view of the nurse as a guide for the learner; as someone whose nursing practice is
admirable (in the sense of being admired); and as a practitioner the student might seek
to emulate in order to become themselves an admirable nurse. This returns us to the
professional phronimos.
The professional phronimos as nurse teacher
Inherent in the above discussion is the idea that those nurse teachers who engage with
their work as a practice exemplify what it is to be a professional phronimos. The mentor
will be engaged with nursing as a practice (which essentially includes the facilitation of
student learning), the practice educator and the lecturer will be engaged with teaching as
a practice. In both cases those who engage with their professional work as a practice
will exemplify those traits of character, those dispositions, those virtues that are
constitutive of their work as a practice. This professionalphronimos (the professionally
practically wise person) is one who genuinely cares about the standards that, in
MacIntyre’s terms, are constitutive of the practice with which they are engaged. They
aim for excellence in the practice and have adopted or developed methods to help them
pursue the excellences of the practice. They may have learned to become reflexive
about their practice, that is, they may have habituated themselves to think about their
practice in terms of how far their actions have enabled rather than hindered the
flourishing of more-than-ordinarily vulnerable persons. The particular tools they have
used to develop mastery of their practice matter less than the effective use of those tools
and if they are able to articulate in words, actions and sentiments how they continue to
Ieam to master their practice in ways that the student can understand then the student
has an opportunity of learning what engaging with the practice requires of them. They
will see the practitioner not only acting in ways that aim for the benefit of patients but
also see how the practitioner ensures their altruistic emotions work for the benefit rather
than to the detriment of the patient. They will see that the admirable practitioner is
honest, just, courageous, trustworthy and open-minded and will see how these enduring
characteristics contribute in essential ways to engagement in a practice. In addition, the
mentor can demonstrate how she or he uses tools such as reflection in everyday practice
as a way of enhancing that practice and in so doing can help the learner to avoid the trap
of mistaking the use of such a tool as an end in itself.
For lecturers who are engaged in the practice of teaching as a way of enabling learners
to Ieam to become engaged in the practice of nursing there are pedagogic and
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