In my job at Hondros College of Nursing, I help students master the knowledge they need to become excellent nurses. It’s a great job. I love science. I teach anatomy and physiology, which, like all areas of science, is fascinating and fun, but has the added advantage of being really useful. If you want to understand what goes wrong to make people sick, you need to know how things work normally. It’s fun to see students make connections between what they know about treating certain conditions and the underlying physiology that makes those treatments work.
Nurses are taught that they must be life-long learners because new treatments and new medications continue to be developed. I am always reading about new advances in science, and I like to bring some of those into discussion in my classroom. I think it helps keep us humble because it shows there is always more to know. That is part of the beauty of science, that it is constantly adding to our collected knowledge and understanding. I hope that I can in some measure help my students develop their critical thinking skills along with mastering the subjects I cover. We have good students at Hondros, who show a real appreciation for the value of science and even seem to like science classes most of the time.
Mark Hopkin is a professor at the Columbus campus.