Nurse Educator vs Nurse Practitioner

[Mareshah]

Last year I got my BSN and am working towards becoming a nursing professor.

Most of the research that I have found says that professors are required to have a doctorates yet while I was at A&M many of the professors had masters degrees.

I'm currently enrolled at WGU to obtain masters nursing educator but I am considering nurse practitioner as I am not interested in getting my doctorate.

Would I have better chances with a masters in nursing education or as a Nurse practitioner.

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

If you want to teach, the MSN Ed will get your foot in the door. NP curriculum does not teach you how to work in academia. To STAY in academia, and to have the greatest career mobility, you'll eventually need a doctorate.

[llg, PhD, RN]

In part, it depends on what type of educator you want to be. For example, few LPN instructors have doctorates. You don't need a doctorate to teach LPNs. A lot of Associate Degree programs do not require doctorates either. If those types of teaching jobs are your goal, then you may have a successful teaching career with only and MSN. In addition, if you want to focus on staff education (working for a hospital for example, doing staff development) -- we are decades away from requiring a doctorate in that field.

However, if you want to teach at a major university, a doctorate will be necessary to be anywhere but on the lower rungs of the totem pole. The push for doctorates is there. Smaller nursing schools (not at major universities) are starting to require doctorates for positions beyond the entry-level jobs, too.

As a nurse practitioner, the trend is towards requiring additional education, too. The DNP is not yet required to practice as an NP, but it does seem to be here to stay. If you want to work in an academic setting, the DNP is probably going to be the preferred degree in the future.

You say in your original post ... "Would I have better chances ...?" Better chances for what? To become a professor? To find a job? What type of work do you really want to do in the long run?

Also, from your original post, it looks like you might only have 1 year of experience as a nurse (can't tell for sure). If you are not sure whether teaching or NP is the type of career you want, you might want to get some more actually nursing experience before making that big investment in education. Don't throw all your resources (time, effort, money) at a career path you aren't sure you really want.

Good luck with whatever you decide.