Any nursing teachers in the house?

Nurses General Nursing

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Hello everybody :-) I really love learning about nursing, and the many, many, many, many sides to this great career/profession!!

Although I have moaned about school at times, Mario recognizes he would not be where he is today in his understanding of science if it were not for the teachers; They have provided him with the inspiration to learn and understand what he needs to know to get started in nursing. Now Mario wants to dabble in the idea of teaching nursing himself, once he gains his RN !

Are there any nursing teachers here? What gave you inspiration to want to teach? Did you need to go to school to learn to teach nursing, or did you just have experience, and a school recognized that? Do you need a masters to teach, or can you teach nursing without one? How do you get considered to teach? Is it always a great feeling to inspire others? Did you start out as an RN, and then decide you wanted to teach, or did you know you were gonna teach before you received your RN? Do you hafta be an RN to teach nursing? So many questions....you don't need to consider tham all :-)

If there are any teachers in the house, Mario would love to listen to you type out any statements about your feelings as a teacher of nursing. Thank you. :)

Mario !!!! Is that you?

We all Learn from each other therefore, we're all teachers.

I agree with Betts, we are all teachers. I ended up in education by accident. I had just completed my BSN degree, I had been an ADN nursing for 10 years at that point. I was working in the ideal job, for my Dad in his pharmacy. Would go to work at 11:00 a.m., have lunch at 12:00 p.m., and leave at 2:00 p.m. and be paid for a full day of work.

Got a phone call one day, the local community college needed an instructor and they ask me to come for an interview. Since I had the ideal job I really was not looking, but I was curious. I came for the interview on Thursday, was offered the position on Friday, and began work on Monday as a Medical Surgical Nursing Instructor. This was at the same community college I had received by ADN degree from in 1977.

I have been in education ever since. I absolutely love it. I continued and received my MSN in 1990 and in 1991 about the same situation happened as in 1987. I was called to the President's office on Thursday, told the current director would be retiring on Friday and on Monday I would begin as the interim. I have been in my current position since that time.

In West Virginia you can teach in a program with a BSN degree, however you must begin work on a MSN degree within one year of employment. Also, until you receive you degree you must submit a plan of action and show progress toward completing the degree.

It is wonderful to teach student nurses. Although I thought I had the ideal job in 1987, this is the best job in the world. I love it.

Pam

My goodness that is you Mario.....only teasing.

I have to agree with the above statements we are all teachers.

When I went into nursing school I knew then that I would not be a bedside nurse forever. We all teach at the bedside, but I knew I would want to teach fulltime someday. So that is what I have done........did bedside nursing to gain the experience with patients and now I will teach.

I am very much looking forward to it.

Hope it's ok if I elaborate on Marios wonderful question.

Should an RN have X number of years experience as an RN to be able to teach? Or can you go right into teaching without a lot of RN experience but with a BSN working on MSN?

Thanks!

In West Virginia you are required to have 2 years recent experienc as an RN in the field you will be teaching.

Hi Mario,

i am a teaching nurse where I live and here you don't need (not yet anyway) a BSN or master, because there aren't any in nursing yet. (wrote about this in another thread a few weeks ago)

You have to be a RN though and at least 3 years on the ward.

Before I went into teaching I worked as a RN for 13 years, in Med/sug, OR, Dialysis, OB and finished an extra training as a pediatric specialist.

I find it very important to have this much clinical experience, cause I can teach from "real life" and not just from the "books"

Well, we have to go to the wards with our students anyway, pro student 50 hours in 3 years, so there is more clinicals anyway.

Teaching is great! Although I hate ding the tests, but hey it's part of it!

Take care, Renee

Hopefully, Mario doesn't always talk in the third-person.

I have ~26 years experience, diploma graduate with MSN

and still work in out-patient med-surg as a staff nurse.

Personally, I think you have to work at least a shift/pay period

if you're in education. How else do you keep up and stay current!

There aren't enough educators, hence the problems with admission limits. If you don't have the instructional staff, you can't admit the "masses" and have high quality educated nurses.

Kind of a catch22 with the shortage.

Marianne is wondering why Mario always types in third person. lol

Specializes in surgical, neuro, education.

Mario

I have been teaching LPN's for 7 years. I love teaching, but I agree that I was a teacher to my patients long before I became a nursing instructor. I have 8 years of acute care experience with neuro, uro, ENT, and general abd surgical patients. I could not image teaching with out this background. I have never had experience with OB, so if I had to teach it---I would need to learn as much as I was going to teach and more because I believe all questions by students need to be answered. (even if it means admitting I don't know and looking it up).

I have worked with excellent nursing instructors and i have worked with power hungry wanna be's. I went into teaching nursing because I could not physically work on the unit anymore. Otherwise I would still be taking care of patients. I never experienced burn-out so I still love my profession. I can pass this on to my students. I work with several instructors that are burnt out and tend to be very negative at times. I don't have time for this type of person---life is too short.

I have my ADN and will have my BSN in several weeks. In this area of New York you have to have your masters to teach at the RN level and many bachelor schools want you to have your PhD.

I did not have any "professional" training as an educator. This is one thing that I believe is lacking in the schools that I have taught in (three different ones). I did a lot of cardiac and ostomy teaching when I was a staff nurse. I also have spent a great deal of time researching teaching methods to become more effective with my students. Unfortunately this is not the case for most of the other instructors I work with. One even has her MS in Archeology (sp.??) this does not make her more effective than my associates but it does give her a much larger salary.

I realize that I have babbled enough here. Could you pass this on to your first person??? :)

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