Channel 4 documentary looking for nurses to share their experiences

Des Daniels from Lion TV asked us to pass on this message:

We are currently producing a programme for Channel 4 about hospital nursing and midwifery. We would like to hear about experiences from both nurses and patients. We are interested to find out about specific situations or events during your stay or work in hospital with the view of potentially doing an interview on camera. For example as a patient did the nurses make you feel safe and looked after or did something go wrong. If you are a nurse or midwife how do you find the day to day working life? What works well and what could be improved?

Whatever you tell us, we’ll treat the information confidentially and anonymously where necessary. Our aim is to make an fair and balanced programme about experiences in NHS hospitals today.

If you have a story to tell or if you would like to know more please feel free to get in touch by emailing me at [email protected] or you can call us on 0208 846 2175.

How the Filipino parent’s emphasis on academic success may encourage mediocrity

One of the things that characterises the Filipino parenting style is a focus on academic success. For Filipino parents, education is crucial and subsequently, the brightest children are placed on a pedestal while those with bad grades get strong reprimands. This, I think, can lead to a strong fear of failure. Rather than taking on the more difficult challenges, children who wish to please their parents quickly learn to opt for the those that have the highest chance of success. After all, good grades led to praise whereas failure only means a taste of tsinelas.

Filipino schools just add to the problem. Pressure from both parents and administration make teachers very reluctant to fail students. An industry professional who was offered a teaching job recently commented, “One of the reasons I refused [the job] is that if I fail 80% of the class [who were underachievers], I would be kicked out. Incredible. Raise the standards, and you get the boot. Keep them low, and you stay on forever.”

Ironically, the Filipino parent’s over-emphasis on success may restrain excellence and encourage mediocrity. It could help to explain many of the challenges our country faces. Maybe rather than being afraid of failure, we should accept it as being one of the key ingredients for innovation. Poor students should fail but we should also reward those who bounce back after hitting the dirt.

According to Randy Nelson, dean of Pixar University, a professional-development program for the well-known animation studio, the core skill of an innovator is error recovery, not failure avoidance. Perhaps if we change our attitude to failure, we may help raise a generation of innovators for the Philippines.

Edutopia video

“Pixar University’s Randy Nelson explains what schools must do to prepare students for jobs in new media.” http://www.edutopia.org/


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