Teaching and Learning Lessons for Nurse Educators from the Olympics

From Pommel Horse Guy to a surprisingly endearing Snoop, the 2024 Olympics have been a constant background in my home for the past two weeks. There have been so many inspiring stories, great memes, and beautiful examples of sportsmanship and camaraderie. This article will explore these themes from the Olympics as lessons for nurse educators.

During a track and field event, I was in a hurry and fast-forwarded through the introductions and announcer commentary. I watched the race, but it didn’t feel as exciting. 🤷 

I realized I had skipped the storytelling section. Learning the athlete's stories creates an emotional investment in their event. It's not just about the race or the dive, but about the journey that led them there. This emotional connection gave me something to cheer for and is what makes the events so much more engaging. It's the 'why' and the stories of the obstacles they've overcome truly captivate us.

There were very few "perfect" performances at the Olympics. There were falls, missteps, and wobbles, even world-class athletes make errors. But time and time again, they got back up and kept going. They didn't let the fall define them. They cleared the mental hurdle and continued the work. And sometimes, an athlete's "average" performance still earned them a medal.

I remember one of my very first clinical experiences. Our student group was at a long-term care facility, and my instructor asked me to put lotion on the hands of a one-hundred-year-old resident. I had never actually cared for a patient before, and I was terrified to touch or interact with her. At that moment, I could not see myself working as a nurse. 

But since then, nursing practice has not gotten easier - if anything, it has become more complex! Instead, we grow our capacity as nurses by:

• making incremental progress
• developing confidence 
• learning from our mistakes
• expanding ourselves to fit the role 

Learning is a process, not a one-time event. For ourselves and our students, daily, consistent practices will improve our performance beyond what we think is possible. Try to focus on the slow incremental progress instead of the unattainable perfection.

Students often see a failed attempt as the end, and it can totally derail their progress and confidence. Help students to reframe a failure as a learning opportunity. 

Failure is not in failed attempts, but in giving up.

So, learning becomes a paradox. We will not be comfortable with a skill until we master it, but in order to master it, we must practice. The discomfort of practice is necessary to achieve the comfort of mastery. And because practice can be uncomfortable, so we avoid it. Understanding and accepting this paradox is a key step in overcoming the fear of failure and embracing the learning process. Exposing yourself to failure requires courage. So be brave! And remember that everybody faces failure, even the Olympians.

I had never watched women's rugby before the Olympics. But during the United States medal game, the announcer commented that their star player, Ilona Maher, had the largest social media following of any rugby player (men's and women's) in the world! So, obviously, I investigated.

One of the first reels I encountered showed her thanking her "past self" for scheduling a massage a few days after the match. While a professional massage sounds fantastic, what really intrigued me was that she anticipated her own needs. 

After a difficult task, give yourself a transition phase where you do something you love. You don't immediately need to move to the next thing.

• If you know two days of acute care clinical is physically and mentally draining, allow yourself a slow morning the next day. 
• If you have a tough lecture session or a long meeting, caring for yourself could look like grabbing an iced coffee or stopping by your favorite bookstore on the way home. 
• In the long term, anticipating your needs could look like planning a fun day at the end of the semester with your co-workers (for the extroverts!) or starting a puzzle (my favorite kind of puzzles HERE)that you usually wouldn't have time to sit and work on (for the introverts!). 

I just love the Olympics. 💜 Over the past weeks, they have been a source of inspiration, incredible stories, and so many life lessons. I can't wait to watch the winter version in two years!