some advice on pursuing nurse educator please

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hello all,

first off, i think this is an amazing site and i have gained so much information from everyone's posts. thank you!

i have been a nurse for 2 1/2 years. my first 1 1/2 years was spent on a med-surg/telemetry floor, wanted to get the med-surg experience and i had no clue what i wanted to specialize in (even though i now feel that med-surg is a specialty). that was tremendous experience, but as anyone who has spent time on the floor will probably relate to, for most nurses, you can only take so much of this specialty! my unit was a 42 bed w/ tremendous turnover!! for the change and challenge (a different challenge, not the ....how long can a person physically go w/out urinating, eating......is my patient in room__ actually alive.......i know this is a bit exaggerated, but really, the floor is just crazy) i moved to a 32 bed adult ICU. this is where i've been since. cabg's, heart, liver, lung, kidney transplants, gi, renal, neuro, everything. it's a wonderful unit. however, i am still searching.....haven't found my niche yet. teaching, even before nursing school, has always been an interest for me. i certainly want to go to grad school. my short term plans are to take a travel assignment in ICU this summer and when i return.. i don't know. maybe i'll try NICU. so, having 1-2 years experience in med-surg tele, ICU, and by then NICU, is this sufficient to take the nurse educator path, or would this appear to be too "patchy" for lack of better words. i realize that the more concentrated experience in one area, the better, but i don't think i like ICU enough to do this. and, i am 25, would like to finish school at any early enough age to have kids, all that stuff before i'm 35. any honest advice would be greatly appreciated! :wink2:

llg, PhD, RN

13,469 Posts

Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

It sounds like you are getting some good well-rounded experience -- and I certainly support your idea to get your Master's done while you are still in your 20's and/or early 30's.

I would advise "finding your niche" or at least having a definite general field of interest before starting graduate school. Most graduate programs involve exploring an area in depth and becoming a specialist in something. There are only a few "generalist MSN" programs out there. It would be to your advantage to pick a focus before returning to school.

Also, you should probably get some experience in some sort of leadership/teaching functions before returning to school -- precepting, charge nurse, serve on a committee or two, etc. Some people graduate with a Master's Degree without having any experience with actually running a unti, or teaching anything, etc. After they graduate, they find that they don't really like doing those things that are required of Master's Degree positions. They have the "paper qualifications," but no experience in doing the things at that level -- and they are either unable to do them well and/or are disappointed to find that they don't like them as much as they thought they would.

Jumping from job to job can make that worse because you may never become an expert in anything -- you may always be considered the "junior member" of the team -- and may never get the early-career leadership experience that you will need to build upon later.

Good luck,

llg (who worked 2 years as a staff nurse, then got a Master's ... then worked 10 years at that level ... and went back for a PhD)

MCH123

21 Posts

Thank you very much for the advice llg. I agree that more concentrated experience is probably in my, and perhaps my future students', best interest. I guess I am just so motivated about teaching, I want to start as soon as I can.

I actually do have some experience w/ charge and precepting. Pretty early on in my first position on the med-surg/tele floor, I was given the opportunity first to act as "team leader", or what is sometimes termed "float nurse" on the unit. Then I acted as PCC (patient care coordinator), and then eventually charge nurse on occassional weekends. While I loved the experience and challenge, I did feel a bit overwhelmed because I felt like I was thrown into it, and my collegues....well, let's just say I was already the youngest on the unit, so to have been asked to act as charge nurse, it seemed as if many nurses, PCT's/CNA's, and even the unit secretaries all had a chip on their shoulders and turned against me. I did the absolute best I could, and I enjoyed the manager-like role, but at the time, it was not the fit for me.

My experience precepting new grads and/or transfers from another unit/hospital was much more enjoyable. I also worked w/ many students while on their clinical rotations. Still being fresh out of school, they appreciated that I "still cared" and could relate to their pain. Ha! However, once again, I was seemingly chased out of this position, b/c when making assignments for the days w/ a student(s) or new grad, they figured, "well, there's two nurses, so sure, give her that assignment, the one w/ one guy who'll be receiving his 26 meds this am, through his NGT/PEG if he hasn't pulled it out, the woman in four point restraints yelling "bloody murder", the other two patients who'll be discharged so we can give her another 2 admits right away"............you get the picture. I felt that many, many times I was not able to take the time I needed to meet the new grad where he/she was, experience/knowledge wise, b/c the patients would not get taken care of. Yes, yes, I discussed this w/ charge and UD, but I guess what is boils down to is that this unit was insanely busy and very low on the totem pole of staffing, supplies, or any support for that matter. This, ultimately, is what caused me to transfer to ICU. Wow, going from 7 patients to 2 was wonderful. Granted, these are not exactly what I call "walkers and talkers", but the entire way this unit is run is completely different - in a good way. It's a shame, though, b/c I truly did like med-surg. Was the only one iin my graduating class who actually wanted to start in this specialty. I think med-surg nursing holds endless clinical experiences for the nursing student willing to dive in. It does seem that the floors "get the shaft" when it comes to support for the unit. It makes sense to me, though. I can only imagine the revenue that is generated from all the transplants which make my hospital/ICU nationally reknown. I was recently asked by my current UD to mentor/precept students, but b/c of the bad memories I just spoke of, I turned it down. Now thinking that may have been a mistake. After all, this is a different unit. However, I am such a meticulous nurse that even though I absolutely love teaching, I don't know if I will be able to portray a calm demeanor when things get really hectic, etc. Perhaps this comes w/ time. The desire is there.

llg, PhD, RN

13,469 Posts

Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

It's great that you are getting that precepting and charge nurse experiences as a staff nurse. These are the types of things you will need if you want to be able to be a teacher. As a clinical instructor, you may have as many as 10 students to supervise at once -- each with a patient assignment. Your ability to coordinate and oversee that much activity and to maintain the respect of both the students and the staff will be critical to your future success as an instructor.

If your unit has committees that you could join, they can sometimes get you great experience as well. For example, there may be an education committee that helps plan or implement programs for the staff ... or a practice committee that helps assure that policies and procedures incorporate the latest research findings. Such activities are quite relevant to practice as a teacher and would help strengthen your foundation for an academic and/or clinical instructor role.

llg

pmchap

114 Posts

Once again there seems to be differences between locations and how educators work. On any given day I have students (New grads, Trainees or Trainee assistants) across 4 different wards (Dementia specific, continuing care, aged care, and multi stream rehab). For me being able to identify what the student has on their shift within the first couple of sentences of communicating, and at the same time developing a good working relationship with Unit Managers and Senior Nursing Staff is what allows my teaching to happen.

My experiences prior to my education role where 4 yrs in a Rehabilitation Unit, 3 Years in Long term care and 3 Years in Medical nursing (with short shift coverage across surgical, high dependancy and critical care). Education wise I have my BN (presumable similar to a BSN) and a BEd (undergraduate education degree). My education degree has meant that my approach to how I teach is occassionally a little different to some other educators, however the reasons I have for using the teaching strategies I use are based on educational theory and personal experiences.

In my experience I have found to many nursing educators are expert nurses in their past specialty area but arn't very expert at education..... For me I feel that knowing how to teach is as vital as knowing how to be a expert nurse. I do agree with llg in that you need experience in a senior role to ensure that seniors on the wards where you will work are able to appreciate you (because you can identify their role).

Cheers - and good luck.

Peter

llg, PhD, RN

13,469 Posts

Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

I agree with you, Peter, that the best clinical instructors are knowledgable about education as well as about nursing. Unfortunately, there is a severe shortage of such people in the US right now and many schools are hiring people without any preparation in education to teach. Some are not even requiring Master's Degrees anymore. They will hire an experience BSN to supervise students in the clinical area and then have Master's and Doctorally prepard faculty oversee the coursework.

llg

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