Nurse Educators, Introduce Yourselves!

VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN · Jul 3, 2004

Welcome to the Nurse Educator Forum. It is my desire that you find this a warm, inviting place and will come here often for friendly, collegial discussions.

Let me introduce myself: I have been an ADN nurse educator in a small community college in North Carolina for the past two years. My areas of specialty are medical-surgical, OBGYN and immediate newborn, and cardiac nursing. In addition to teaching, I conduct clinicals on general medical-surgical, PEDS, postpartum, and cardiac step-down units. Along with being a full time nursing instructor, I am working on my Masters in Nursing Education. I am enrolled in a fully online curricula and have been very satisfied with this so far.

I have learned much these past two years but, I have so much more to learn! I look forward to hearing from you.

renerian, BSN, RN · Jul 8, 2004

I know there has to be more than just these two replies! I am a SDC/Quality Manager for a home health agency.

renerian

graybar hilton · Jul 9, 2004

I am a certified nurses assistant instructor both on the high school vocational level and the community college level. I have been teaching two years, after having been in corrections for 7 years.

I am grateful to find a Nursing Educator forum on this web page. I will be glad to bounce policies, procedures and overall rules and regs off of anyone willing to talk.

I am currently enrolled in a totally online curricula as well for my BSN. I will be done in Dec. Then on to the MSN, so that I can teach nursing students, with the goal of an online program facilitator in the fairly forseeable future.

Greetings to this forum.

renerian, BSN, RN · Jul 9, 2004

Nice to meet you. Good luck on your schooling. I got my BS/MS distance. Was alot of work. My major was nutrition. I know more about nutrition now than ever thought I would. LOL.

I have challenges related to staff workloads/paperwork burden in home health.

renerian

VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN · Jul 9, 2004

Welcome Graybar to the forum!

We certainly need more nurse educators, as the shortage in our field is fast becoming CRITICAL. If there is anything we can do to guide or encourage you in your studies, please let us know. :)

I obtained my BSN in 3 semesters--was 2/3's online at the time. Still had to go to campus or to a clinical site at least one day/week. Am presently enrolled in an MSN-Nurse Educator curriculum that is 100% online. Really enjoy the flexibility of totally online schooling and not being required to travel anywhere.

BeenThereDoneThat74, MSN, RN · Jul 9, 2004

I am in an MSN/Education program, and will finish in 2 yrs. I am originally an ADN grad, then BSN. Most of my experience is in peds, with an emphasis on Oncology, and chronic/special needs kids. I have done some general peds and PICU. I have med/surg experience From 5yrs ago. I also just began per-diem supervising at the chronic kids facility. I am very excited about becoming an educator.

Now that I've given you guys my story, here's my question: since I have no OB experience, will this be an issue? I understand many programs lump peds and OB together. I really don't know anything (except for my very uneventful labor and delivery of my own child) about OB. It's not that I don't want to learn it, but it's not easy to transition again to a new specalty. Any advice? Will I still be able to teach without that experience?

VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN · Jul 10, 2004

I am in an MSN/Education program, and will finish in 2 yrs. I am originally an ADN grad, then BSN. Most of my experience is in peds, with an emphasis on Oncology, and chronic/special needs kids. I have done some general peds and PICU. I have med/surg experience From 5yrs ago. I also just began per-diem supervising at the chronic kids facility. I am very excited about becoming an educator.
Now that I've given you guys my story, here's my question: since I have no OB experience, will this be an issue? I understand many programs lump peds and OB together. I really don't know anything (except for my very uneventful labor and delivery of my own child) about OB. It's not that I don't want to learn it, but it's not easy to transition again to a new specalty. Any advice? Will I still be able to teach without that experience?

Welcome, Bonemarrowrn to the forum!

If you end up teaching ADN's at the community college level, you will end up being stretched in many ways. You will end up teaching many subjects in which you had little to no patient care experience (and finding to your amazement that you enjoy or thrive in these subjects).

In my case, I had very little pediatric patient care experience (I was more a mother-baby RN--BIG difference! :rotfl: ), but now I am having a clinical on a PEDS floor with sick babies and children on monitors.

Just try to keep a positive mind set. It is challenging, but you can do it!

BeenThereDoneThat74, MSN, RN · Jul 10, 2004

Thanks, Vicky. Part of me was thinking, 'should I expand my horizons to make myself more marketable?', but I'm getting the feeling that I don't need to. But in the same respect, I could be expected to take on anything, and will be, regardless of my experience. I guess I'll get a job either way, right?

The ADN program I was in had a separate OB and Peds instructor. It was a small, hospital based program, with only one class per level. Therefore, the peds instructor only taught peds inone semester, and taught med/surg clinicals the other semester. I was wondering if other schools are similar.

VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN · Jul 10, 2004

The ADN program I was in had a separate OB and Peds instructor. It was a small, hospital based program, with only one class per level. Therefore, the peds instructor only taught peds inone semester, and taught med/surg clinicals the other semester. I was wondering if other schools are similar.

Depends entirely on the school and the way the curriculum is set up. In some programs, peds is integrated with the other subjects; in most, peds is a separate subject. In our program, an entire semester is devoted exclusively to peds. Then, half of the next semester is devoted to OB and newborn. Most small ADN programs cannot afford to have separate instructors for such broad subjects; the ADN instructor therefore has to be a "jack-of-all-trades" with lectures and clinicals. Sounds like you're flexible, so you will do fine. :) In terms of marketability, there is such a critical shortage of nurse educators now (average age of nursing faculty is around 52)--and soon to be a crisis as the faculty begin to retire en masse. There are not many nurse educators in training to replace them. You should have no trouble finding a job.

BeenThereDoneThat74, MSN, RN · Jul 10, 2004

In terms of marketability, there is such a critical shortage of nurse educators now (average age of nursing faculty is around 52)--and soon to be a crisis as the faculty begin to retire en masse.

Yikes!! Boy, will I be the baby (just like whan I started nursing)!! :chair: :rotfl:

gerinurse10 · Jul 12, 2004

Hello! Nice to meet all of you. I have just been accepted to an MSN program with a concentration in education & community/public health nursing. My ultimate goal is to teach in a BSN/MSN program that specializes in the comm.health field. I have been a homecare (geriatric) nurse for 10 years. I have been a case manager, QI coordinator, nurse liaison and project manager. This was all in one company, you have got to love nursing! Presently, I am a supervisor of an assisted living agency and will be able to go part time while I am in school. I have been ready to move on to a new level and found that I loved this MSN program that I will be starting in September. I'm so excited. I do have my reservations due to the fact that I have no hospital experience and really have no interest in it so I wonder if there is a job for me? I figure if anything I can get an adjunct position and still work my comm. health positions. Any comments on my job outlook after graduation? :)