Master degree nurses, I beg for your thoughts

Moved to our Nursing Faculty - Nursing Educators forum

Well, I would never have been able to get a job teaching in a nursing program in California without the MSN. In fact, A few of the programs I applied to as I was graduating last spring refused to interview me without the degree in hand. I'm sure glad the one who hired me took a chance. I LOVE teaching and I am very happy at my school. My MSN is with an emphasis in education and required me to take an NP level physical exam class which has been handy. I also did two semesters of student teaching at the CC level and that has been invaluable to me both in getting hired and in succeeding. The MSN opened me up to a new understanding of nursing and of teaching nursing. I am so glad I went down this road. I have found my niche.

Some of the core classes I had to take opened my eyes to areas of nursing and politics I didn't even know was going on. Pretty interesting some of it.

The education classes were specifically in teaching nursing, and again, had some different insights and twists on things that were new to me, after more than 20 years of various kinds of nursing. The first time I taught clinicals, I didn't think I'd have much of a problem, after all, I'd precepted a fair number of nurses over the years. All of a sudden it was how to balance all sorts of things, keep up with 8 students, how to teach things I took for granted, and what to look for in their paperwork and how to grade and give feedback. I spent quite a few afternoons at my mentor's kitchen table, exploring just how and why things were done the way they were, which helped a lot! That is what is supposed to happen during the field work part of student teaching, and she was really good at it.

Yeah, I think the masters classes were worth it.

I got my Master's Degree many years ago -- not majoring in Nursing Education, but taking some of those courses as electives to my major in a clinical specialty. I took a course in curriculum development that focused on how to organize a course and it content. I also took a classes that included the formulation/writing of learning objectives, teaching strategies, and good presentation strategies. Perhaps the most valuable course was one that focused on evaluation methods -- how to evaluate learning, whether it be classroom learning or clinical activities. No one should be teaching who doesn't have a decent foundation in that sort of content.

I have used all of that content regularly in my roles as college faculty and hosptial staff development educator.

Look at the curriculum of any program that you are considering. It should include courses that teach content relevant to the various duties of an educator. If it doesn't, find a better program.

Good luck!

I recently graduated from a Master's program in Nursing Education, and can tell you that I use the information I learned on a daily basis in my role as a staff development educator, also. As llg stated, curriculum design, teaching strategies, and evaluation methods are cornerstones to an educator program. An example of how it is directly applicable to me is knowing how to design, facilitate, and evaluate an effective orientation for newly hired RN's, which is an on-going process. Another example is piloting projects related to student clinical rotations, and evaluating the results, for future expanded programs.

Hope this helps!
Sunflower3

The degree I recieved was MSN with a focus in healthcare education (MSN-ED).

Oh my gosh! I knew what I was learning was good stuff, and what I may need to call upon later. However, I never suspected I would need to rely on the information I learned in school so early in my education career. My first nursing educator job, I was called upon to write the curriculum for the class I would be teaching. I had no help except for the resources supplied by the text books and Evolve (PPs, test generator). I knew from my experience that what they supplied was not sufficient for good practice, so I had to write my own stuff utilizing these resources as a guide only. This is where my schooling became a great asset.. I was sooooo thankfull for what I learned. I wrote the syllabi for both my didactic class and my clinical. I had to write higher level learning objectives, plan every lecture & all content, & plan assessment of learning both with my written tests & my skills lab & clinical. I knew how to do this and I also knew the importance of aligning my content and assessment of learning to my objectives (because of what i learned in school) and a I wrote the syllabi for both my didactic class and my clinical. I wrote every objective, I wrote every PP, I wrote every test, I wrote every skills lab exercise & assessment, I wrote the clinical evaluation expectations.... I also had to do this as the class was starting. I could never have done this without what I learned in school.

Also, while my education classes have really helped me in the education realm, I also learned so much about EBP, and being a change agent, and leadership. This was beneficial to me in facilitating improvement projects in the hospital where I worked while I was still in school. I really enjoyed this and have considered leaving academia and returning to the hospital setting to make a difference there.

I can honestly say that what I learned in school has been an asset to me in all areas of practice, a necessity in my educator job, and has been greatly utilized! None of it was a waste of my time.