Tenet 3 Why Behind the What

Okay! Halfway – let’s talk about Core Tenet #3. The Why Behind the What. You may have heard this phrase before, or maybe not. We want to help you understand how it applies to teaching nursing and allied health professionals and what it means in the context of the Core Content Mastery Method.

One of our big inspirations is Sal Khan from Khan Academy. In the lesson we’ve linked you to a TED Talk by Sal Khan called “Let’s Teach for Mastery — Not Test Scores”. He talks about how traditional schooling shuffles you along even if you made an 80%. So it creates this 20% gaps in learning that eventually, as you get higher and higher in the education process, become harder and harder to overcome. In this talk he says “If we let people tap into their potential by mastering concepts, by being able to exercise agency over their learning, that they can get there!” The idea that we can teach for mastery instead of test scores means anyone can accomplish anything. So, this idea of aiming for mastery of a concept is fully integrated into the Core Content Mastery Method AND into NRSNG Academy. For every lesson, every resource, learners can indicate when they’ve truly mastered something, and track their progress, which is awesome!

So, having this focus means we don’t teach to a test. We don’t want to create good students, we want to help students become amazing healthcare providers. I even heard someone say “getting A’s in school simply means you’re a good student – it is not an indicator of your potential success in the future”. Instead…we want to instill a passion for the profession. We want to develop a competent confidence – they aren’t confident because they got an A (although that does help), they are confident because they know they’ve truly understood and mastered the material. These passionate, competent, confident professionals can fully function as a member of a healthcare team. Not only that, but we need more healthcare professionals who actually give a damn!! If you’re lazy or just want a certain grade, or a job and a paycheck – then we are not the platform for you – that goes for students and teachers. We want you to truly give a damn.

That being said, we believe that the basic sciences like chemistry, Anatomy & Physiology, and Pharmacology are SO important and should be understood in depth. Did you know some nursing schools are pulling pharmacology from their curriculum!? That blows my mind. So why is this important – well, think about it – if you don’t understand cardiac output and afterload, should you really be administering vasoactive meds?? We believe that teaching for mastery means students truly understand the complexities and nuances of health, medicine, and the human body – which will increase long-term retention – they’ll remember and be able to apply this for years to come. Healthcare is an art, yes, but it’s also a science. Learning to be gentle and compassionate is wonderful, but it means diddly squat if you can’t recognize when something’s wrong with your patient. Right?

The other thing we focus on is teaching concepts, not just facts. Facts are good, but a lot of times they make students say “But, why?” So put yourself in their shoes. Remember, they have to start where YOU started – which is knowing NOTHING. So when you are reviewing content you created, do you read a sentence and say “But, why?” or “But, how?” – if so, explain it more!

One example I use is this: “the classic signs of Diabetes Mellitus are polydipsia, polyuria, and polyphagia.” Students are told to just memorize this – but we believe that does them a huge disservice. They start just memorizing lists of symptoms and complications but never really get why. So how about this explanation instead. Severe hyperglycemia means there are a lot of extra particles in the bloodstream, that’s called hyperosmolarity. That causes fluid to shift into the blood vessels and out of the cells – so the cells are dehydrated, hence the thirst. And all that extra sugar starts dumping into the urine and it pulls a lot of water with it because of that hyperosmolarity we talked about – so that makes them pee like crazy! They also aren’t getting the sugar they need for energy because they don’t have enough insulin, so it sends ‘hungry’ signals to the brain. So – super thirsty, pee a lot, and super hungry! Do you see how that gave them the “why?” NOW – they can see that cellular dehydration in the brain would cause decreased LOC. Dehydration in the skin means it’s dry and hot. And they can even see how it stresses the kidneys because of filtering all the extra sugar! The WHY behind the WHAT makes all the difference between ‘knowing’ something and ‘understanding it’.

So let’s recap. Remember we’re teaching for mastery to develop passionate, competent, and confident healthcare providers. We believe healthcare is a science AND an art, and that understanding the complexities of health and the human body helps with long-term retention. So, we teach concepts, not just facts, and we make sure they understand the why behind the what, so that everything else falls into place.

So that’s it for Core Tenet #3, I hope you’re starting to get the big picture of our pedagogy and philosophies. You’ve probably even noticed that we have used some of them in THIS course, too! Head to the next video to learn about the 4th and final Core Tenet of the Core Content Mastery Method. With that said, go be your best self today. And, as always – happy nursing!