From the tower into the trenches: a nurse educator's reflections on the knowledge of experience

I have been in the tower for a long time. I have been teaching nursing for more than 20 years, and only now, after spending 6 months in the trenches as a staff nurse, have I begun to realize how far removed I had become from the real world of nursing. In this article, I will first discuss the experiences that motivated me to take a leave of absence from my teaching position in Canada for a staff nurse position in an acute care hospital in Florida. Then I will share my early reflections about what I learned as a staff nurse in Florida and how I interpreted this experience in the context of my own teaching practice and in the context of nursing education.