Experience needed to be a good clinical instructor

[MorganRNBSN]

Hello!

Sorry if this is long, I thought I would explain my thought process. I have a year of experience in a burn unit but despite loving it, I was burnt out working night shift and was itching for a change. I recently changed jobs to a circulator in the OR thinking I would like trying something outside of bedside but found a whole new set of problems that is making me more burnt out than my last job; however, I highly value the information I’m learning and love learning new specialties. I started looking at future nursing careers that I would enjoy in light of not being as happy with the OR as I expected and started looking into being a nurse instructor. I’ve always had it in the back of my mind because I enjoy teaching and I think I’m generally good at it because of my patience. I’ve thought about going back to the burn unit to get more beside experience as I feel like I left too quick and it would be better experience than the OR for being a nurse instructor but I’m not sure if it will be enough. At the burn unit, we take care of all levels of acuity (med/surg, tele, ICU); however, we only have 2 patients no matter the acuity and there isn’t as broad of patient problems as a normal medsurg/tele unit. After working burn, I said I never wanted to work any other bedside job and was wondering if that should be sufficient enough to be a nursing instructor? 
 

thank you for any insight! Looking for different perspectives.

[PeachTea7, BSN]

Hey MorganRNBSN!

As a fairly new nurse with almost 4 years of Med-Surg experience. I can tell you that experience is everything in nursing! 
 

I have a lot of respect for those seasoned nurses because they usually have “been there, done that”. 
I have learned a lot during my first years of nursing and improve a lot on my skills to the point that I have been receiving compliments by  two clinical instructors and a couple of nursing students over the last two years. I have also been encouraged to consider teaching clinicals. 
 

If you find that a specific unit made you feel burn out! Transfer to another unit, or hospital. 
I worked my first year at a busy community hospital and was challenged a lot and worked really hard. But the unit was not well managed and my hours were crazy: 40 hours a week on a busy Med-Surg floor. 
I waited a year before thinking of going somewhere else… I applied at a smaller hospital and I am very happy working in a Med-Surg floor. 
 

Most clinical instructors have a vast experience in one or two fields and that definitely shows when they are teaching students. 
Those type of instructors give the best education and tips!