Encouraging the Heart of Undergraduate Students: A Case Study Approach

This case study explores how a nursing educator encourages the heart of undergraduate nursing students. Due to the ongoing nursing shortage, nursing educators continue to be challenged to retain students in the academic setting. Educators can reduce these discouraging outcomes by providing students with a structured, caring, and supportive environment consisting of constructive interactions. The theoretical framework from Kouzes and Posner’s Practices of Exemplary Leadership, Encourage the Heart, serves as the basis for this case study. Encouraging the heart asserts that exemplary leaders are those who acknowledge their followers’ success by providing positive feedback and showing pride of accomplishment, recognize their contributions and show appreciation for their individual excellence, and celebrate individual values and victories to create a sense of collective identity and spirit of community. Based on the theoretical framework of Encouraging the Heart, meaningful, positive, and caring interactions between nursing educators and students may improve students’ morale and encouragement, thus inspiring students to remain in the nursing profession. Educators can have a positive effect not only on students’ academic achievement and behavior, but also on their resilience and long-term success in life. Utilizing a case study design, an undergraduate nursing educator was chosen to participate in this study. Data were collected by means of a semi-structured interview and a review of documents. The documents reviewed and analyzed in this case study included evaluations of the faculty participant by undergraduate students, course performance evaluations of the faculty participant by professional colleagues, and the participant’s de-identified notes and feedback of student performance. The data analysis revealed four themes educators can use to encourage the heart of nursing students: facilitate rewarding clinical experiences, acknowledge individual effort and success, convey a positive and caring personality, and encourage reflection. The findings presented in this study provide insight into the positive impact that leadership practices can have on nursing students’ empowerment and success.