Robert Ciminski

Ciminski talks about his professional journey, his initial struggles with being a male nurse, what his service in the military did for his career, why students should enroll in his classes, and more.

Q: What is your background and how did you end up at WNC? 

CIMINSKI: It’s surprising the common thread that a lot of us have. I could remember coming through this program and feeling completely inadequate because I was just a carpenter. What do I have to offer? I don’t have the experience that other people have. The more that I teach folks, I’ve learned that we all come from the same backgrounds. We all carry the same feelings of inadequacy. This program helped me grow past those inadequacies and helped me feel confident about who I am and what I have to offer people. People coming through this program have incredible life stories that they have overcome, and it’s pretty awesome. People are pretty resilient and you can see that. It’s kind of surprising that I wound up in education and it’s a pretty cool privilege to be teaching here.

Q: Why do you like teaching at WNC?

CIMINSKI: WNC is part of this community and it’s a very important aspect of who I am. When I think about coming back to educate here and teach people, I get to be a piece and part of students’ journeys. This was an important journey for me and now I get to be part of the students who come through.

Q: Was there a teacher or a class that inspired you to become an educator? Or something else?

CIMINSKI: I’m a graduate from here, and when it comes to who inspired me the most, as far as education goes, it’s Professor Deborah Ingraffia-Strong. She was one of the first people I met and talked to in the program … and Judith Cordia and Edda Gibson, when they were here. I just saw how they engaged with people. They really reiterated to us that what we do with our hands-on skills as nurses, those are all important. We do life-saving and impactful things all day long, but it was the education aspect that I thought was the coolest thing. We have all of this technology and we have all of these super-advanced medications, this ability to extend life beyond everything we could have ever imagined, but when I think about a lot of the problems that we have, it comes down to how we teach our patients and how we talk to our patients. I saw how Debi and other instructors passed that on to us. Now I get to pass that on to other nurses.

Q: Describe your method of teaching students?

CIMINSKI: I like to be at the bedside. What I'll do is demonstrate a skill at the bedside. Then, I'll tell them to put down their notes and just pay attention to me. I'll demonstrate the skill and they’ll break off and we’ll all perform the skill together. Then, they’ll go to a mannequin, skill station or whatever, then I’ll walk them through it so they’ll get some hands-on action. After that, I’ll have them do it on their own while I critique and guide them through that skill.

Q: Why would students want to enroll in your classes?

CIMINSKI: I really like the idea of being hands on, and I really like the idea of having something structured. I think that tends to be the biggest feedback that we get, that students like structure, they like organization and they like being hands on. I also like to make students laugh, I like to joke and I know where to draw that line and become serious. I like to make students laugh because that's who I am. I feel like if we take the tension down, if we make things calm, if we make the environment inviting, the information will stick more with our students. I like to think that I create a pretty calm and engaging environment.

Q: There are a number of compelling reasons to pursue teaching as a career. Can you talk about what might inspire college students to become teachers?

CIMINSKI: I have to think about education through the nursing lens. We start day one with the nurses by telling them, “If you don’t want to be an educator, you should probably pick something else.” That’s what we do. I don’t know if the public realizes that or how many people realize that: We do a lot at the bedside for patients, we care for their wounds, perform CPR, insert tubes everywhere you can think, but a huge part of what we do is educate our patients. Regardless if it’s on the academic side, in the hospital or in a community clinic, education is everything that we do in nursing. There is a lot of damage done in the public by what they don’t know and we get to fill that gap.

Q: What is something unusual or unique that students don’t know about you?

CIMINSKI: I can build a house from the ground up, if I have extra arms. I can also crochet; I crocheted blankets for all of my kids when they were little. It was one of the things my wife taught me during nursing school because we’d get so anxious about everything and that was one of the ways that we’d blow off steam. A carpenter who can make blankets … kind of the Rosey Grier of nursing, right?

Q: Can you talk about your experiences of being a Veteran?

CIMINSKI: I credit a big part of my journey from being in the Navy. I was on the USS Roosevelt, I was on a carrier, a lot of sea time. We did end up going to the Middle East, but it was on a carrier. I’m not saying we had it easy, but it wasn’t the same as our Marines or Army folks who were sleeping in the dirt and actually had their feet on ground at Ground Zero. All things considered, it was hard and a lot of work. But I credit a big part of who I am for what the Navy set me up for. I wouldn’t have come through here as a student, if it wasn’t for them.

Q: What advice would you give to male students getting into nursing?

CIMINSKI: That was a big pill to swallow when I came into the program. At the time I was insecure about two things: that was one of them and the other is I’m partially color blind. The male nurse thing really tripped me up, so it took me about a year and half in the program to get over it. I got to the point where I realized that nobody cares. On one hand it is a female-driven specialty, but males have quite a bit to offer, too. I used to get really annoyed when I’d go to an interview and somebody would say, “We really need male nurses.” Is that the only reason you need me? I get it now where they are coming from, because we complement each other. There’s not one person who can fill all of the roles and all of the needs of every person. Just because somebody is a male nurse doesn’t mean you’re unequipped; it just means you have a different skill set that is going to complement somebody else.