Know Your Profs is an ongoing series of articles helping you get to know the instructors at Camosun College a bit better. Got someone you want to see interviewed? Email editor@nexusnewspaper.com and we’ll get on it.
This time around we caught up with nursing instructor Dianne Perry and talked about travel, judgmental attitudes, and French coffee.
1: What do you teach and how long have you been a teacher at Camosun?
I have been teaching nursing since 1984 and have taught in the classroom, lab, and hospital or clinical settings in Victoria and internationally.
2: What do you personally get out of teaching?
Providing excellent care to patients and their families is the most important part of my career as a nurse and a nurse educator. A nurse has the ability to make a difference to someone’s life every day that he or she works.ĘMy nursing background has been in critical care, emergency, maternity, neurology, and tropical disease. I have worked in hospitals in the Arctic, Central America, South America, Africa, and Asia. As a nurse educator, I have been able to share those experiences with the students.
I especially enjoy the satisfaction of watching students enter into first year, working with them and seeing the personal and professional transformation that happens as they progress through the program.
As I get to know the students, I realize how much many of them have sacrificed to be here and how hard they work to stay in this nursing program. I am humbled by their dedication and desire to become a nurse, despite some staggering obstacles. I have also had the distinct pleasure of working with so many of our fabulous graduates in clinical settings and now as fellow faculty.
3: What’s one thing you wish your students knew about you?
That even with all my years of teaching, and no matter how well I have prepped, I still feel nervous before I begin to teach. What nurses do is so important and we need to get it right. Someone’s life may depend upon it.
4: What’s one thing you wish they didn’t know about you?
I have a wicked addiction to travel. I always carry my passport, in case there is a chance to get to the airport. At present I am in acute withdrawal, as I don’t have an airline ticket in my back pocket. So if I don’t turn up for class, well, I could just be. . .
5: What’s the best thing that’s ever happened to you as a teacher here?
I have loved the nursing program, but the best thing was when I was asked by International Education to assist in developing field schools for our nursing program. I was fortunate to help establish field schools in the Philippines, India, and Nepal. Others in Namibia and Tonga have also been developed by our faculty. It is truly amazing to take our students halfway around the world and have them working with the poor in a developing world hospital. Camosun’s nursing program is one of the few in North America that offers this unique opportunity. Our faculty have presented at international conferences and published a paper on our international nursing student experiences. For me, it is the best of all possible worlds: nursing, education, and travel.
6: What’s the worst thing that’s happened to you as a teacher here?
Our department lost a nursing colleague, Monica Clarke, to a tragic and sudden death. As nurses we are always aware of the fragility of life but the loss of such a vital, inspiring nurse, teacher, and dear friend was a very dark time for me, our faculty, and students.
7: What do you see in the future of postsecondary education?
The future of postsecondary education needs to prepare students for a flexible, rapidly changing technological- and science-based world. Programs need a global perspective and students need to have strong critical-thinking skills. Students invest heavily in their education; they deserve a program that adequately prepares them to meet the changing needs of business, health care, and technology.
8: What do you do to relax on the weekends?
I spend time with family and friends. I love almost anything outdoors, preferably on the water. Kayaking and sailing do nicely. I also have a terrific dog that always makes me laugh when we are hiking, biking, swimming, or camping.
9: What’s your favorite meal?
I enjoy fresh, healthy, organic, and mostly vegetarian meals, but my very favourite is that first cup of delicious, hot, dark French coffee at sunrise.
10: What’s your biggest pet peeve?
I find negative, judgmental attitudes and narrow-minded thinking very challenging.