Becoming an Nurse Educator--Worth it?? Help.

[goingback]

Well, I fell in love with teaching and so decided to get my MSN. Never really looked at the pay before because I was doing it part time around my acute care job. But now as I look at things, I could never afford just to teach full-time because of the pay!! I am in CA and work for a state university--and now after looking at what I make and seeing if I could teach full-time--there is no way. I only make about 20$/hr (my report states my check would be 3K/month if I taught full-time. So 36K/year--before taxes. Yikes. SO I work my A** off to not even make enough to afford a monthly house payment? I couldn't afford to send my kids to their school ($5K/yr).

SO help me understand where the benefit is? I would only be M-F (no weekend/holiday), summer vacation possibly, no needle sticks/abusive pts/family.

But the drawback in pay is HUGE. If I make $60 in a hospital--why would I ever leave?

Hospital has union, unless you are tenured--there is no security in job. IN order to get tenured I would have to have doctorate--so there goes the $ I would make over the next 10 years.

I would be teaching others who will make 3 times more money than myself who taught them?

SO how do people do it? How do you teach and still afford life? Please tell me the benefits--because not I am starting to regret going to get my MSN to teach. What is the benefit of being a teacher?

[llg, PhD, RN]

People do it because they love it. To them, it is worth the lowering of their lifestyle to do work that they love. They learn to be resourceful with the money they do have -- and they find ways to increase their incomes.

But please note: As a "full time employee," you might make more money than the 36K that you think -- because you would have a different employment. If you could be classified as a full time faculty member rather than as a contract employee teaching a full time load of courses, you would be required to do things like serve on committees, advise students, etc. -- and paid more for that stuff. 36K sounds awfully low to me for someone working full time with the additional responsibilities of a full time faculty member, even for an MSN level instructor.

But whatever your salary would be:

For people on the tenure track, they invest in more education and invest time in doing the things necessary to move up the faculty ranks -- which increases their income. For people not on the tenure track, they don't invest their time in such things: they invest it in part time jobs that bring in more money. So, few full time faculty members live on 36K for long.

Another option for you to consider: Nursing Professional Development (also called "staff development")

The specialty of Nursing Professional Development is a career option for nurses who love to teach, but who don't want to work for a school of nursing. It is a growing specialty that employs thousands of nurses. Working in hospital education department can provide you with many of the advantages of both hospital employment and the opportunity to teach. It's just that you will be teaching hospital nurses instead of undergraduates.

MSN prepared staff development instructors generally make a decent living and also have nice work schedules. They are paid on the hospital pay scale, get hospital benefit packages, but work only ocassional weekends, nights, holidays, etc. In fact, many staff development folks work almost none of those shifts unless they want to.

Given your questions and doubts about faculty positions, Nursing Professional Development (NPD) is a specialty you should look into. A lot of people in NPD have their Master's in nursing education: others get their MSN in clinical specialties. It's a kind'a hybrid field that includes people from a variety of nursing backgrounds. You might want to check out the journal "The Journal for Nurses in Staff Development" and the website of NNSDO (the National Nurses in Staff Development Organization) for more information. (ANCC has the specialty exam for NPD and it only requires a BSN plus staff development experience at the moment.)

Good luck to you.