David Rabinowitsch, DNP, RN, is a holistic nurse and certified Healing Touch

practitioner and instructor. He teaches Healing touch(HT) to nursing students in

Sweden and Denmark. At Orange County Community College in Middletown, New
York, where he works an assistant professor of nursing, David teaches at multiple areas
of expertise including lectures, nursing skills lab, skill evaluation area and clinical and
also offers (HT) as a nursing elective. David, as well as the school faculty believes that
the multiple roles that they play as clinical instructors help maintain standards and
increases support for students.

One of these roles in particular is to be a facilitator of learning. As part of the

curriculum of the school, students take part in a preceptorship clinical in which they
work with a staff nurse with no clinical instructor in a hospital setting usually caring for
multiple clients. Here David as a teacher help students work with their preceptors in
order to better prepare them in the transition from student to new nurse.

Noting the rigor that is required for success in the nursing program, David
Rabinowich is concerned about the different perceptions of students, some of whom,
chose nursing a second career with all the stigma attached to it. He is also concerned
about overconfident students who do not put their clients’ needs first and he sees this
as a challenge in teaching them. Another concern for him are students who may be ill
prepared for the challenges of the nursing program.
As a response to this David is very conscious about role model professionalism.
this , according to him, involves demonstrating compassion, caring and meticulous
attention to detail in addressing the needs of the client as well as sharing his feelings
with his students so that they would know that it is okay to care about clients at an
emotional and empathetic level.
As such, David begins each teaching session with a “centering” exercise. He
encourages students to use deep breathing to bring themselves inside and help them
focus at the task at hand, be it a clinical demonstration of procedures, lectures or
laboratory exercises. He also encourages students to do visualization before studying,
this according to his students help them be more effective in doing tasks.
As a practitioner and instructor of Healing touch, David integrates this into his
own clinical practice which also serves as an example to his students; using energy
principles , such as in light massage and deep breathing to alleviate discomfort in
clients. Aside from this, David also shares his experiences with his students and also
helping them understand that what they take for granted may be the same for other
parts of the world. He believes that nursing that nursing is both a caring science and an
art of caring.
And although, he has concerns over standards and the shortage of competent
nursing faculty, David says that he is gratified to meet nurses who were his former
students who thank him for making them reach their potential and keeping high
standards in their profession.