Benefits of being a nursing instructor

Whispera, MSN, RN · May 19, 2012

I'm a full-time university instructor and have been in practice as a CNS where I did the work a nurse practitioner does. Both jobs have their benefits and un-benefits.

As an instructor you're not legally or morally responsible for the life-and-death of your patients. You are morally responsible for what you teach and try to teach your students. You are responsible for trying to motivate them to succeed and be the best they can be. You have stress related to that as well as stress when the students don't achieve, don't want to achieve, blame you for everything (deserved or not) or want to succeed so much but are incapable. It can weigh on a person quite heavily. A benefit is the instructor can see her students learn and move toward being more awesome than they already are. It can be extremely rewarding.

There is quite alot of preparation and evaluation work that has to be done for each hour in class no matter how long you teach. I usually do about 3 hours of work outside class for each hour in class. The first time a person teaches a course the preparation and evaluation time is huge. There's no way it can all be done on campus. Most instructors I know put in about 60 hours per week in time related to the courses they teach. They don't get paid for 60 hours.

If you're a school-year instructor, you get the summer off. You get winter and spring breaks too. You don't get paid for those days, however. Rather, your 9 months of pay is stretched over the 12 months of the total year. Most instructors I know earn significantly less per year than a registered nurse earns, both when you consider the time off AND when you break it down into a per hour amount.

NPs earn more than RNs. They earn more per hour than university instructors, at first, at least. I imagine university instructors, with tenure and lots of years on-the-job earn as much, however. I haven't gotten to that point yet. NPs are legally and morally responsible for the treatments they prescribe for their patients. When things go wrong--and they do go wrong--it poses a large stress-burden as well as possible legal and moral consequences. NPs can have a caregiver-patient relationship where they help their clients toward wellness. They can see them get well and see them get worse. Both can be emotion-laden experiences.

NPs don't take their work home except they think about what they could have done differently, what they could do better next time, what they might try with the patient at next visit if he/she isn't better, and they have to continuously update their skills. To maintain licensure, many continuing education hourse are usually expected.

What do you want to do as an advance practice nurse? What about teaching and what about NP-ing attract you. Only you can know what would be best for you. I think figuring out your wants and needs is the place for you to start.

bosnanurse · May 24, 2012

Get your NP and then decide ,you can teach with NP degree but you can not work as NP if you take educator track.Good luck.

Whispera, MSN, RN · May 24, 2012

I forgot to include that, if you're a clinical instructor, and your student does something that hurts a patient, it is your responsibility. Your students' activities as they care for patients ride on your license...