ERIE, Pa. — The transition from patient-facing care to teaching wasn’t a stretch for Daniel Eaton, who joined the faculty at Penn State Behrend in 2015.
“All nurses are teachers,” he said. “We teach patients how to care for a wound or manage a chronic condition. We teach family members how to support and advocate for someone they love.
“In any medical setting,” he said, “teaching is a huge part of the job.”
At Behrend, where the nursing program is part of the Penn State Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing, Eaton teaches in the classroom and in the Nursing Technology Lab and Simulation Center, which is equipped with high-fidelity patient mannequins. The lab was expanded in 2019 after a $950,000 investment by community partners, including the Orris C. and Beatrice Dewey Hirtzel Memorial Foundation.
In clinical rotations, which still are an essential component of nursing programs, learning opportunities often are limited to the illnesses or injuries the medical staff encounters on a given day. Simulation labs allow instructors to model a wider range of experiences and introduce more variables into the simulated treatment plan, said Eaton, who also has taught at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Fortis Institute and Erie Business Center.
Simulations prepare students for the patient-facing experiences that follow, he said.
“In a hospital, if it’s your first time doing something, that pressure can be overwhelming,” he said. “Simulations and the class discussions that follow them, in what we call the debriefing, are an opportunity to practice, and to learn from your mistakes without directly affecting the patient.”
In the lab, and in his supervision of clinical rotations, Eaton encourages his students to think and talk like a teacher.
“I always say, ‘Explain it to me in terms the patient is going to understand,’” he said. “Don’t give me the textbook answer. Translate it, using your own words. When you can explain it, that’s when the deeper learning occurs.”
Eaton, who holds a doctorate of nursing practice, has continued his patient-facing work. He is a mental-health nurse at UPMC Western Behavioral Health at Safe Harbor. In the summers, he is a standby RN (registered nurse), contracted through EmergyCare, at Presque Isle Downs & Casino, where he works with jockeys.
“There are so many different things you can do as a nurse,” he said. “I’m always talking about that with my students. I want them to explore, and to see all the different opportunities that are available to them. That’s how you find the right fit.”