How much experience makes a good instructor?

Specialties Educators

Published

So, just to pick the brains of a few wise nurses, tell me what you think about this....

I graduated from an ADN program last May. One of my fellow students, while in the nursing program, was taking classes to go towards BSN at the same time. So after we graduated in May, they immediately did an RN-BSN-MSN program, got a job in a small ICU, and just finished up with the BSN portion of it this past May.

Well, they just interviewed for an Associate Professior position at the CC we graduated with for our ASN.

It just IRRITATES ME to think somebody with ONE YEAR of nursing experience thinks they are qualified to mold the minds of new nurses. Maybe they could teach some basic nursing courses.... The "History of Nursing" course, or whatever... but what about clinicals? How can they teach people in clinicals unless it's in the EXACT unit they have worked with.

I think I'm a good nurse - as good of a nurse as you CAN be with a year of experience. I do have SOME things I can teach nursing students. But having all those students firing questions about situations I have never been in? Uhhhh.... idk...

What do you think?!

EDIT: Just want to say that in my state, under certain circumstances, you can be hired as a professor while completing your MSN to address the shortage of nursing instructors. Just before somebody asks about it!

Specializes in Med Surg.

I wouldn't want an instructor or preceptor with so little experience. Of course there are instructors out there witn 20+ years of bedside experience who have no business whatsoever teaching students.

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To be honest, Im a student and even though experience is very very important in a preceptor/teacher/instructor, its not everything! A nurse that has 2 years experience,who is enthusiastic, willing to teach, has patience and cares about the student and their feelings (sometimes things can make students more emotional because its all new)and also has confidence in their skills is a much better teacher than a nurse who has 20 years experience but isnt willing to teach and has no patience and gets frustrated by how little some students know in comparison to themselves.

With that said, the best teacher would have all the qualities of the first nurse i described aswell as having 20 years experience :) :)

As a student, I believe I can learn something from any qualified nurse because I have sooo much to learn :)

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Hey ya'll. I work in a Pediatric ICU and have 1 year experience and am working on my masters to become a nurse educator. I am just taking classes part time and working full time for my degree. I hope to work as an educator someday and always remain part-time at the bedside. I also work part-time in a nursing home. Do you think that in two years (totaling 3 years of nursing experience) that would be enough to get even a part-time nursing job at a university?

I currently have my BSN, PALS, ACLS, and CCRN and working on becoming part of the Navy Nurse Corps Reserves. I start in Febuary. Let me know what you all think? I really love the educational field of nursing.

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I'd want at least 10 years AND his/her ability to know what he/she does NOT know (they don't always go together).

Nothing worse than an instructor who doesn't know their own intellectual limitations, who is responsible for the transfer of information to others. :barf01:

I'd also want an instructor who at least did their BSN at a brick and mortar school. Too many online schools are noted for accepting anyone with a birth certificate and credit card (or money order in a pinch). :down: Part of education is discipline...and that includes the discipline of getting to class. Then the actual experience.....THEN go for the teaching positions for RNs of any sort.

We don't need more nurses getting out of school having to get the rest of their basic education on the job... :down:

JMHO :)

Edit- and NOW I see that this is an OLD thread.....

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Hey ya'll. I work in a Pediatric ICU and have 1 year experience and am working on my masters to become a nurse educator. I am just taking classes part time and working full time for my degree. I hope to work as an educator someday and always remain part-time at the bedside. I also work part-time in a nursing home. Do you think that in two years (totaling 3 years of nursing experience) that would be enough to get even a part-time nursing job at a university?

I currently have my BSN, PALS, ACLS, and CCRN and working on becoming part of the Navy Nurse Corps Reserves. I start in Febuary. Let me know what you all think? I really love the educational field of nursing.

How did you get the CCRN with one year of experience??

PALS, and ACLS are obtainable by any level of nurse.

Personally-NO, I don't see 3 years as having enough experience. Usually by then you're just starting to have the basics down,and the ability to put them all together (ie- the OB patient with DM, and RA, who has a CVA during labor; or the 15 y/o psych patient who is pregnant and has gonorrhea.... they don't all come 'separate' like in school).

But - it's great that you want to teach- be prepared for sub-par salaries, and being only as "safe" as the biggest idiot you have for a student .... definitely need good instructors.

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

I tend to agree that 3 years is usually not enough. The biggest adjustment in education is that you will have to teach anything they throw at you, including something that may be out of your specialty. Also, you have to remember that a good portion of clinicals are med-surg. I am a peds nurse, but I did my requisite time in med surg early on. While my peds experience has helped (esp since my class rotates thru peds for a few days), there is nothing more valuable than solid med surg floor experience. Variety makes you more well-rounded (and marketable). And it takes time to build your CV.

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I tend to agree that 3 years is usually not enough. The biggest adjustment in education is that you will have to teach anything they throw at you, including something that may be out of your specialty. Also, you have to remember that a good portion of clinicals are med-surg. I am a peds nurse, but I did my requisite time in med surg early on. While my peds experience has helped (esp since my class rotates thru peds for a few days), there is nothing more valuable than solid med surg floor experience. Variety makes you more well-rounded (and marketable). And it takes time to build your CV.

Really? A few days?

I'm not 'dissing' you= but that seems pretty brief. :)

I got 1/2 of a semester.

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Specializes in Peds, education.

I started teaching with a little over 3 years of experience. I teach practical/ vocational nursing, which is different than ADNs. I have had no problem teaching the first semester students including clinical. I think one year is a little extreme, but I do not agree with requiring a lot of experience either. If a school requires a lot of experience, they are guaranteeing that only older nurses will teach in their program. I think the schools need younger nurses as well. The minimum in my state is 3 years. Just my :twocents:

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

Yes, a few days. Thats the way it is here (there are nit enough sites/units), and the oowers that be dont see Peds as being that important. I don't feel dissed at all, I just wish we had more days :(

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Specializes in Pediatrics.
I started teaching with a little over 3 years of experience. I teach practical/ vocational nursing, which is different than ADNs. I have had no problem teaching the first semester students including clinical. I think one year is a little extreme, but I do not agree with requiring a lot of experience either. If a school requires a lot of experience, they are guaranteeing that only older nurses will teach in their program. I think the schools need younger nurses as well. The minimum in my state is 3 years. Just my :twocents:

Define "a lot of years" and "older" please (I'd like to see if I fit the criteria).

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.
I think one year is a little extreme, but I do not agree with requiring a lot of experience either. If a school requires a lot of experience, they are guaranteeing that only older nurses will teach in their program. I think the schools need younger nurses as well. The minimum in my state is 3 years. Just my :twocents:

Because you are representing "only older nurses teaching in their program" as a negative ...

Can you explain why you believe this? Why is having a faculty made up of those with a solid foundation of nursing experience and life experience a bad thing?

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Specializes in FNP- psych, internal med, pediatric.

This post is a little older, but I have almost 2 years experience in acute care (ER and Med/Surg), with 7 months in community health also. In teaching PN students with my BSN, and I can say that teaching only includes the basics and anything major has to be reported to the RN in charge of the LPN so that has to be expressed to students also. They don't need to know what a nurse of 20 years understands and sees. Simple clues that something is not right, is what's most important for PN students so the RN can follow up. To teach RN students, you need a MSN which I'm working on, and by the time I get my MSN, I'll have 4 yrs experience both teaching and bedside in acute care. I do think that it is crucial to have med/surg experience since that is where clinicals are held at regardless of whether you're teahcing a CNA, PN, or RN student! Too much goes on those floors to not be in tune with expectations and how to provide bedside nursing care in that setting. ICU is another world and ER is too for that matter, because you have experience, but students turn graduates are often first employed on med/surg floors where the culture of the unit is very different that other units. Med/surg FT, one year minimum to teach others how to insert foleys, do dressing changes, vitals manually, and carefully transfer pts is a prioirty for teaching PN students.

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