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.
Specializes in telemetry, long-term care, oncology.
I can understand the rudeness problem. You have a few factors. The nurses are stressed and busy and have to be "short" at times, you have the culture of the institution which might include rudeness more likely on the East coast big cities, I don't know about the Midwest, but I do know people are friendlier than I've ever seen in the Southwest. Then you have the student's perceptions. When someone is nervous he or she feels a need to have a welcoming smile, and a little reassurance at the start, some nurses are giving them Neutral attitude, not rude to their peers, but to an uneasy newcomer, yes its rude. And some people are just rude. I suppose there is a tactful way to tell them. I use humor a lot. "you guys are rude, I know, cuz I have met nice...and now I know what it is"
I have been a nurse educator for seven years at a community college. I teach first and second year nursing students beginning and advanced med/surg. I enjoy this so much and I have learned a great deal. I have just finished all my course work for my EdD and I am waiting approval from IRB to start my study. Admittedly, this has taken up so much of my time over the last three years.
I have recently made a lateral transfer in my department for a position as lab coordinator. I am very excited to start this, a bit sad to give up my clinical and lecture posts. But I will be able to work with all the students and not just some of them in a limited time, which will be much more challenging for me! I have been so busy reading up on simulation, as we have three adult mannekins, two infant mannekins and one birthing mannekin. I love simulation and I think that it offers the students so much relative to critical thinking!
Hi all! I will begin my masters level education this Fall in a CNS program. My goal is eventually to teach, probably CC level. My husband will graduate in a few semesters with a degree in elementary ed. We are both SO looking forward to those summers off together.
So my first question to all of you experienced educators....is it true that salaries are poor for educators in our profession? I have researched it and have come up with 50K/year which seems really reasonable, but everyone warns me that I can make more at the bedside. It's not all about money for me, but it is something my husband and I think about when we talk about the future.
The teaching salaries have gotten better in California, but it really depends on what school district you are with. My daughter teaches fourth grade in a Title 1 school in their fourth year of program improvement and is entering her second year of teaching. She makes more than I do.
But you are correct, while it may not be all about the money, it is good to enter this knowing about the salary disparity.
Specializes in Educator, Pediatrics, ICU/CCU, Med-Surg.
Hi emmycRN,
The only response I've seen so far assumed you were asking about teaching salaries for your husband (elementary ed). I took it you were asking about salary as a nurse educator vs. bedside nursing.
I can't give specifics since it depends greatly on the state, college and university system and particularly what type of bargaining unit you have. One of the primary reasons our nursing faculty aren't salaried near what we could make at the bedside is that we are "lumped" with every other faculty by the union contract. I have been teaching at this community college for 6 years (with previous 8 years experience in another state) and will just break the 50K salary level in the fall. For many years my students would be making more by their second or third year in nursing than many of their instructors.
While I get the major portion of the summer off, I spend a lot of that "personal time" keeping up on everchanging research and updating my content for student presentations. I also spend a few (up to 12) hours every weekend during the acedemic year grading papers --- with a teacher husband, that may not suprise you :)
With all that said....I didn't choose to teach nursing for the money or the time off. Most days I love my choice; it's so exciting to see the fresh faces and excitement about nursing. In addition, I take my responsibility to prepare competent, holistic nurses for the future very seriously. This means that on a rare occasion I have to tell a student they are not providing safe care and need to look at other options - while its one of the most difficult things to do, the public deserves it!
Since you are just completing your master's program, you may want to look at all the options available to you. With such a shortage of qualified applicants (and more faculty members retiring every year), you could certainly work at the bedside first and bring that experience to your teaching in the future.
Congratulations on your degree and best of luck as you look at your options.
Specializes in critical care; clinical simulation.
Hi I am Colleen. I have a full time position in nursing education at a large state university in California. I teach med-surg theory, and research. I worked in critical care and also part-time as a clinical instructor in med-surg for 5 years while I finished school. Then I took a full-time teaching position in the school of nursing.
I loved teaching students in clinical but I now head up the clinical simulation team that we are just beginning. I LOVE it!! But progress moves VERY slow where I work.
I look forward to sharing and learning alot from others! I wish I knew about this from the beginning.
Specializes in critical care; clinical simulation.
Hi, Iam a Med- Surg instructor in the BSN program- I'm beginning to work on my EdD. I was wondering how time consuming and stressful it will be????
Several of our faculty in our BSN program have gone back to school for their EdD or PhD. They claim it was tough to do while working although most of the programs in our area gear their curriculum to the working adult (i.e., classes on weekends once a month or so). I can't vouch for how difficult it is as I worked part-time in clinical while I completed my degree then I got the faculty position.
I know this was an old post, so have you completed your degree w/Walden? How did it go? did you like it? would you do it through them again? I am scheduled to start w/them Oct 29 and I am just curious.......lepew
I was just accepted to the Walden University MSN program for education and will be starting next week. If I can answer any questions for you, just let me know. Any other Walden students out there?
rpric7990
28 Posts
I can understand the rudeness problem. You have a few factors. The nurses are stressed and busy and have to be "short" at times, you have the culture of the institution which might include rudeness more likely on the East coast big cities, I don't know about the Midwest, but I do know people are friendlier than I've ever seen in the Southwest. Then you have the student's perceptions. When someone is nervous he or she feels a need to have a welcoming smile, and a little reassurance at the start, some nurses are giving them Neutral attitude, not rude to their peers, but to an uneasy newcomer, yes its rude. And some people are just rude. I suppose there is a tactful way to tell them. I use humor a lot. "you guys are rude, I know, cuz I have met nice...and now I know what it is"