Becoming a Nurse Educator

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I'd really love some advice! I am currently in an MSN program to become a nurse educator. I'm wondering, do I have the experience to be beneficial to any future students or to even get a job as a teacher? I graduated in 2012 with my BSN. I worked for 6 months on a med-surg floor where I discovered floor nursing made me miserable. I then worked for a physician's office which coordinated hospital procedures for special needs patients, and I am now working in pre-op, PACU, and a few times a month I work in a GI lab. I still have several years to go before graduating with my MSN, but being that I don't have much floor experience will this be enough to help my students? I love teaching and from what I have seen students are not given a very helpful or nurturing environment in nursing school. I am hoping to facilitate a positive environment for students. I want to have enough diversity to help students, but I also want to avoid having to go through years of working on the floor to get enough experience. Please help with advice!

I have 5 years experience in the hospital working on a telemetry, med-surg unit. I trained a bit in the MICU and CCU. I'm currently in a BSN program and planning to pursue my Master's but not yet sure if I want informatics or Education. I'm considering nurse educator because I precepted new grad nurses and realized I really like to teach in the clinical setting! Not sure if I should be a clinical instructor for a school of nursing or be a nurse educator in the hospital. Which one is better? Which usually pays more?

"Better" is the one you enjoy more, and none of us can tell you that.

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Specializes in Nsg. Ed, Infusion, Pediatrics, LTC.

I have 20 years of experience, (18 when I was hired) and in my current instructor position, I am the instructor with the least years as a practicing nurse, so the short answer is no. A reputable program will want to hire instructors/adjuncts/ professors who are very experienced. The reasoning why is as stated before- how will you demonstrate chest tube/Foley/wounds/Ng tube/ piccs/ port care without having actually experienced it? These teaching exercises are important, as are the experiences that we discuss with our students relative to our own skill set.

Complete your MSN, continue to work in a hospital or rehab and see if you can get a per diem lab sub position, then build on that.

Good luck to you, keep working, get those skills and the go for it.

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I think some of it might depend on what you are teaching. My very favorite instructor had a school nursing background and taught lecture classes in nursing research and community/public health nursing, as well as a community health clinical. She was awesome and I never once questioned her knowledge/expertise. However, I am not sure how it would've been if she had taught something more like a med/surg clinical or pharmacology.

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Specializes in Hospice and Nursing Education.

I agree with what others have stated; nursing experiences are a must. I did the same thing you did. I graduated with my ADN went right into my BSN and then right into my Masters of Education. It was VERY difficult to get anywhere in an interview because of the lack of real-life nursing experience. Book schooling just doesn't equate experience in the field of nursing and that is the obstacle you'll run into. If you want to be valuable as an educator you may want to work part-time in various fields so you have a well-rounded educational perspective to offer your students. It will be a short couple of years to gain in experience and it will result in years of positive teaching experiences to share with your students. It would be a disservice to your students to do anything less. :(

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Specializes in Float Pool - A Little Bit of Everything.

I definitely suggest more experience. I am in an MSN program and have 2 years left. I will have about 7 years of nursing experience by the time I am finished (Not counting PCT and Volunteer work before that) and I have worked from ER, to Floor, to Community Health as an RN. I really don't want to move into any established MSN positions with only 7 years of experience. I also look at this differently because I am a second career nurse, who was well established in their first career. I think that I would like to be in a care management, clinical coordinator, etc type of position. I will get paid more by my hospital for my MSN too, which is great. I just think that you shouldn't expect to walk into a true top of the line MSN style position until you have more experience. That is how I look at it for myself. At least I will have the degree done and can grow in my expertise and move into a better position when I have the skill set to do it properly.

I definitely say to continue your education and if you can, get into a hospital floor nursing position to gain valuable experience. I rarely work one job at a time and enjoy float pool nursing because I get to experience a little bit of everything. If you have that option give it a try.

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Specializes in Medical Surgical/Addiction/Mental Health.
And, in my experience, the schools advertise a minimum requirement of two years clinical experience, but the people who actually get hired into the teaching positions have significantly more than that.

Yes. Very true!

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I think with your experience you would be suited to teach some didactic courses that don't have a clinical component to it (i.e., theory, research, nutrition, etc.). I also think that you should try and find an area of nursing that you love and focus on becoming certified in that specialty. It helps to have an area of focus if you really want to teach at the college/university level. Yes, having many years of experience is a plus, but it's not always necessary depending on what you want to teach. You may also want to gain some teaching experience by teaching CNAs or LPNs before trying to instruct RNs at the University level. I wouldn't say you don't have enough experience to teach. I think it really depends on what type of courses you are looking to teach. You may also want to consider using your knowledge to teach health-related courses outside of nursing. That's what I do. I teach both in and out of nursing. I don't like to limit myself, and I like having other options besides nursing to fall back on. Anything is possible with motivation and determination. Good luck!

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Precepting new nurses is great teaching experience. You will learn a lot about teaching when given a new grad to precept. If you stay in your job long enough, see how much you enjoy working and teaching new nurses.

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Without a successful experience yourself, how will you prepare students to manage what made you miserable, or how to apply classroom material to patient care?

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Specializes in Emergency, home health, urgent care.

Most of us, I think, would agree that there simply is no substitute for experience. That being said, just because someone is an experienced nurse does not necessarily mean they will make a great educator. I believe this axiom can be applied to a variety of trades, not just nursing. You might still be a good educator, as I think the most important skill for them is communicating ideas to students in ways that they can understand. I'm not sure how difficult it will be for you to get a job as a nurse educator with little clinical experience. So many institutions offer degrees in nursing that are almost completely on-the-line (online) now, and might hire you based on your credentials. My advice is to seek out and ask questions of Nurse educators themselves, and school nursing department administrators. They are in the position to give you the most helpful feedback. Good luck to you!

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Good advice from Joanna 73- an instructor needs to know the subject well but nurses will not be impressed if the instructor cannot demonstrate his/her own competency.

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Specializes in ER/Tele, Med-Surg, Faculty, Urgent Care.

Students will "sniff" you out, some will point blank ask how long have you been a nurse. They will ask where you have worked (hospital/unit). Best to be honest. Former faculty, taught in BSN program for ten years. I was once asked if I would do acute care pediatric clinicals at the hospital, I declined. I am a FNP but I have zero pediatric experience aside from ER. I had about 25 years adult med-surg but my reply to the director of the program (who happened to be a pediatric NP) was "No Way am I going to stand in front of a group of students who ask me how long & where I have worked pediatrics. And the answer is no experience".

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