Nurse Educator Role - A Fifth Advanced Practice Nursing Specialty?

[VickyRN]

Nurse educators are held to high professional standards and must meet rigorous qualifications. Nursing faculty should demonstrate competency in the three-prong areas of education, clinical skills, and research. Additionally, they should promote excellence and provide leadership within their area of expertise. They should model an enthusiasm for lifelong learning, as well as being strategically involved in professional nursing organizations to influence public policy and effect positive change in the political process (NLN, 2007).

With such high expectations and rigorous demands, shouldn't nurse educators be included in the ranks of advanced practice specialties within nursing? Without educators, none of the advanced specialties would exist. The burgeoning aging population will exert enormous demands on our healthcare system. We desperately need expert faculty to train aspiring nurses to help meet this demographic challenge.

Would the inclusion of nurse educator as a separate advanced practice specialty enhance nursing education by crystallizing the professional qualifications and characteristics needed for this pivotal role? Or would such a designation only erect further barriers for those seeking to become nurse educators?

What do you think?

Please voice your opinion in the poll above.

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References

Mirr Jansen, M. P., & Zwygart-Stauffacher, M. (2005). Advanced practice nursing: Core concepts for professional role development (3rd ed.). New York: Springer Publishing Company.

[llg, PhD, RN]

Simplifying the provider landscape would benefit the patient and practitioner alike.

Exactly. It's too complicated as it is. I can see no benefit to anyone to making it more complicated -- except to the organizations that will make money from the testing and certification fees.

[Tom123]

Nursing Educators do have a speciality. It is called Nursing Professional Development. I am certified in the field. A BSN is required to siit for the examination, plus other basic requirements must be met. If you pass the examination, offered by the ANCC, you become certified in Nursing Professional Development for a period of 5 years.

The examination covers the following areas.

Principles of Practice

Educator Role

Leader Role

Consultant, Facilitator, and Change Agent Roles

Researcher Role

After 5 years you are required to renew your certification. In order to renew you must:

Option A: Professional Development plus Practice Hours

> Hold a current, active RN license in a state or territory of the United States or the professional,

legally-recognized equivalent in another country;

> Hold a current ANCC certification;

> Complete the professional development requirements for your certification specialty which are:

For this specialty only, professional development Category 1 equals 37.5 contact hours. If you double this category,

then submit 75 contact hours.

> Professional Development Categories 3 (presentations) and 4 (publications/research) cannot be doubled.

Category 3 Presentations

Present five different topics related to your certification specialty. Presentations that are a requirement of your employment

are disqualified from this category. If you double this category, then you must present 10 different topics related to your

certification specialty.

These specialties may not double Category 3: Adult Health Clinical Nurse Specialist, Gerontological Nurse

Practitioner, Gerontological Clinical Nurse Specialist, Nursing Professional Development.

Audit: If your certification record is selected for audit, you will be required to submit supporting documents such as a copy

of the presentation outline, abstract, letter accepting your abstract, or a letter inviting you to speak, and evidence that you actually presented the topic e.g. thank you letter on official letterhead.

Category 4 Publication or Research

Publication: Publish an article in a peer reviewed journal or a book chapter or develop education materials (such as a CD or

web-based materials. Articles that are not yet published may not be used.) If you double this category, then you must have published

two different articles in peer reviewed journals or developed two different education materials.

Research: Serve as the primary investigator in an IRB-approved research project related to your certification specialty

and completed during your five year certification period, or complete a master's thesis or doctoral dissertation in your

certification specialty. You can double this category by competing two IRB-approved research projects as the principleinvestigator.

You can also double this category by completing one publication and one research project.

Nursing Professional Development may not double Category 4.

Audit: If your record is selected for an audit, you will be required to submit supporting documents to include either a copy

of the table of contents and a copy of the entire article or chapter journal name with the date and your name or the copy of

the IRB approval letter or IRB letter of exemption and a one-page abstract, no more than 250 words, describing the research

study and findings, and the period the research was conducted.

Category

> Practice Hour Requirement: Completed 2,000 hours of practice in which your primary responsibilities included teaching,

managing, or consulting in continuing education and/or staff development.

> Complete a minimum of 1,000 practice hours in your certification role and specialty;

> Pay the renewal fee.

Option B: Professional Development plus Testing if you do not have practice hours in your certification specialty. This option only applies to those certifications in which an exam is available.

> Hold a current, active RN license in a state or territory of the United States or the professional,

legally-recognized equivalent in another country;

> Hold a current ANCC certification;

> Complete the professional development requirements for your specific certification, as identified above.

> Pay the renewal fee;

> Pass the exam

I am the author of the Ethics and Legal section in the Core Curriculum Text, 3rd ed. In my opinion, certification in Nursing Professional Development definitely qualifies as an Advanced Nursing Practioner.

I definitely support placing this as the 5th Advance Nursing Practice Level speciality.

[llg, PhD, RN]

But Tom123... that process you described is targeted for Staff Development people only. It is not geared toward nursing faculty in schools. That's the issue -- and that's one of the main points of (friendly) contention. The OP was focused more on nursing school faculty than on staff development educators. The many work settings and job specifics that fall under the heading of "education" would not fit easily under the same general heading as a 5th Advanced Nursing Practice specialty.

The whole complicated process you described above would have to be completely overhauled to be so inclusive. I'm not sure that's a good idea. There is a big difference between a BSN-prepared unit educator and a PhD-prepared full professor at a research university.

[Bahrain]

I am in 3rd year Bs, I was thinking yes, but after reading the comments on page 1, I think you give good points.

We have a teacher who also a nurse practitioner, she is joining both together. So does she needs to have another certificate for being a teacher? No, she had enough teaching.

[llg, PhD, RN]

I am in 3rd year Bs, I was thinking yes, but after reading the comments on page 1, I think you give good points.

We have a teacher who also a nurse practitioner, she is joining both together. So does she needs to have another certificate for being a teacher? No, she had enough teaching.

You bring up a good point. The world of education (be it staff development or academic education) needs participation from those in clinical and administrative practice. People trying to maintain a practice while they teach have multiple certifications to try to maintain -- whose requirements may conflict with each other. If we were to add advanced practice licensure to the mix, what a mess it would be! It's already a mess, but that would just make it worse.

As someone in that position, who teaches and maintains a practice ... I say it is just too much! Stop the credential madness! Let's get organized and create a credentialing system that makes sense and is reasonable to accomplish. With each specialty organization and state (each "interest group") developing its own system, we just get a horrible mess.

[Heogog53]

I'm an oddball in terms of nursing credentials. I started out in Anthropology, graduated with honors as a BA, spent a year in graduate school before deciding that archeology just wasn't where I wanted to work. It has a great deal of wonderful things to recommend it, but there aren't a lot of jobs out there...

Anyway, long story short, I looked into going to a BSN school and they were pretty excited aobut accepting me. Except that we moved. The nearest nursing school was a Diploma program. It was 33 months of extremely difficult work. It was harder than graduate school. I was PROUD to be a graduate of that Diploma Program.

About that time, the push to have all nurses get there BSN's as an entry level reared its ugly head again. I tried two different schools in the area for a Baccalaureate Degree I DIDN'T want any part of. One university treated non BSN RN's like dirt; they called us "generic nurses" as if we were an off brand that smelled bad. It was a private school, so paying out that much money to be treated like dirt simply insulted me. Then my nursing school in congunction with the college across the street where we'd taken our college courses was setting up a BSN program. I had to CLEP roughly 60 credit hours, was given a curriculum to follow and I went off to do battle and get the BSN. The following year, after taking a one year social research class, I went back to see what was up next. "OH!!!! We dropped the second semester of that course as a requirement. Now you have to take these two courses and then you can start your three 7 hour clinical courses in nursing."

WHAT???? How was I going to take those three classes as a fulltime employee with a baby? When was I going to fit that in? I gave up.

Suddenly, the community college programs started churning out AA RNs, more BSN programs were put in place and the Diploma schools have been driven out of business.

I looked aorund, wondering how I could get ahead with my education as a nurse and ran into two different barriers. The first one assumed that I was an Associate Degree nurse, so I HAD to take the last two years of college, as well as whatever courses the nursing school came up with. It mattered not one bit that I already had a BA from a fabulous school. The other barrier was something like this,"Ah...you have a BA and you're a DIPLOMA nurse???? TSK, TSK. Well, then, if you want to go to our MSN program, you have to take (hugely variable) x number of courses as pre-master's preparation before you can be an official MSN student."

I gave up again for a long while. I've been an OR nurse for years, had my certificate, real life occurred and I couldn't keep it, but all I wanted to do was to work in the OR. Three and a half years ago, a back injury got in the way of that, and I started looking again.

FINALLY!!!!!! I found an MSN program that accepted me as straight up grad student, no "bridge", no "your courses are too old you have to take at least 30 hours of classes over again, etc". Just a straight 36 hour nursing educator program, something I've wanted to do since starting nursing school.

I just started my first course two weeks ago, and boy, am I rusty at being a student, am confused at being a student on line, and feel that my classmates are dazzlingly brilliant.

But I'm excited about becoming what I see as an Advanced Practice Nurse. Now that I've read more information about the legal ramifications of actually being an APN, I think that nurse educators do NEED to be recognized for their contributions to keeping nursing going, whether at the university level, the nurse educator in the hospital level or staff development level. However, a BSN is not equal to an MSN nor whatever the PhD in nursing is being called these days.

I do see the issues much more clearly because of this discussion- and I vote YES, nurse educators don't get enough recognition or encouragement to keep on teaching at the academic level.

I hope, once I graduate with my MSN, to teach in an academic setting of some sort. I thought that the majority of my nursing instructors(most of whom has M.Ed's and other non MSN degrees cos they didn't exist back then) were the most dedicated, hardworking and wonderful people I'd ever come across.

I want to be just like them when I grow up......

[sateraa]

I`m currently working on my MSN and I`ve been split in between "nurse educator" and FNP. I`ve been met with so much "chicken coop" politics trying to be a nurse educator that I`m probably going to forget my dream of being an educator and turn to clinical practice.

In my opinion, the pay and hassle nurse educator have to put up with is deplorable. Medical school educators are not striving to pay their bills, why should we?　

The comments mentioned thus far, although thoughtful, remind me of the same "nurse vs. nurse" crap that goes on every day. Nurse Educators already have a credential pathway and an unrecognized educational regimen; to deny educators a role as nurses, even know it`s a mix of education and nursing, is a slap in the face to the people who made you who you are today.

[Jstand]

I am a recent RN, and I really appreciate this info, as I am beginning to work on my BSN with plans to go into nursing education eventually. I see the points that the PP's have made.

I agree

[lamazeteacher]

I voted "undecided", when I expected that there would be inclusion of nurses who educate community members, so that they attain knowledge to be better informed consumers of health care, as well as learning the particular subject offered.

As a Childbirth Educator, I realize that there are different levels of preparation for all those who share my vocation. Some are more involved in the educational "infrastructure", others have less formal beginnings in that specialty. When Lamaze techniques were first brought to this country from France, by Marjorie Karmel, a patient who convinced her doctor, and then in her book "Thank You, Dr. Lamaze" a good proportion of American women who had a thirst for knowledge of their pregnant condition, as well as wanting some control of their birth experiences.

When "Husband Coached Childbirth" stemmed from Colorado Obstetrician Dr. Bradley's book by that name, the only real requirement for instructors following the techniques he espoused, (which were similar to those of Dr. Grantly Dick-Reed of the UK) were that they had to have had unmedicated lady partsl births, themselves. Usually they were lay people, although their instructor was a Registered Nurse who worked in Dr. Bradley's office. It had a kind of folksy appeal.

The ASPO/Lamaze organization evolved similar to the French setup, with Registered Nurses as educators teaching under the tutelage of Dr. Lamaze. There were three divisions in the organization composed of Physicians, Parents, and Childbirth Educators who were Registered Nurses and Physical Therapists. The latter professionals have gone on their separate path, now requiring those in their ranks to be PhDs. The public and hospitals recognized the RNs for their superior formal education, by allowing only RNs to teach Childbirth Preparation at their facilities. Now, that is where most expectant parents attend classes.

I wonder if in the natural progression for recognition, Advanced Preparation Nurses included Childbirth Educators, requiring Master's degrees as part of their background for credibility, there could be too much on the plates of budding Childbirth Edicators, who already have time and financial restraints. They usually have young children who need them, husbands who take their time, and a regular job. I realize that other Nurses whose priorities are more academic may have the same situation, but it is apparent that more career oriented Nurses have already raised their children or have not had them, yet or don't plan that.

Still, I believe that Diabetes, Childbirth, and other Nurse Educators of the public should be included in Advanced Practise confirmation.