nurse educator

Looking at job qualifications... some say 5-6 years experience only but some say Masters degree or pursuing Masters AND 5-6 years experience in specific unit being advertised. This is only if you want to be a nurse educator in the hospital setting. If you want to teach in the University level it's both Masters AND years of experience. There is also something called Diabetes Educator. It's for all health care professionals who have worked in nephroplogy, dialysis etc. For that one you only have to take a test plus 1-2 yrs experience working in a setting where Diabetes is the main illness being treated.

im entering my first year in a second entry program, and i was just wondering what steps should i take in order to become a nurse educator. is it just masters i need or will i need further education?

thanks :)

If you are planning on the hospital acute care setting, you will need floor experience. Surgical Services and ER is where most of our CNEs come from. They had years of experience and extra education.

Not a field for new grads. You have to be very sure of your skills. Besides working with staff, new hires, they work with students and their Clinical Educators, and they also work with the pharmaceutical and equipment suppliers when new products hit the floors.

thanks for the info guys! :)

Hello there,

As long as you graduate with either a BN or a BScN, you may be able to get a start as a lab instructor at a community college or university. That's how I got my foot in the door. I adore working with nursing students and am currently completing an MScN so that I can begin teaching theory courses as well.

One other important recommendation that I will make (and I believe others who posted in this thread made the same or similar comment), is that you should get some work experience after you graduate. By "working the floor" for a couple of years (at least) you'll have had a chance to become more confident and competent in your practice, and you'll be able to relate the skills you teach to the experiences that you've had as a staff nurse. That's exactly what I did (I began teaching labs after three years of experience as a staff nurse) and my "method" serves me very well.

Good luck to you and all the best!

I forgot to mention that the criteria may vary depending on the "kind" of nurse educator you'd like to be: CNE, nurse educator in an academic institution, or a nurse educator who specializes in a particular area, such as diabetes teaching. I'm afraid that my advice in my previous thread is pertinent to academe only, but I imagine that a few years of work experience in a particular area will give you a solid foundation of knowledge for you to move into a teaching role. Again, good luck! :)