Accepted a clinical instructor postion

[lkwashington]

I accepted a clinical instructor position at LPN school. I have been working on this position now for 3 weeks. I received the call yesterday evening. I have to go in today negotiate an offer. I probably will take the offer in the way because I am going back to school for a MSN in education in January. I feel this is a plus and I would have my foot in the door. I will continue to work at a hospital setting because I feel I have so much to learn and I love what I do. Please, I would like some advice from other nurse educators who are or had taught. Thanks.

[lkwashington]

I apologize for the mispelled word. I am so excited about all of this.

[JBudd, MSN]

I had a great time when first starting to teach clinicals. It just didn't fit my life however, as I work nights and trying to shift back and forth every week was too hard.

When I did my field work for MSN in ed, turns out that I couldn't do it and get paid at the same time. I had to pay tuition, and do the exact same work as a clinical student teacher; if I got paid for any of it I couldn't get credit towards my field work hours! But, since I already got along so well with the master's prepared faculty, it made my field work a LOT easier. So, if your MSN program doesn't have a lot of places for you to do field work, be prepared to start "volunteering" your time! lol !

Did you take the job? Congrats! Have fun!

[lkwashington]

Yes, I did take the job offer. Thanks for the info.

[TooterIA]

What specifically are you looking for? I have taught RN students in the past, this semester I am doing LPN students.

One thing that helped me in other clinicals is being very detailed. I remember the anxiety as a student. So I thin giving the students a clear calendar of what dates, times, and places they need to be for clinicals helps. (But also telling them they need to be flexible so if floor census is low, they may float elsewhere).

I also ingrain into students that when they are in clinicals, they need to remember they are a guest in that facility. They need to treat each clinical day as if it were a job interview so they are on their best behavior. Things like talking on a cell phone, dressing inappropriately, etc, will not be tolerated (according to your school's policy).

The first day of orientation I take students into a room and walk through an assessment. I think new students lack the skill of doing a focused assessment, vitals, chatting with the patient all at the same time. I think for them to see it in real life before they have to do an assessment helps them.

Finally, I try to coordinate clinicals to class. I ask what unit they are n. So if they are on GI and a patient is a GI bleed, we talk in post conference about what issues that GI patient had, so they can correlate clinicals to theory.

I also work full time as a floor nurse and do clinicals whenever they need me. It really takes a toll, but I will do whatever I can to keep my foot in the door in hopes of being hired as full time faculty some day. If that is your hope also, make sure they know you are willing to do whatever you can to work your way into the college.

Good luck!

[lkwashington]

Thanks so much TooterIA. This helps. I will be with another clinical instructor with LPN students. There are a total of 10 students, we will be splinting them up in half. The previous students were complaining about not doing enough skills. This means we can find more skills for them to do.