Masters in Nursing Education - job potential?

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Hello,

I am interested in pursuing a masters in nursing education. I would love to be a preceptor for nursing students, teach at a college of nursing, and have my own clinical group. Does anyone have any experience with this degree, what the program was like and what types of jobs you can land with this type of degree?

How much RN experience is usually required in order to begin teaching nursing students?

Can you still work as an RN in a hospital and also work as a nurse educator at a College of Nursing?

Thanks!!

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

WOOT WOOT!!!

Welcome to my 'tribe'. I'm a (non-academic) nurse educator - in a health care system educational leadership position. We desperately need more qualified nurse educators so I am very happy whenever one of our 'younglings' expresses an interest. :D

You will need to achieve a high level of clinical competence in order to serve as a clinical instructor/educator. But there are interim steps you should take along the way. First, you need to master your own clinical setting. Really dig in and make sure you are the best at what you do. Get certified in your specialty. Volunteer to serve as a preceptor and learn how to coach and mentor effectively. Become a BLS instructor. Do inservices. Become a unit-based educator. Learn about the legal and regulatory issues that affect educators. Learn about instructional design & evaluation methods. Dip a toe into psychometrics (sounds scarier than it is). All this will help you begin to think like an educator - we're a bit different.

Many nursing schools are more than willing to hire MSNs as clinical instructors if they have a background in education & demonstrated clinical expertise. But prepare yourself for a salary shock - it's much lower than you could imagine, and most jobs are part time only. In order to be an effective clinical instructor, you will have to maintain clinical competency so most schools encourage instructors to have some ongoing work in a direct care nursing position. So, combining a nursing job & clinical instructor job is really ideal. Some large hospitals actually have positions that are designed just for this purpose - to provide support for local nursing programs.

Bottom line: the quality of your experience is more important than the quantity when it comes to preparation for becoming a clinical instructor. A couple of years of fast-track, intense growth would be just as valuable as 5 years of ho-hum work.

As you move along, I hope you keep the idea of a doctorate in mind as an eventual goal so you will be able to move into a position of influence with nursing education when you are ready to do so.

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

Pursuing MSN in education here as well. :) Love hearing from those who are paving the way for us coming up behind them.

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