Getting the right kind of experience for nurse education

lkwashington · Dec 15, 2010

What nursing course(s) you would like to teach?

TanyaBRN · Dec 15, 2010

Wow, never really thought about that...probably basic nursing theory and some adult health stuff, the stuff I know the best. I just remember all of my nursing profs had hospital experience, except maybe the public health teachers, but I don't have public health experience either.

lkwashington · Dec 15, 2010

The program I teach have Basic Nursing I & II. This is mostly Fundamentals. I teach in a LPN program. I teach theory and clinical for Medical-Surgical I.

llg, PhD, RN · Dec 15, 2010

Wow, never really thought about that...probably basic nursing theory and some adult health stuff, the stuff I know the best. I just remember all of my nursing profs had hospital experience, except maybe the public health teachers, but I don't have public health experience either.

You really do need to think about that stuff -- as it is that kind of issue that should determine the kind of experience you should be getting. Most faculty are expected to have a "specialty" or "focus area" -- a realm of practice that will be the focus of the teaching and research. What do you want yours to be? You should settle that in your head before you go much further in your career planning.

TooterIA · Dec 17, 2010

Ditto to figuring out what area you want to teach before going any further. In my community college the instructors have real-life experience in Med/Surg, OB, Peds, and Mental Health. I have 7 years experience on Med/Surg and am gearing up to teach for the first time in the classroom in the spring. I am reading the text and studying, and it is a challenge. I cant imagine teaching my units of Neuro, Diabetes, Shock/Trauma, Immunity, and Endocrine with zero hospital experience.

If you want to teach nursing theory and adult health, I would try very hard to get a hospital job to get some experience. When I was a student, it was very obvious when a teacher did not have real-life experience in what they were teaching us. They were by far the poorer instructors.

Jessica

lkwashington · Dec 17, 2010

I am an instructor. I see this now in some of the nursing instructor where I work and its a shame. I feel sorry for the students who pay all of this money and can't understand the information that is trying to be presented to them because the instructor don't know how to present it. These are the students I'll we be receiving the next semester. This will make my job harder, but I do attempt to help the students as much as I can.

chrisranjana.com · Dec 21, 2010

According to me, most of the teaching institutions would ask for a minimum of two years of working experience at least in a 250 bedded hospital. Working in a home care unit may not be of great help to become a nursing teacher.

But if you have a proper experience letter for training nursing aids, it may help you a bit. Good luck!

ImThatGuy, BSN, RN · Dec 29, 2010

What if you wanted to teach things like pathophysiology, pharmacology, health assessment, etc - the more sciencey part of it?

My first gig out of college was teaching H.S. science - bio, chem, A&P. I often thought of becoming a college instructor since I like science, but was never turned on by Ph.D.s. That said, I quit, got into law enforcement, worked part-time as a paramedic, and now I'm going back for a BSN while still working LE which is something I don't plan to ever give up fully. At any rate, the possibility of teaching college courses in patho, pharm, etc is pretty neat via an MSN is pretty appealing. I soak that stuff up and have been reading physio books for years. All that said, I couldn't care less really about teaching clinicals and nursing fundamentals, etc.

The only clinical area I think I'd enjoy is the ER or similar unit. The CCU is kind of cool, but all paramedics like cardiac for some reason. I'd like teaching emergency and disaster nursing as well. Administration is interesting as well because my last full-time LE role was in administration so I now view life through budgets, personnel, and policy.

lkwashington · Dec 29, 2010

What if you wanted to teach things like pathophysiology, pharmacology, health assessment, etc - the more sciencey part of it?
My first gig out of college was teaching H.S. science - bio, chem, A&P. I often thought of becoming a college instructor since I like science, but was never turned on by Ph.D.s. That said, I quit, got into law enforcement, worked part-time as a paramedic, and now I'm going back for a BSN while still working LE which is something I don't plan to ever give up fully. At any rate, the possibility of teaching college courses in patho, pharm, etc is pretty neat via an MSN is pretty appealing. I soak that stuff up and have been reading physio books for years. All that said, I couldn't care less really about teaching clinicals and nursing fundamentals, etc.
The only clinical area I think I'd enjoy is the ER or similar unit. The CCU is kind of cool, but all paramedics like cardiac for some reason. I'd like teaching emergency and disaster nursing as well. Administration is interesting as well because my last full-time LE role was in administration so I now view life through budgets, personnel, and policy.

I teach classroom/theory. Medical-Surgical is what I teach. I discuss the patho, pharmo, and health assessment on what ever system I am talking about. It is a mixture of everything and I really enjoy it. But the individual classes themselves I would want to have a strong clinical background. I know an instructor that teach pharmo and should not be because she was an OB nurse. She stated herself I only given a handful while working on an OB unit. I feel this is a problem because how do you suppose to present the information to the students if dont know it.

llg, PhD, RN · Dec 29, 2010

What if you wanted to teach things like pathophysiology, pharmacology, health assessment, etc - the more sciencey part of it?

2 choices

(1) Get a graduate degree in pathophysiology, pharmacology, etc.

(2) Get a graduate degree in nursing plus clinical experience in a field that encompasses those topics intensively. As a nursing faculty member, you'll be expected to be an expert at what you teach -- and in nursing, that usually means that you have USED that knowledge in the field and know how it relates to patient care.

Teaching at a college level requires an advanced degree relevant to what you are teaching -- AND -- either academic, scholarly work in that field (e.g. completed research in that field) or clinical experience applying that knowledge. There is no getting around that. Your entry level classes in nursing school don't make you an expert on these topics; they make you a beginner-level nurse. You need to add to that schoolwork and practical experience to advance to competence ... and even more to progress to the proficient or expert levels qualified to teach others.

Also note that the instructors, lecturers, professors, etc. with minimal qualifications are generally at the bottom of the academic totem pole and have the least power, least freedom, smallest paychecks, etc. The pay, benefits, work schedules, etc. can be worse than that of a staff nurse. To advance in academia, you usually need to have your expertise very well established with publications, clinical experience, etc.

ImThatGuy, BSN, RN · Dec 29, 2010

I'm at a small school so none of our faculty are really experts or scholarly, but ok.

We have separate patho and pharm classes, and I don't think any of them are experts in that field. With pharm, it's the MOA that's interesting. The nursing implications aren't.

I know the salary is lower. I worked for the state and am intimately familiar with our state salary schedule. The retirement and insurance is good, but the salary, yes, is lower. However, it's in the neighborhood of my law enforcement jobs.

The reality of it all with healthcare is that I'd rather know why something works than actually be doing it myself.

Thanks for the replies.