nurses vs. nursing clinical/class intructors

RNHawaii34 · Sep 6, 2007

some nurses say they wish they are clinical/class intructors 'cuz the pay is higher...
some clinical intructors say they want to go back to being staff nurses 'cuz handling students in the clinical area puts them at higher risk of losing their license...
some class intructors say they whish they could just be staff nurses 'cuz they miss the 'action' in the clinical area...
how 'bout you?

i think in the united states it is the opposite. nurses would rather be working in the hospitals where the pay is higher...( usrns, correct me if i am wrong). plus you are required to complete your master's degree in nursing education first, before teaching..not like in the philippines, where it is rampant and acceptable to have a new grad students, who didn't even have at least a year, or 2 work experience in a hospital setting.....to me? i would love to do both. i sorta kinda like to teach. i think you are at risk of losing your license if you don't supervise your students while performing some nursing task...( that's why student nurses here have to pay Liability Insurance...). if i was an instructor in pi, i will never let my students to do something if i am not 100% sure that they are confident to do certain task....that's why they should be practicing in skills lab first, before doing it in " real" patients....i would be more petrified of the students harming the patient, than worrying about losing my license. can you imagine, if they put that end of the tube in the wrong hole? :uhoh3:

lenjoy03, RN · Sep 6, 2007

Some nurses say they wish they are clinical/class intructors 'cuz the pay is higher...

Yup! That is true! CI have higher salaries here than nurses!

Some clinical intructors say they want to go back to being staff nurses 'cuz handling students in the clinical area puts them at higher risk of losing their license...

That is also true! That is, if they don't handle or control their students! Students play a big role on learning but CI have also bigger role to play! I've seen how some students who really don't want to nurse changed their mind because of CIs! Yup! It's true!

For me, both are good jobs! I know I'm a flexible person. If given a chance to teach, why not? But I wont give up the action in Clinical setting for it... Every CI must have masters degree or just units.. It's for our own good... COntinuing education is a must! Sad to say some schools hire incompetent CI!

Hmmmm.... Why not do the action with the students? It looks fun! I've experienced how to take care of almost dying patient in ICU... He almost died! Thank you suction inventor!!! Now... I wonder where my preceptor and CI when I was doing my job?

suzanne4, RN · Sep 6, 2007

In the US, the clinical instructor is legally responsible for her students that are assigned to her/him while they are on the clinical unit.

lenjoy03, RN · Sep 6, 2007

In the US, the clinical instructor is legally responsible for her students that are assigned to her/him while they are on the clinical unit

your right suzanne.. But that was 1st semester when I was in 4th yr. We were trained to act like nurses and not to depend on CIs. Actually I'm with a preceptor in the beginning of the shift. They usually orient me on what I should and not to do... They show me how they do things, then I show them what I learned! After that.. it always happen that they live me on my own unlike my other groupmates who are always with preceptors! But I always tell my CI or preceptor what I'll do next! And I always check my documentation and documentation from previous shift and ask other nurses to clarify it for me whenever I dont understand something... That's how I work as a student....

suzanne4, RN · Sep 6, 2007

Again, it does not matter what you do and do not do when you are a student on the clinical unit. The fact at hand is that you do not have a legal license to perform the skills that you are doing, and are therefore working under the license of either your CI, or the preceptor when in the student role.

There are many that have actually posted here that they are CIs and do not have any clinical experience actually working as a staff nurse, hold only the BSN as well. This is what many of us do not find as acceptable.

In the US in most areas, the salaries are higher for the bedside nurse vs. the educator. With teaching, there is no holiday pay or weekend differential, or overtime available in most cases. The unions that are over actual staff nurses are different from the ones that cover educators with an entirely different contract.

This is one of the reasons for the shortage of nursing instructors in the US.

Advanced Practice Columnist / Guide · Sep 6, 2007

Actually, educational requirements for clinical instructors vary depending on the type of program and the type of school the program is located in. I have taught clinical nursing courses at a community college here in Oakland County, Michigan where some of the clinical instructors only have a BSN as their highest nursing degree. This was also not too long ago (Winter Semester 2004). The students in that school were enrolled in either the associate degree program in nursing or the Licensed Practical Nursing certificate program. However, you will never find a single clinical instructor in that institution with less than 5 years of actual nursing experience after having received their RN license.

In the state university where I received my MSN from, all the clinical instructors have a master's degree and all faculty in the tenure-track positions (Associate Professors all the way to Full Professors) had either a PhD or a DNSc. In that institution, the BSN is the lowest degree offered. The school also offers MSN and PhD programs in nursing.

As far as salaries, again, I can only speak for the community college I taught in. We were being paid an hourly rate as part-time faculty and it was at least 5 dollars more than the hourly rate I was receiving in the hospital at the time but we were offered no benefits. The full time faculty were being paid a salary which was around $50,000-60,000 a year, obviously not as competitive as a staff nurse with high seniority and who works plenty of overtime. However, that full time faculty pay does not include full state employee benefits, days off when school is on a break, and less than 40 hours of work a week. I think that makes it attractive even though the base pay doesn't seem to be competitive.

suzanne4, RN · Sep 7, 2007

And again, in the US they all have experience as an RN before teaching it. This is not what we are seeing in some programs in PI, they are hiring teachers as soon as they graduate with the BSN and they do not have any experience in the role of the RN and they ar expected to be teachign proper clinical skills, many times they have never learned them. And we all know that you learn much more when you actually begin to work, not when you are in school. And they are legally responsible for the students that are under them.

This is what I do not like.

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In CA, the salary now for instructors is pretty close to what the staff nurse gets, and all of the instructors that I know are also working a 36 hour as a staff nurse to be able to cover their bills out here.

They love teaching but cannot cut it in terms of costs of living here in many cases. Sure, the benefits are there, but those do not pay the rent and the bills. They need another income to survive if they have a mortgage in northern CA.

Teachers usually do not get paid for all of the time that they spend preparing their lessons, etc.

danh3190 · Sep 7, 2007

A number of the instructors at our school have said that they took a big pay cut in leaving the hospital and becoming instructors, but they like that they don't have shift work and can plan on being home evenings with their kids etc.

g_l · Sep 7, 2007

i had a CI(BSN, MAN) that almost lost her license due to a student. that's why she always told us to be careful, not only the patient's life is at stake, her family's livelihood (she's the breadwinner) is also at stake. that's 8 people (including the patient)riding on the results of your actions alone. kept us on our toes always.

one of our professors(part time; he's head nurse at a particular high-risk unit in a hospital) left the academe world. he told us: "keeping your head in the books will only keep it in the head. doing it in the field will place it in the heart." he speaks with disdain of those CI that are just CI and have no qualifying experience as a RN in the field(whether public health or institutional)

being a CI pays good here. being a reviewer at a center is better. last i've heard, pays about 800php to 1000php an hour.

RNHawaii34 · Sep 7, 2007

and again, in the us they all have experience as an rn before teaching it. this is not what we are seeing in some programs in pi, they are hiring teachers as soon as they graduate with the bsn and they do not have any experience in the role of the rn and they ar expected to be teachign proper clinical skills, many times they have never learned them. and we all know that you learn much more when you actually begin to work, not when you are in school. and they are legally responsible for the students that are under them.
this is what i do not like.
i agree with you 100%.