NICU to nurse educator?

[jeyre1847]

I am an RN with my bachelor's. I'm working in a NICU which I really enjoy. I've always thought about graduate school, but I'm not sure what I'd want to do. I'm not terribly excited about the possibility of NNP. I enjoy doing teaching with parents, and other nurses. I'm not sure what I'd want to do, just trying to get a good idea of my options.

Can you become a nurse educator with a background in NICU? I was trying to think back to nursing school, but I think our NICU information was mixed with L&D, so I think most of our teachers were from L&D.

Thanks for the input!

[balston82]

One of my instructors has NICU background

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

If your aim is to be an academic educator, your graduate education will be most important. At minimum, you'll need an MSN - which could qualify you as a clinical instructor. You'll need graduate-level classes in the discipline of education. In order to be full-fledged academic faculty, you need to earn a doctorate. OTOH, if you want to be a 'workplace' educator employed by a healthcare organization, you won't need a doctorate, but in addition to that MSN, you'll need to gain some education experience. Most of us begin at the unit level as preceptors- then becoming CPR instructors & unit-based educators prior to moving on to higher level jobs. Salaries for Managers & Directors of education are comparable to nursing leadership jobs in clinical service lines.

[llg, PhD, RN]

If you are wanting to be an academic educator, teaching clinicals to undergraduates ... you are right to be concerned. While I am sure there is an exception someplace, most schools do not teach separate clinicals in NICU's. If you want to be an undergraduate clinical instructor, you'll need at least an MSN and significant experience in a specialty they teach at the undergraduate level (such as maternity or peds).

I speak from experience. I was a NICU nurse who got an MSN (and later, a PhD for some jobs) who hoped for an academic career. The opportunities were just not there as I was a match for the clinical rotations. Fortunately, I liked staff development and after my MSN, went into NICU staff development. Later, after my PhD, I got a job in Nursing Professional Development in a children's hospital, working on hospital-wide projects.