FT Faculty and supplemental RN position

[daisy78]

I am interviewing for a FT faculty position at a community college ASN Program. I have a couple of years experience as adjunct and clinical faculty. I graduate in May with an MSN in Nursing Education.

Is it reasonable to work supplemental while employed as FT faculty? I know the pay is sadly low for educators and I would need at least a job in the summer. But it is very difficult (obviously) to find a new job every summer, so it would be best for me to find a supplemental position somewhere. My current employer is NOT supplemental-friendly. I am in a terrible position now in an ICU float pool.

Two positions I am considering:

1. working for an agency

2. supplemental (minimum 12 hours/week) at a cardiac hospital

Do you work supplemental and teach FT? How many hours do you work at your supplemental job during the semester?

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

I work part-time as an adjunct for an online school and part-time in the PICU as staff. My REAL goal is FT clinical educator in the hospital, but for now I'm OK with what I have. The online gig is work-at-home (obviously) and VERY flexible. But, as you pointed out, the pay is nowhere NEAR what the hospital pays me as a bedside RN.

Have you considered home care as your PRN gig? I did a night case and had lots of time to work on schoolwork while in grad school- you could use the extensive down time to knock out some of your faculty work. Just a thought.

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

Where I teach it would be impossible to work as FT faculty and also maintain a supplemental job. There's more involved in teaching FT than just the teaching. You're expected to go to meetings and participate on committees.

Some schools require FT faculty to maintain practice hours, and those people keep a few hours per week available for those practice hours. It's still difficult to fit time away from the teaching job into the hours there are in a week.

Some weeks I work 60 hours, some I work 30. It's not predictable. I do alot at home too, at night.

[SRDAVIS]

I work as full time faculty and also have a PRN. As stated earlier there is alot of work in education besides the obvious. But my PRN job and my education job or both flexible. In education I may have a 50 hour week (this is not often for me, usually when starting a new class) and some weeks are just 30. I am only required to work two shifts at my PRN job and it doesnt what shift. so it works for me.

[daisy78]

Thanks. I have (briefly) spoken with the Dean and I am to have a phone interview next week and go from there. I am curious to hear more about the position. Not sure where to go from here, really. I do not think I can afford to live on a 9-month contract salary. But the Dean said there were lots of opportunities to take summer contracts. The idea of teaching FT is overwhelming.

Can anyone give me insight into what a full-time faculty position looks like? The university I am adjunct with right now does things very differently than anything I have experienced before, so I do not think it is a good example. How many credit hours and clinical hours do you teach?