Pros -cons list of being a clinical instructor

Palliative Care, DNP · Aug 20, 2013

I'm orienting for my new position as a clinical instructor tomorrow. This is interesting!

HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD · Aug 20, 2013

Autonomy???? Srsly? Academia is the most micro-managed environment that I have ever experienced. But hopefully, your mileage may vary.

If you are working with Students (pre-licensure), you will have full responsibility because you are accountable for the clinical performance of your students under your watch. Honestly, working with pre-licensure students in a clinical setting just scared the liver out of me. But I love working with nurse students (post-licensure). I was also very frustrated at the limitations imposed upon me by the school(s) re: disciplining students for attitude, appearance, work habits, chronic tardiness, absences, etc. By the time I had jumped through all the hoops, the bad behavior was habitual & rubbing off on the other group members.

I hope you love it. Nursing education desperately needs new blood!

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Aug 20, 2013

Aw, HouTx said so much before I could.

I loved watching the lights go on, challenging the assumptions and widening the horizons, and knowing I would be making a difference to far more patients and families and who knows what else down the road than I could doing patient care myself alone.

I hated dealing with slackers and people that, astonishingly, had been passed along and I got to be the bad guy by documenting their considerable failures and getting them gone. Needed to be done, though.

SoldierNurse22, BSN, RN · Aug 20, 2013

Pros
Not fully responsible for patients

EEEEEH! Wrong! If anything, you are even more responsible than ever! You are responsible to your students to make sure they are doing what they need to be doing, and you're responsible even more so to your patients to ensure their safety as they are under the care of students!

OCRN3 · Aug 20, 2013

What I meant by fully, is at that if, For example, the student or I can't get the NG tube, IV, or X-ray done it still falls on the staff nurse right? As a staff nurse, the student and the instructor assisted me, but at the end if the day, the patient was my responsibility. I have had many students as a staff nurse that assisted me but when they couldn't get it find I still had too. I'm just looking at that side of it, but I'm still new at the teaching so I guess we will see... :/

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nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Aug 20, 2013

What I meant by fully, is at that if, For example, the student or I can't get the NG tube, IV, or X-ray done it still falls on the staff nurse right? As a staff nurse, the student and the instructor assisted me, but at the end if the day, the patient was my responsibility. I have had many students as a staff nurse that assisted me but when they couldn't get it find I still had too. I'm just looking at that side of it, but I'm still new at the teaching so I guess we will see... :/
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Excellent communication with the host staff is critical.

OCRN3 · Aug 20, 2013

Houtx, I see what you mean about micro managing from the school about the lazy students. This school to be no different and they pass all the students and don't care what the teacher says. Autonomy I meant for me as a staff nurse to faculty feels a bit more autonomous. For example in clinicals I teach the students how to give report and grade care plans to my standards. As opposed to bedside where we have policies and protocols for everything. I'm sorry if I sound naive, but bring new I think I am still in the honeymoon phase of the job. After do many years of direct patient care I feel a lot less stressed. :)

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llg, PhD, RN · Aug 20, 2013

One of the things I dislike most about academic teaching is the inflexibility of the schedules. With hospital jobs, you can take a vacation or call in sick, etc. any month of the year. In academia, you are pretty much limited to the official school break times.

You sound lucky in regards to pay. In my area, instructors make less per hour than staff nurses (once you factor in differentials, paid vacation time, paid holiday time, paid sick time, etc. and also factor in the hours you spend off the clock grading papers, doing class prep, etc.)