Staff Development

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As of recently, I have began looking into staff development as a long term goal. My hospital heavily pushes for the MSN in addition to experience and I realize that getting one in Nursing Education will be best. But many of the education MSNs focus on teaching at a college or university. Are there any programs out there that include classes on staff development or "hospital teaching" in their curriculum?

Thanks in advance.

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

My MSN Ed program did focus primarily on academic education, but we were allowed to do whatever topic we wanted for papers and projects, so mine pretty much excusably focused on a staff ed basis. There may be a limited number of programs out there, but I haven't personally heard of any.

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WGU's MSN Ed is not exclusively academic. People love the Ed specialty courses. I am curious. I work for a large health system but there are few staff development positions. No nurse educators anymore. They rely on an ever dwindling cadre of CNSs. What are some staff development job titles and what do they do?

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Following this thread for good answers. I have been thinking the same thing. I don't mind academic education based msn degrees. But I would rather be in a clinical setting.

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Specializes in NICU, adult med-tele.

I recently finished my MS Nurse Educator through Liberty's online program. I would say it was strongly, but not entirely geared towards classroom teaching in an academic setting. However, we could choose our practicum setting and I chose to do mine in Staff Development. I enjoyed it a lot. Our hospital had 4 staff development nurses in addition to the Clinical Educators and CNS on the units. One specialized in clinical orientation and new grad programs. Another handled BLS/ACLS/PALS. My preceptor was the specialist in the area of regulatory education requirements. It was a great experience. I didn't know such requirements even existed until my practicum. I would love to find a similar job myself but I have since relocated and there's nothing posted for staff development here.

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I recently finished my MS Nurse Educator through Liberty's online program. I would say it was strongly, but not entirely geared towards classroom teaching in an academic setting. However, we could choose our practicum setting and I chose to do mine in Staff Development. I enjoyed it a lot. Our hospital had 4 staff development nurses in addition to the Clinical Educators and CNS on the units. One specialized in clinical orientation and new grad programs. Another handled BLS/ACLS/PALS. My preceptor was the specialist in the area of regulatory education requirements. It was a great experience. I didn't know such requirements even existed until my practicum. I would love to find a similar job myself but I have since relocated and there's nothing posted for staff development here.

Liberty has great tuition for a military spouse, which I am. But I am not Baptist (or a creationist) and am nervous that their resident campus reputation bleeds into the reputation of their online school. What was your experience with this? Were they pushy regarding religion? They do have an excellent curriculum for the MSN though and I think the program well prepares its graduates.

I have found some CNS/Educator combined programs that are online or hybrid. I guess that is another option as well. It provides for a very flexible role in the clinical atmosphere.

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I am trying to Assess whether staff Ed positions are a thing of the past or a thing of the future, if that makes sense. It affects me because if staff Ed positions are few, a leadership

MSN makes more sense for me versus an Ed degree. In my area, academic teaching positions need a PhD. Sorry, this may be taking us away from OP question.

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Specializes in Emergency Department.
I am trying to Assess whether staff Ed positions are a thing of the past or a thing of the future, if that makes sense. It affects me because if staff Ed positions are few, a leadership

MSN makes more sense for me versus an Ed degree. In my area, academic teaching positions need a PhD. Sorry, this may be taking us away from OP question.

That may be something more appropriate for a separate post because it is a very good question, but not relevant to the OP's question.

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Specializes in NICU, adult med-tele.

Trying to respond to you on my laptop but it's not cooperating, BusiestBSN. Not sure if it will let me quote. But yes, great question. It is a religious school. There are assignments where the Bible is a required reference. Mostly discussion boards, and the Bible is always considered an acceptable source for papers as well. There's definitely a thread of Christianity throughout each course. I didn't find this to be pushy, but each person is going to have a different feeling on this. The military discount was wonderful and the online option was great for me. If I can answer other questions about the program I am happy to do so.

Yeah I do also wonder if Staff Development is going extinct? Seems like it would be a necessary role in my experience.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Emergency, Education, Informatics.

Although the school may be focusing on academics, the concepts of adult education are the same. The only differences are the specific regulatory requirements and pretty much no school covers that due to the variations from state to state.

As a Masters trained educator you'll have the tools you need to get the job done. Curriculum development and needs assessments are the same no matter where you are. The differences are the available resources.

I have no plan on working academics other than as a guest lecturer. My love has always been clinical education in hospitals. When in school unless it was otherwise specified, my papers focused on Prof/Staff development and in hospital clinical education.

I'd join the staff development association, start to network with staff development people in your area and network, network, network.

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

The lack of available programs for people wanting to focus on staff development (or Nursing Professional Development [NPD], as the specialty is officially called) is a huge pet peeve for me. Most academic educators don't realize that there are some big differences between academic education and professional development -- and most programs focusing on academic education don't even mention things like the ANA Standards and Scope of Practice for Nursing Professional Development, etc.

However, as CraigB said, there is significant overlap between academic education and NPD. You can do fine if you go to a flexible program focusing on academic education. Just be sure they let you do your practicum in NPD and find a good preceptor. Also, do some research into NPD ... check out the ANPD (Association of NPD) ... etc. With a little effort, you can get what you need by getting the MSN in academic education and supplementing it with NPD materials, continuing education, etc. After you have worked in NPD for 2 years, you can get certified in it.

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Thanks, great suggestions. I was not aware of this association

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