Nurse Educators, Introduce Yourselves!

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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 ICU/Cosmetic Sx/Lasers/Education/School/.

I just accepted a Clinical Nursing Instructor position at a College for Associate Degree Nursing Program. This will be my first time teaching. I am so excited and nervous.

I actually graduated from this same college with an Associates Degree and went to University of MD School of Nursing and received my BSN. Ever since then I tried to get a job there teaching clinical. It took two years for a position to become open and I got it!!!

I've started my Masters about two years ago, but the commute is 3 hours one way. I am interested in finishing my MSN online in the future.

I look forward to this semester, which starts in September! Oh my background in the Hospital Setting is ICU (five years). I've worked as a DON at a Cosmetic Surgical Center and an OR Nurse. I've worked as a School Nurse/Community Health Nurse II, Unit Manager for a Short Stay and Rehabilitation Unit with AL and LTC.

I look forward to this forum!!!!

I wonder if others have had the same experience as I and how you handle it. Almost every clinical day either myself or a student finds a med error made by staff. I've gone to numerous clinical agencies and find this same type of problem everywhere. Most of them are directly related, in my opinion, to nurses caring for too many patients and so they are not checking or thinking about "WHY is this pt on this med?"

When we find an error, I usually approach the charge nurse discreetly and allow him/her the opportunity to handle the calls, reports, etc. I just hate when it is brushed under the rug and not dealt with correctly. I just hope to continue having positive working relationships with staff, but it can become challenging when this is a daily/weekly occurence.

Do you think I should be documenting these situations myself? Note that the student did not actually make the error, s/he just found and reported the error. Comment please!

I have found the same, every year I teach lower level and we return to the same LTAC. I always report to the primary nurse and charge, but this does not mean it changes. I am not sure if it is too many patients, or what I usually see is lets get the tasks done and in a hurry to have breakfast. I have been to the facility since 2004, and fortunately for me, I catch them prior to the student making a med error which will decrease there self esteem. Just have to be diligent with this.

Impress0508

Hello Everyone,

Today I accepted a new position as the ER Nurse Educator, where I have worked for over 7 years. I am so excited, we are in such need of this position and I can't wait to start. I actually get to develop the program. I am lucky to have found this site and am looking forward to all the advice I can get. Thank you all. Susan

Congratulations, I also have stepped into the role of clinical nurse educator for an emergency department. However, I have an role as an adjunct in an ADN program. So I wear two hats. Good luck to you.

Impress0508

Specializes in Intensive Care.

Hi all

I am a Nurse Educator in Intensive Care working in Sydney, Australia and have just found the allnurses site - looks great and am looking forward to getting a global picture of nursing and what you are all experiencing in your places of work.

The ICU I work in is a general ICU with a mix of Trauma, Neuro, surgical and medical patients.. so I am a jack of all trades so to speak! I am responsible for orientation and education of new staff, new graduate nurses and our existing staff's ongoing professional development.

I have worked in ICU for 18 years and have been an educator for 7 years - and I still love my job!

Am off now to explore the site some more!:wink2:

Hi all

I am a Nurse Educator in Intensive Care working in Sydney, Australia and have just found the allnurses site - looks great and am looking forward to getting a global picture of nursing and what you are all experiencing in your places of work.

The ICU I work in is a general ICU with a mix of Trauma, Neuro, surgical and medical patients.. so I am a jack of all trades so to speak! I am responsible for orientation and education of new staff, new graduate nurses and our existing staff's ongoing professional development.

I have worked in ICU for 18 years and have been an educator for 7 years - and I still love my job!

Am off now to explore the site some more!:wink2:

Great to meet you. I am in Houston, recently new job as educator in ED. Have great ideas and great staff. Also do ADN adjunct clinical instructor. We are developing an orientation for new grads at the present. I am trying to obtain Virtual Clinical Excursion for these new grads to actual perform patient care in the virtual world prior to performing these procedures on real patients. I am excited and working hard at this.

And I also love my jobs. :nurse:

Hi. I just found this forum. I am a future nurse educator. It is good that there is a place here where I can share my experiences and ideas in nursing education. I hope to get into a MS in Nursing Education program in the Spring down here in Florida . Wish me luck :wink2:

Specializes in ER, Med-Surg.

Hey Gallop - I will be graduating in December 08 - Good luck in school. Let me know how it goes. I am deep in practicum this semester and working on my CV and Portfolio - how about you?

I have just applied to grad school to begin my MSN/Nurse educator certificate. I am very nervous, excited, freaked out and ecstatic. I am hoping to get started in the spring semester. I will be on this site to syphon info from you all. I appreciate your help in advance!

Specializes in Intensive Care.
Great to meet you. I am in Houston, recently new job as educator in ED. Have great ideas and great staff. Also do ADN adjunct clinical instructor. We are developing an orientation for new grads at the present. I am trying to obtain Virtual Clinical Excursion for these new grads to actual perform patient care in the virtual world prior to performing these procedures on real patients. I am excited and working hard at this.

And I also love my jobs. :nurse:

Hi - your virtual clinical excursion sounds really interesting - are you actually building the program or is there software out there that you have bought that allows the nurses to practice on virtual patients? I am interested in introducing learning objects and computer simulation teaching tools into our ICU orientation program - any advice on resources available on the net?

Specializes in Intensive Care.
Hi,

Let me introduce myself:

I have been working in trauma ICU for about 8 years, adult and pediatric. Before that I worked in med-surg, ortho, tele, etc, with a brief stint in mother baby. I taught CNA's one semester in a clinical rotation. Previous to that I worked in a LTC facility as weekend night RN supervisor. I have been an LPN in LTC and in med-surg. I started out as a CNA for 8 years before all of the above!

I just completed a BSN in nursing (took 8 years) something about the # 8!!! and hope to start the MSN tract in education in spring of 09.

I am about to embark on a new journey. I will be doing clinical adjunct faculty at a community college for sem 1&2 ADN students in the fall. This will be a new experience for me. Any ideas or advice would be welcome for a new clinical educator. I am very excited and enthusiastic about this. I am brushing up on adult learning theories, Benner's stages, education theories etc, as well as clinical ideas and ice breakers. I have done precepting in the ICU with one student at a time, and this will be very different !!

Advice on running the clinical, dealing with difficult students would be welcome.

Thanks!

Hi - good luck with your new position. You did not mention what area you are teaching your clinical students in? I am presuming ICU as that is part of your background. I am an ICU educator in Australia and have spent the last 7 years teaching both undergraduate and new graduate RNs clinical skills in ICU ( amongst other things!) - don't know how different things are in the US.... if you have any questions feel free to ask me - I guess students (difficult or otherwise) are pretty much the same world wide!!

Specializes in ICU/CCU/CVICU.

Hi everyone! I am enrolled in the MSN program at Indiana Wesleyan University (online) Education track. I will graduate in March of 2010. I am a Certified Life Care Planner and Legal Nurse Consultant Certified. I hope to teach online when I graduate.

My husband has Alzheimer's disease :sniff: so I need to work from home if possible.

I have been a critical care nurse for 30 years (CCU/ICU/CVICU). I left the bedside four years ago and now have a LNC/LCP business. I do expert witness work as well.

I am glad to be part of this forum and welcome all advice! Biostatistics is coming soon, and I am 'way fearful!

Specializes in Trauma ICU, Critical Care, Adult Health.

:yeah:Hi Cvl1983,

Thanks for responding. I am instructing 2nd semester students in the clinical area. We are on a telemetry unit. The RN to patient ration is 5:1, no more than 7:1. There are 10 students with me 2 days a week in the clinical. There really was no orientation, it's kind of like trial by fire. I learned the hard way, what is working and what isn't. For instance, time management, prepering and giving meds, who 's giving who's not. making the student assignments, eyeballing the patients and making appropriate assignments takes up more of my time than I imagined. Some of the things that I wory about are

Julia

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