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/.
: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

This is my first time teaching Clinical. I have two mentor's. I was assigned one, but I talk with both of them. They are great. But it is really learning on your own. I do evening clinical on a Med/Surg floor. My background is ICU. I have 9 students and I had to figure out how to set up their evenings and clinical rotations, along with giving meds, etc. It is trial by fire. I am learning what works and what is'nt. I always get there an hour before the students to pick out patients suitable for the second semester students. We go to clinical twice a week and I send two students out on rotation each week, one to tele and one to ICU. The other students stay on the floor and I assign who is giving meds that day. We are there from 4 - 10 and I cannot have all seven students giving meds because I have to be with them when they give it, plus I quiz them on it first. I make them fill out a Medication Card with pertinant information. They must have their head to toe assessment complete. They even have to write two care plans per patient. Then they turn it in to me at the end of the evening and I review it, make suggestions, and give it back to them them on the following clinical day. I even have them write nursing notes. We don't put it into the pts perm record, it is something they give to me so I can see where their critical thinking/thought process is. This is their first time in the hospital so it is very interesting. I am loving every minute of it. And learning as I go. :yeah:

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hi vikky,

i would like to introduce myself.i am a nurse educator

since last 20 years i have wide experience in teaching nursing students of RnRm degree and diploma programmes i have done msn from a very renouned university from India.last year i cleared nclex exam and at present i am in u.s.I always hear that there is shortage of nursing Educators everywhere in the world.but it surprizes me that what steps as an educator are we taking to motivate the students to come in this field.i always have motivated students who had higher intellgence and capabilities of teaching.anyhow i think every educator is doing her job perfectly.if anyone interested in getting my services i would be very happy because teaching is my passion.i am living in Boulder.pleses let me hear through this forum.

thankyou very much

vimal.

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Specializes in Intensive Care.

Hi EvelynRN-BSN

I am interested in how you determine what skills the students are required to meet during their clinical. In Australia, the Universities coordinate the timing of when students go into the hospitals for clinicals. A facilitator employed by the uni comes with the group of students and takes them to the unit they are assigned to for the three weeks. I am an educator employed by the hospital in the ICU - unfortunately the system here currently means that the Unis do not liaise with us nor give us guidelines on what students are to achieve. Supposedly the facilitator from the uni has to check skills etc but the students are buddied with some of our RNs for the shift and lately the facilitators from the Uni bringing the students to ICU are not Crit Care Trained - so are useless in ICU!! They gave me a set of competencies they wanted the students to achieve on their second last day (!!) and expected me to do them - The competencies were not applicable to students or ICU. The training system here in Australia frustrates me - Educators in the units in the hospitals need to be part of developing clinical competencies and then assessing them - I am not happy with the current system where inexperienced facilitators are assessing students with meaningless competencies - it seems to me that they just want the box ticked without ensuring the students have gained any knowledge on clinical or have sufficient skills to be safe at the bedside. So..... how do you coordinate with the Unis? Hopefully your system is better than ours!

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Specializes in Intensive Care.

Hi Julia

I have a question for you regarding how you liaise with the Unis in regards to the skills required for the undergraduates to be assessed on. See my post to EvelynRN-BSN above for more details. I am curious to see how your system works in the US... hopefully better than our current system!

Cheers!

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Specializes in Trauma ICU, Critical Care, Adult Health.

Hi cvl983,

At our college in South Florida, the students in the ADN program have 4 semesters. I am currently teaching in 2nd sem, medical- surgical rotation. The students have classroom lecture 2 days a week and clinical 2 days a week. They also have one skills lab class a week, where they learn clinical skills and procedures. The students make appointments to be checked off on these skills with explanation, and return demonstration by a certain deadline. In the clinical I try and pair the student up with appropriate patients to facilitate their learning.I also try and find patient's that have diagnoses appropriate to what the student's are learning in the classroom. (If possible). In this semester, the student's are not paired with a nurse. I am there for meds, instruction, learning, remediating; whatever the case may be. It is not until 4th semseter in the acute/critical care that the students pairs with a staff RN. At that point I would be rotating around, more like a facilitator. I meet the unit educator and give her a copy of our learning objectives and concepts, and a list of what the student's can do, and what they should be doing, the unit manager/director recieves a copy also. I try and keep the lines of comunication open,and remember that we are guests of the unit. I find that I have a lot of flexibility in how I run the clinical experiences. Pre- conference's are quick. We discuss any issues briefly, hand out assignments, and get on with the day. I spend a lot of time during the clinical day rotating on the unit , teaching, watching, discussing with the student's. I really enjoy the teaching and working with the student's. Post conference is a review of the day, discussion of things they amy have seen or experienced. I also like to give them case scenarios, NCLEX questions with discussion, nursing math, and skills teaching. We also look at ABG's, EKG's, go over charting issues, medications etc. I like to also help them out with skills lab demonstrations. For instance, last week we discussed TPN. Who needs TPN, why? We discussed and went over step by step the process of administering TPN, with nursing implications. This is my first semester at the college so I am meeting people and learning how the system works. I think that clinical teachers should have clinical expertise and relevancy in order to facilitate clinical experiences for student's. You mentioned that the school is sending facilitator's that are not ICU prepared RN's. I don;t think that is safe or fair to anyone, especially the student's. I hope that I could shed some light on my tiny amount insight here in the USA. Good luck, thank's for the interest.

Julia

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Hello,

I am a clinical instructor for a small college. I am so happy to find this thread because I need someone who can relate. I am somewhat new and need some advice.

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I am a clinical nursing instructor in Texas, working for an ADN program in addition work full time as Clinical Educator at Community Emergency Center. Have worked as Clinical instructor since 2004 and recently started employment as Clinical Educator a few months ago. Have had my Master's in Nursing since 2001. Love both jobs since I love dispensing information. Have gathered a wealth of information here. Kudos to VickyRN and DayoNite for the information you have given. Look forward to learning from my peers. :typing

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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?

The information is through Elsevier. They have two new books about to be published. The first is Pediatrics by Wong (Virtual ClinicalExcursion) which is out this month and Iggy (VCE) new edition which will come out in Feb. The software is included with the book. It is great for all levels. The med-surg has cases that cover all the systems, including Cardiac, Resp, etc. I am sure it will be great teaching tool. Check the website. :typing

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Specializes in ER, ICU, Education.
I have a question for those who are going on for further education. I have an MSN and am looking for a doctoral program. I'm finding the DNP (Doctor of Nursing Practice) more clinically oriented and the PhD more research. As I can't see myself devoting months/years to research- I'm more clinically oriented with hand-on onc patients my passion, I'm leaning toward the DNP. Anyone with experience or opinion? Any feedback would be appreciated!

Also, anyone going to school while teaching full or part time? Thanks!

Hi there. Just wanted to share this.

Gardener Webb University in NC, is in the midst of developing a DNP program with an emphasis education - they are hoping to have the appropriate approvals this winter (09) and most of it will be distance learning. Contact Dr Kathy Lindsey if you would like more information

at http://www.gardner-webb.edu. Or if you want her email- PM me and I will forward it.

One other program I know about is at Case Western - they gear their doctorate around the working educator - so its during the summer only and takes 6 years.

http://fpb.cwru.edu/DNP/index.shtm

As you can see I've gathering a lot of information.

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Specializes in ER, ICU, Education.
Hello Fellow Educators!

I just completed my MS(N) in May 2008 and have been full-time faculty for a local community college's PN program for the past 3 years. I have th honor of now teaching in the program where I began my nursing career over 26 years ago! I have experience in long term care, med-surg, critical care and home health. I currently do both theory and clincal instruction for the PN student. I am interested in obtaining CNE certification, does anyone know of workshops/courses to prepare for this exam?

Thanks!

I also live in this area. May I ask where you earned your MSN? I've applied to several programs and am trying decide which one to go in. Please PM as to not hijack this thread.

Thanks

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I am a brand new nursing instructor adult program for LPN's. Right now it is very stressful and taking up all of my waking hours! People say it gets easier, but I'm wondering if I should have stayed at the bedside!

Loraine S.

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Hi Im in CA, a new MSN holder. Attending different interviews @ different colleges. Thanks to the valuable comments from Vicky & Barbara. Can anybody give advice on CNE certification? Also tips on interviews tooo.....

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