Does the military hire nurse educators?

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I'm a BSN RN currently enrolled in a MSN Nurse Educator program. I absolutely love hands-on education, especially simulation. I am trained on METIman, iStan, and Lucina. I do interprofessional simulations, nursing simulations at all levels and courses, and mass casualty simulations. I do both live patient actors and simulators. I would absolutely love to do this type of work for military nurses (and APRNs and physicians and medics). Is this something the military does from within or contracts a civilian to do? I am not sure how to get involved on this level. Joining the military has been in the back of my mind since I turned down admission to the US Naval Academy out of high school. I just hope to bring my passion with me. I hope to get my EdD for nurse educators from Univ of Alabama when I finish my master's next year. Thanks!

Specializes in Adult Critical Care.

The AF has an education identifier. The larger bases do have simulators. I don't know if they direct commission officers with that identifier or not. You'd need a year of full-time experience as a nurse educator to get it if they did.

jeckrn, BSN, RN

1,868 Posts

Specializes in EMT, ER, Homehealth, OR.

You will need to speak with a healthcare recruiter to find out the need. This might be a position they do not recruit for and have to apply for it once you are in the system.

Specializes in OR.

I was informed the AF doesn't recruit educators directly. (via Retired nurse/USAF Colonel and recruiter)

Specializes in Education, Skills & Simulation, Med/Surg, Pharm.

I contacted several health care recruiters. I'm waiting to hear back. How long does it take to get a response? It's been about 3 days.

Specializes in Adult Critical Care.

they get more emails than they can possibly answer. be persistent and email them at least every few days until you get a response.

Dranger

1,871 Posts

I have never seen an Army nurse educator. If there were any they would probably be civilians

dingus

24 Posts

Been following this Army nurse officer's blog for a while, believe she is either becoming an educator, or already is one.

An Officer and a Nurse

Specializes in Adult Critical Care.

Your equivalent would be a brigade nurse (from what I've seen). They're responsible for the training and certification of many of the enlisted medics. However, that isn't a position that you can direct-commission into. There's a board you have to apply for.

The military in general seems to like using CNS's in educator roles. I personally find that rather dumb, since their training doesn't really focus on teaching methods...but I don't make the decisions.

The Air Force has a staff development officer (and education and training office) for every medical group, which is pretty similar to a nurse educator.

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