Nurse Educator without nursing experience.. (?)

billyboblewis · May 10, 2012

Did you get a license by any chance. That is not made clear by your letter. Perhaps you can find some tiype of administrative or consultant job in an institution that is big enough to need one. Perhaps you should go on and get to doctorate and then you could get a self employment postion as a nurse educator consultant. What were you thinking about when you planned your life this way. Did you have a goal in mind?

If I finished my BSN, and went straight to doing an MSN Educator program without any clinical/work experience, once I finish my MSN Ed, would I ever be hired as a teacher in community colleges or other places that hire MSN Ed nurses? What kind of jobs can I get without ANY nursing experience? Jobs that require MSN Ed.....

emmyers, RN · May 10, 2012

Why would you want to teach without experience? Would you want a teacher without experience? I can understand your desire to teach, but much of teaching is done by example and through shared experience, not just by handing out text books. If you want to be a good and respected teacher, regardless of whether or not you can get a job straight out of finishing your masters, then you should acquire experience.

merlee · May 10, 2012

You need 'street cred' if you expect your students to respect you. Even if you are only lecturing.

Put in a foley? Male? Female? Obese person? How about an elderly woman on her side in the bed?!! And what about a suprapubic?? Do you even know what I am talking about??? I've done all of these and would feel comfortable instructing on any of them. If you haven't realized that if you are right-handed you should be standing with your left shoulder toward the head of the bed then you shouldn't be teaching.

Why would you even WANT to teach about something you have never done???

RN In FL · May 10, 2012

This is exactly what bugs me about MANY not all career change people, people that get that BSN, go thru accelerated programs, hop on over to MSN programs, with no intentions of "nursing", and wonder why they can't get jobs in what their intentions are in the first place. I am in no way saying this poster has done this, just sounds "suspect". If people dont want to be nurses, stay out of the profession. I may sound harsh, but I am keeping it real. Can you imagine an MSN with no clinical. Thats why many of our young nurses are being turned out the way they are today upon graduating, because of very weak clinical instructors, already.

signed,

Old skool RN

SopranoKris, MSN, RN, NP · May 10, 2012

Have you thought about working in the field and becoming a preceptor first? Then pursuing your Masters for nursing education? I think that would be a much better route to take and you'd be infinitely more qualified to teach at the college level than just having "book" education.

I'm seriously considering pursuing nursing education, but I know that's years down the road after I get my BSN and get some experience under my belt. I'm switching careers at 42 and I currently teach training classes at the company I work for. I *love* to teach! But I also know that you aren't as effective as an instructor unless you've "been there, done that". I work with 2 other trainers who have never been in the field that we teach and their new hires always struggle on the job. Since I've done the job before I moved into a training role, I'm able to better prep them for the real world because I know what it's like and what's expected of you in the role. I feel this would be especially important for a nursing educator!

Best of luck with your decision

Andy Droid · May 10, 2012

This is exactly what bugs me about MANY not all career change people, people that get that BSN, go thru accelerated programs, hop on over to MSN programs, with no intentions of "nursing", and wonder why they can't get jobs in what their intentions are in the first place. I am in no way saying this poster has done this, just sounds "suspect". If people dont want to be nurses, stay out of the profession. I may sound harsh, but I am keeping it real. Can you imagine an MSN with no clinical. Thats why many of our young nurses are being turned out the way they are today upon graduating, because of very weak clinical instructors, already.
signed,
Old skool RN

Can you imagine the awesomeness of the roads if someomne who has never driven a car in their life was given the drivers handbook to read, then told to teach kids to drive?

RN In FL · May 10, 2012

oh since I am on my soap box about this. I don't understand, how people that have never been in the nursing profession can all off a sudden desire to "want to teach nurses", anyway. I mean many have not even been accepted into a nursing program. I understand these are long term goals, but being on the "inside" looking out, after 29 yrs, i am just shaking my head. The way these people speak of this profession and school, to me, they view it as some sort of cake walk, as you just "breeze in and out", and I take offense to that. Yes, I am taking it personal.

signed,

Old skool RN

Jasel, BSN, RN · May 10, 2012

I'd really recommend getting some floor experience first. Teaching is not something I've ever really wanted to do myself and it's possible you could still be a good teacher even without any experience but I promise you, you will not be taken seriously by your fellow staff as well as your students. I had an instructor who has her MSN but has very little floor experience, she's a competent instructor, but her lack of actual nursing experience shows in a lot of ways that are for the most part pretty negative.

I also don't really feel comfortable with someone training students who will most likely start by working on floors, who has never worked on a floor themself. It's not quite as unnerving as Nurse practioners who have basically done 0 patient care and haven't even started their nursing careers, but you do not want to be a nursing instructor with no nursing experience. But whatever you decide good luck!

dirtyhippiegirl, BSN, RN · May 10, 2012

This is exactly what bugs me about MANY not all career change people, people that get that BSN, go thru accelerated programs, hop on over to MSN programs, with no intentions of "nursing", and wonder why they can't get jobs in what their intentions are in the first place. I am in no way saying this poster has done this, just sounds "suspect". If people dont want to be nurses, stay out of the profession. I may sound harsh, but I am keeping it real. Can you imagine an MSN with no clinical. Thats why many of our young nurses are being turned out the way they are today upon graduating, because of very weak clinical instructors, already.
signed,
Old skool RN

Your young nurses?

I graduated with an older, second-career lady who was adamant on going straight from BSN to MSN in order to pursue a career either in education or management. Her excuse was that she was older, had already "had one career" and "didn't have the time" to put in the obligatory bedside hours. Her first career had been in accounting, so it's not even like she could claim some ambiguous "experience."

MahzieLPN, LPN · May 10, 2012

I'm sorry to say it, too, but without experience - hands-on experience - you will not be respected by your students. When I was in school, an assistant nursing director joined us in clinical one day and it was MOST obvious she did not even know how to make a patient's bed - and the patient was not in the bed! While I liked this person for herself, I didn't think too much of her "on the job." PLEASE get some, no make it LOTS, of clinical experience before even attempting to teach others. And don't be fooled by the popular notion of "see one, do one, teach one." Some of us are repetitive learners; the more we can do a procedure with appropriate and helpful supervision, the better it's learned and retained.

Good luck in your quest.

Whispera, MSN, RN · May 10, 2012

Oh, my! I think you have a faulty idea of what nursing instructors do. We teach the realities of nursing. You can't possible know the realities if you haven't experienced them. You haven't experienced the realities in the process of getting a BSN. It's soooo much different when you're "out there" working as a nurse.

Even with experience, you will probably feel incompetent as a first time instructor, for awahile, just as you very probably would feel incompetent as a first year nurse. That's the norm! Imagine putting both of those incompetent feelings together, and how stressed you'd feel!

Some schools would hire you, but they would be the schools that can't find someone with experience to teach what they need. That leaves you with extreme stress and an inability to teach what the students need to know.

Please don't consider this as an option. It would be a dis-service to you and especially to your students.

HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD · May 10, 2012

I assume that the OP is focusing efforts on a position in academia - & find the PP comments very interesting. I also agree with those who are dismayed (at the very least) at the thought of an instructor without any clinical experience. I'm also very saddened at the hypocrisy - - how could you possibly inspire and motivate student nurses when you have such distaste for the work of nursing? There is no way that the negative attitude could be hidden from students - many of whom look to their instructors as role models.

I want to put in a word for those of us who are workplace-based educators. There is NO WAY to move into our positions without clinical expertise... not just experience - "expertise". We have to achieve and maintain competency not only in clinical skills but also in operational areas such as quality, risk, HR, etc. in order to do our jobs. Entry level - at least in my organization - is an MSN. Essentially, there really isn't a 'fast track' or accelerated method to become a workplace-based nurse educator ..... thank goodness.