The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 3 - 19

Learning Resulting from the Resident Advisor Role

"Sometimes all people want is to be listened
to and not be judged and to know that at the
end of the night there is at least one person
that cares about them." Denise demonstrated
counseling and listening skills when helping
a student in distress while also reflecting and
affirming her own individual skills in handling
the situation:
Earlier during first semester, I had one student
come to me during a panic attack, feeling
exceptionally depressed. This was a textbook
example that was definitely discussed during
training, but when it happened in real life,
I was concerned that I wasn't reacting in
the proper manner. I didn't want to offend
her, worsen the situation, or play it off like
it wasn't significant. I decided to refrain
from talking as much as possible and asking
questions to let her do most of the talking. It
was a natural response that I didn't realize
was exactly what we were trained to do.
Demonstrating care and concern as well as
utilizing training information provided opportunities for these RAs to demonstrate the
helping skills they learned.
RAs also recognized the importance of
helping residents regardless of their behavior
and actively supported them even when the
help was not requested, as Keegan indicated:
I learned that everyone reacts differently to
situations and . . . (most people) don't react in
the perfect, [easy] to deal with way. It is how
you, as an RA, help your resident regardless of
the way that they are acting.
RAs learned the importance of providing assistance to individuals, even when those individuals behaved in potentially disrespectful or
otherwise inappropriate ways.

Problem solving. Problem-solving skills
emerged as a category that was distinct from
helping skills. Although helping skills arose in
some crisis-related responses, they were more
commonly present with advising or counselingtype situations. In contrast, problem-solving
skills prominently arose when RAs discussed
emergency response situations. For this study,
problem-solving skills refer to RAs' abilities
to react to unexpected situations, assess situations, and address them. RAs reflected on
how much they learned from circumstances
where they had to think on their feet while recognizing that these situations can be stressful
to experience. Jamie's description of learning
included "the ability to think critically, problem
solve, [and] address issues with confidence and
calm." The importance of analyzing situations
while staying calm was echoed by Dakota:
I learned that an emergency incident . . .
can spring out anytime, and you have to be
ready right away to deal with the situation.
You assess the situation and when you know
you cannot solve or handle it yourself, you
turn to other authorities who can help. You,
yourself, have to be calm and collected so
that you can think clearly about how to deal
with the situation.
Another RA also shared how these skills were
utilized outside of the RA position. While attending a campus event, Marley observed a
student struggle and fall down while the crowd
appeared unsure of what to do:
It was significant to me because I didn't
(and still don't) know the guy, but I was
the only one who reacted. I think the only
reason that I did was because I have become
used to helping others as an RA, and even
not knowing what to do then I knew that I
SHOULD do something . . .
V O L U M E 4 2 , NO. 3 * 2 0 1 6

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 3

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 3