Megan embodies the qualities of an exceptional nurse educator. We are encouraged to think critically, ask deeper questions, and challenge ourselves to reach our full potential. Her patience, unwavering support, and belief in our abilities have been instrumental in building our confidence. She is approachable, compassionate, and understanding, yet maintains the level of rigor and professionalism necessary to prepare us for the demands of the nursing profession. She holds us accountable while creating a learning space where we feel supported and empowered. Her passion for teaching and genuine investment in our success make her everything one could hope for in a nursing instructor.
Megan is a faculty member in the Baccalaureate of Science, Nursing (BSN) program at the college, and a recipient of a Teacher Recognition Award in 2025. “I’m a registered nurse and worked for a while in the lung transplant program in Vancouver. When my partner and I moved to Victoria, I worked on some surgical units while trying to figure out what I wanted to do next and ended teaching for a semester at Camosun to see if it fit. I really enjoyed it, but I had this amazing student who asked me questions I couldn’t answer, so I realized I needed to develop my skills more.” At that point Megan completed an ICU program work began working at the Jubilee Hospital in December 2019. She worked there through summer, 2022 (through the COVID pandemic). One day, while working with a friend on a course project, “I thought back to the semester I taught at Camosun, about how much fun I had and how much I enjoyed working with students and I decided to go back to teaching.”
Now, Megan teaches primarily in the BSN program. “I’ve taught a little bit of everything for second year. I especially enjoy teaching the lab and I teach a clinical practice course on a surgical unit at Jubilee where I worked before – it’s been fun going back to that team again and bring students in. A lot of my students have ended up working on that unit, so I have seen them grow and develop.” And in Fall 2025, Megan became the program lead for the third year of the program.
I asked Megan what she likes most about teaching students. “I come from a long line of teachers and often try to do whatever my mom did because she’s an incredible teacher. I love finding ways to make something make sense to people and to work through something a student doesn’t understand to make it click. I really love the look students get when they do something they didn’t know that they could or handle something that terrifies them. That is what I love about teaching – just that moment where the student gets it. And you can see the whole world shift for them.”
I wondered what a typical Megan classroom looks like. “I’ve been fortunate to have had many great teachers, some of whom are now colleagues. I’ve borrowed a lot from watching them interact and how build relationships with students. I learned from my mom who used to say that teaching is 50% content delivery and 50% stand-up. I include a lot of problem solving and case studies in my teaching, giving students opportunities to work through them in different ways. So, very applied with a lot of small group work because when students work together, they learn from different perspectives. In my lab classes, we’ll talk through a skill, I’ll demo it, then it’s a lot of time practicing, getting hands dirty, working with students individually, in small groups, and tweaking the finer points of the skill as they go along.”
I was also curious about what kinds of assessments Megan has students working on in her courses. “The theory courses are meant to bring student to their licensure exams, meaning we do testing using the formats common in those license exams: multiple choice, matching, select all that apply, etc. We have also added case study type exams. This last year, in our health and healing course, they completed multiple case studies for practice. Then on their final exam, they had a nice long case study to work through.” Of course, Megan also teaches practical, hands-on courses. “In those courses we do skill testing. Sometimes they video record themselves engaging in the skill, then self-critique – I think it’s great for them think about their own practice – then we critique them as well. Other times they complete a skill pulled out of a hat in the moment, emulating clinical practice where you don’t know what to expect until you walk into the room.” I remembered when the BSN group moved to the video assignments during COVID and wondered how the students found them. “Some students really dig into it. They watch themselves, carefully critique, and make huge changes. They’ll say they didn’t realize what they were doing until they watched the video. Other students find watching themselves on video challenging. But the being able to see what you’ve done in the moment is more valuable than the embarrassment of watching yourself on camera.”
One thing Megan mentioned to me during our conversation was her excitement about the program going through a curriculum change due to her master’s in nurse education. “The problem-solving part of my brain loves curriculum development. It’s satisfying to figure out how course content will flow through 14 weeks. The other day Shannon Keyser (who I worked in the PN Bridge program as part of my practicum) and I sat in a room with a whiteboard and concept-mapped a new nursing research course. It was so much fun to sit and puzzle it out together.”
I asked Megan if she could share any memories from her teaching. “I had a student last fall, a good student, but not super confident prior, who walked into her patient’s room, a patient who was very sick, very upset, and trying to die. She and I worked through what was going on, why it was happening, what we were going to do about it, and how we were going to manage it. And she entered the room so calm and so collected in a way I hadn’t seen from a student in a long time. For me, being able to go in with the student and support her while watching her ability to calm the whole situation, it was beautiful. The patient ended up being fine because my student caught their issue early. She was on top of it. She was confident, communicated effectively, and did all the right things, with me being there to support her. Megan also loves simulation. “We do a lot of high fidelity Sim in the nursing program, and I got to co-write a simulation for the Practical Nursing to Nursing Bridge program, then run it with the students. It was so much fun, and I was able to watch that building of confidence in the students.”
My final question for Megan was about what advice she might have for new faculty at Camosun, knowing that she herself is quite new. “Find people to connect with, and someone you can ask dumb questions, but also realize your questions aren’t actually dumb. I have had such incredible mentors in my program and in our leadership, and I don’t think you get in a lot of other workplaces – I don’t think I would be here still teaching if I hadn’t had that mentorship and that support. So, ask for help, then become that support person for somebody else as you learn the answers. I’ve gotten also some incredible support from CETL, as well, working through how to use technology, etc. Everyone here is so generous with their knowledge and so willing to share.”