Instructor + Clinical pay?

If you are going to climb the full time, tenure track professorial career ladder, there is usually little time to work in an "outside" job such as maintaining a clinical practice. A few people do it -- usually at the expense of their health and personal/family life -- but it is tremendously difficult, particularly in the early stages of your career.

In the early stages of an academic career, before you get tenure, there is the overwhelming need to obtain grants, do research, and "publish or perish." The time spent not teaching tends to go toward the development of your scholarly career -- not on your clinical practice. There are some exceptions to this and some people find it easier to maintain a clinical practice than others. Schools also vary in their requirements. But it is unlikely that in the early stages of your career, you would be able to earn much money by adding a second job on top of your faculty responsibilities and your need to do scholarly work to qualify for promotions.

Once you are better established in the field of scholarly work, have tenure, and have risen to a high enough academic rank to have some clout, you get a little more freedom and flexibility in how you want to spend your time. But in the early years, it's hard to meet all of the expectations for teaching, service, research, etc. and still have enough time and energy to earn additional money by having a second job of any kind.

llg

Thanks a lot, that puts it in perspective!

But, how do clinical instructors keep current with their practical nursing skills if they aren't practicing?

It's a problem for many people. Some sacrifice their professional advancement (based on research, publishing, etc.) and work part time in a clinical job. Those folks have less chance of achieving academic promotions and often remain as clinical instructors for a long time (maybe assistant professors). In case you haven't figured it out yet, most undergraduate clinical instructors are on a very low rung on the faculty career ladder.

Some people get enough clinical exposure as they teach clinical classes. They stay current because they are there with the students assessing patients, administering treatments, etc.

Other people don't stay current in their clinical skills. No one can be an expert at everything. At some point in your career, we all have to decide what our focus will be. When we focus on one thing and become a true expert at it, we have to turn our attention away from other things -- letting them go. That's normal and to be expected.

That happens to those of us who work in hospitals, too. I have a PhD and have done some teaching before at both the undergraduate and graduate level. I have also worked in hospitals since getting my graduate education. Currently, I work for a hospital and do staff development and program development/management. I will teach an online theory course this fall in a local BSN completion program. It's been a long time since I have actually cared for a patient -- but that doesn't make me less of a nurse. There are only so many hours in a day and I have had to make choices as to how to invest my time.

You'll have to make those decisions, too. If you truly want to be a big-time researcher, then you will have to focus on that -- and focus less on clinical practice and teaching. If you want teaching to be the focus of your career, than that is where you will have to invest your time -- at the expense of your research career. If taking care of patients is what you want to focus on, then you will seek a direct patient care role and have less time to work on research and teaching. Or you may do a little of all of those things, and be happy with the variety -- but not be the "star performer" at any of them.

It's up to you. Making those types of decisions is not easy, but it's a big part of life.

Good luck,

llg