually makes us stronger and allows us to become smarter to look at the way that other people do things,” suggests Richardson.
“With diversity, we need to recognize and communicate to understand what the other person’s thinking is and allow them to realize that though their culture is different, it’s not a bad thing,” says Richardson. “It’s just a different view and perspective for them.”
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