Leah has been a mentor for me as a colleague. I appreciate her kind and innovative suggestions when problem solving, her dedication, openness, and work ethic. Leah lives her values daily. A student said: “Knowing that I was timid at performing new skills, I was extremely thankful to have such a supportive and thoughtful teacher that didn’t make me feel ‘less than’ for asking for help. I thank her for being positive, encouraging, and helping me to have confidence to succeed in my practice.”
Leah is a faculty member in the Baccalaureate of Science, Nursing (BSN) program at Camosun, and a recipient of a Teacher Recognition Award in 2025. Leah has been at the college for 20 years, and before that was a preceptor at B.C. Children’s Hospital. After she moved to Victoria, she taught at the University of Victoria while working at Victoria General Hospital in pediatrics and at Ledger House in Pediatric Mental Health (Leah’s background is in pediatrics, family care and child development.) Leah has taught many of the courses in the BSN program and started by teaching clinical practice on the pediatric unit. “After 15 years on that unit, I stepped back so others could step in, and I moved into adult care on an acute medical unit,” a move that has been equally rewarding. In addition to clinical practice, Leah currently teaches psychomotor skills. Leah says “what I love the most about teaching is meeting the students where they’re at. It’s fun to be able to use my knowledge and expertise to bring the content to life, present material at an appropriate level for each year of development and be organic and creative in my efforts. I enjoy the constant flexing of my abilities to work with the students in order to create things that will work for their learning.”
Leah is “very interested in how students learn, master, and execute skills. A colleague and I worked on a project just before COVID on how to better integrate deliberate practice and skills mastery into our curriculum. We then presented a model of deliberate practice that the faculty accepted, and which is now integrated into our lab modules.” Leah explained that “deliberate practice is intentional learning, meaning that students deliberately learn a skill. In a perfect situation, students watch the skill in real time, draw in background knowledge from readings and coursework, then watch instructors complete the skill and ask questions. At this point students practice the skill on their own with a rubric, going through everything intentionally, and receiving expert feedback from an instructor. In this way, from start to finish, they know what they’re doing is correct. Students work in pairs, going through the skill and correcting each other and asking questions. Finally, they complete a skills demo or test where they critique themselves, self reflect, and improve to the point they can move into clinical practice.”
Leah says, however, that all this is challenging to do in a lab class because there is not enough time to watch every student from start to finish, and instructors have found some creative solutions, especially during COVID when we shifted the format attempting to actualize the Deliberate Practice Model while splitting class in half and using half the time. “We now provide students with videos of the skills, which I created with my students in our simulation lab, as well as with a rubric for each skill. The rubric integrates the most current policies and procedures from both the course readings and from VIHA, which has reduced confusion and helps student focus on best-practice concepts rather than on changes in policies. Students can watch the videos over and over as they’re practicing, and the rubric acts as their guide. Then by the time they go into the practice labs they should understand what’s expected and what’s safe for the patient.” Leah also emphasizes that the labs themselves “need to be safe spaces where students can ask any question. The outcomes of our assessments and decisions in real life are serious. In lab, students are asked to pull out the critical thinking and put it into action.”
The skills tests moved into the world of video during COVID, when, “instead of completing skills tests in person, students worked in pairs to video-record each other completing the skills and submitted those videos in D2L.” As a faculty, we are currently working on how to best integrate the video taping and self-reflection into our course work.
I wondered about BSN students, and what changes Leah has seen in them over the past 20 years. “COVID had a big impact on our students, especially those coming to us right out of high school. They seem to bring a new set of worries and hesitancies around interacting with patients, with teachers, and with each other. So, we have had to provide more support and role modeling around what professional behavior looks like, sounds like, and feels like. For example, we work in role plays to practice those skills, and by the time the first years become third years, they have caught up. I have had some of my strongest and deepest connections with those post-COVID cohorts, because of engaging in that relational work to help students figure out how to enact their values in their nursing practice. I’m very proud of them.”
I asked Leah where BSN students come from. “They often come from other programs, most often health sciences programs, and some are coming back after taking time off from school. Many are looking for career opportunities, but don’t always know how intense the program is. Students with more life experience bring so much richness into the class for those students who are younger or shy or unsure – the peer-to-peer support and collaboration is so important. Sometimes, though, it can be challenging to create a safe environment to learn in and make mistakes in, so I try to be vulnerable myself and as transparent and open as possible.”
Leah said she has so many amazing memories of her time teaching, telling me what a privilege it is for her to be here with students. “They want to help, and I am honoured to be the one chosen to teach them nursing. It’s hard work sometimes, but extremely fulfilling.” But one memory stood out in particular for her. “In my first or second year of teaching, we had a group of students who did a presentation on residential schools. The students presented to us as though we were children in a school by first having us remove any personal items and move away from our friends. Then they created a video from a child’s perspective of lying in a hospital bed at night and having somebody come in to check on them, because that’s what we do in nursing – we check to make sure they’re breathing, check their IV, while masked and gowned from head to toe. So, we’re this looming masked form coming in to check in on these children with this bright light. My stomach sank because I realized I’d been doing that for my whole career in hospitals – creeping in quietly so as not to disturb anyone. Imagine the fear that would create in the child or in the parents, especially if they had been in the residential school system. The realization was profound for me, and I still think about it. Knowing that all it would take is to ask the parents ‘is it okay with you if I come in overnight to check on your baby’ but I didn’t, and was unaware of the unintended consequences. This presentation has had an impact on my nursing and teaching practice. To check out my assumptions as much as possible.”
As our time together drew to a close, I asked Leah what advice she had for new instructors at the college. “Number one is to make sure you connect with your teammates to get excited about teaching and brainstorm together because that’s where the magic happens. As more people are working remotely, you will have to seek out your teammates more intentionally. So, create that space to get together, not just online, but in person too. You will get so much done in a short period of time because you’ll be energized and you’ll be inspired because there are phenomenal people working here. Second, don’t reinvent the wheel. If you’re wanting to try something new, someone else has probably considered it. My advice would be to seek our support and ideas from your peers.
Finally, Leah says, be student centered. “I’m student centered because I’m also patient centered. When a nurse is patient centered, they collaborate with the patient regarding care. For me, this is the same approach I use when teaching, asking similar questions. How can I best help you today? What are you concerned about in this situation? How can you best experience the situation? Then by offering suggestions and checking in a trusting environment is created. This type of approach models to students how to be patient centered. and how to become empowered in their own education and subsequently in the health care system.