After becoming addicted to TED.com i think i might start a blog column relating TED talks with how they can be applied to health care! Sir Ken Robinson is the latest!
How many of us have really taken a look at our educational system? I am not talking about just medical school, nursing school, or any other health school, but rather the educational system as a whole. Sir Ken Robinson, a creativity guru, gave a talk in 2005 discussing this very subject, and I think we can apply it to they way we educate our doctors and nurses!
If you have not seen the talk, please visit http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/66 to watch it. It is funny and powerful.
Mr. Robinson makes some very good points.
1) We educate our kids for the future, but we don't know what the future is
2) Current education is geared towards educating people for industry
3) Education stigmatizes mistakes, and failure is unacceptable
Those are some powerful remarks! Lets discuss!
1) & 2) & 3)How is it possible that we think our education system is giving our children the tools to deal with the future when we as educators have no clue what that may look like. Not to mention the fact that we use out dated technology and teaching techniques to do it. Mr. Robinson states that there is a Hierarchy in education and this hierarchy is set up to get people into universities.
Now I want you to think about this for a second. Math, Humanities, Literacy all geared to pass the SAT to get into college. Getting into college so you can get a degree. Get a degree so you can get a job. Get a job so you can work. That is the goal of education, but is one allowed to go another path?
I am sure we all have a cousin that went to art school, and what happened to them? What did the family say? He was stigmatized because he did not follow the TRADITIONAL path.
Well the traditional path is one that needs rethinking. The traditional path was one set up to get you into a good industrial type job. Sounds like medical and nursing school right? You must take these pre-med classes or you cannot qualify. What do these Pre-Med classes do, they squash your creativity, slam you with Newtonian linear science, and ship you off to be a diagnostician in health care. Same can be said with nursing, although more humanity classes are needed for nursing entrance.
We wonder why health care is so troubled to adopt new technology, or even innovate their way out of a crisis, but look at where the players came from. Risk taking and mistakes were stigmatized and that stigma was beaten into them for 20 years of schooling. Can we blame them for not being creative?
SO WHAT DO WE DO ABOUT IT!
Mr. Robinson suggests that creativity is as important as literacy, so why is it not treated that way? I don't have the answer for you. Instead, we place our hyperactive kids on medication and tell them to sit in the corner and shut up. We stop energy because we cannot control it. We promote math skills over exploration of arts because that will get you a job, but the world is changing my friends.
Of course math and science are important, and they are the foundation of the health care curriculum, but so should creativity. Can you imagine the power of innovation that would come from a class of docs and nurses that were not only prepared clinically and scientifically, but creatively as well? If they were told it was ok to take a risk to make a change? If it was ok to test a new hypothesis, design a new way, lead with new tools, and see the world differently?
In previous blogs I have tried to highlight people that have accessed their creative side and done something remarkable. Something that challenged the way we do things. Someone who goes against the grain. These are the people you need to find in your organization. Find that person that does not quite fit your typical nurse or doc. The one who questions why we do what we do.
They are not the nuisance, they are the future! Tap them, as they can be the leaders, the preceptors, the educators that break our health care education out of the PowerPoint and teacher centered learning, to the interactive, immersing, simulation based curriculum that breeds creativity.
I challenge everyone to find a tradition in their workplace and change it! just flat out say,
"NO! There has to be a better way!"If you are in education, I challenge you to try something new. Something that makes you uncomfortable, something engaging, because if we play it safe, our future is doomed, and if we take a risk, there is the chance to change the world!
RESOURCES
www.ted.com
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