MSN Educator going back to clinical for NP?

[saraelizanne]

Hello everyone:

I've been at a bit of a crossroads the past few months, and finally had the opportunity to talk to my director about my plan and where I see myself in the next 5 years.

I've been a Nurse Educator for an acute care hospital for 2 years, and prior to that i had worked as a RN for 3 years on the Medsurg floor with specialities in Bariatrics, ortho, and floated to hospice and palliative care unit to the point that I felt comfortable with the speciality. Prior to that I was in long term care (this was during the recession when NO ONE was hiring after I took my NCLEX).

after being an educator for 2 years, I have found that although I LOVED teaching clinical with student nurses, which is what I did while I was in school for my MSN, but unable to do in this nurse educator role.

In this role, I found myself being in the office, away from the RNs and patients, our office is quite literally off the units and near HR, and data tracking, documenting, and putting out fires with education being the knee jerk reaction.

My vision of being a nurse educator in acute care was being able to round on the units and provide just in time education for the RNs, providing enriching courses in person, and my director had a different vision where education was off the units and centralized and the education/communication was provided through healthstream- which is a great tool, however I feel that conversation and showing staff equipment in person stays with them more than watching a video.

my question: is this a common philosophy for nurse educators in the acute care setting?

After speaking to my director, the DON offered me two positions, as I repeatedly said that I missed clinical time and truly wanted one foot in clinical and one foot in education, and that I truly wanted more experience in tele or ICU.

one position is nightshift ICU, a great option if I wish to purse my post masters NP!

Second position is 6-9 months on the tele/stroke floor, then transition to Clinical Nurse Leader, which is a whole other post on what that entails, as I am not sure. Am I guaranteed that position after the 6-9 months? Is it salaried? Etc.

thank you you for your thoughts, I appreciate them!

forgive typos, I'm on my iPhone completing this!