Professors of Nursing

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Specializes in adult ICU.

"Those that can, do. Those that can't, teach"

True statement?

Feeling frustrated after just starting my school semester again (MSN) and getting the bios of all of my instructors and finding out the hoops they are going to have me jump through this time around to complete my degree -- when it does not seem like they are experts themselves in the subject area they are teaching. At least, their bio doesn't match the subject area they are teaching.

Examples from my own past:

Had an advanced health assessment prof that was a midwife (CNM) and had spent her ENTIRE career in OB practice. We'd ask questions about adult/geriatric patients and she hadn't a clue, but she sure could rip us a new one if we couldn't do a perfect cranial nerve exam in 5 minutes (of course, she had a reference when she was grading us).

Had a family health nursing instructor that was an ICU nurse his entire career. No public health/community/outpatient background at all.

Had multitudes of clinical instructors that had very limited hospital clinical experience to begin with (20 years as they had been in academia that entire time. I can't think of a single one that actually was a clinical expert in the clinical area they were teaching.

Plus so many of them are just so damnned mean. And rude. And condescending.

Doesn't there seem to be a bit of a double standard there? We (the students) need to be perfect, but they (the instructors) don't need to know much more than we do/would at the end of the course?

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I felt the same way about my instructors in my BSN program. I had two professors that were clearly experts in their given area, and, to boot, were excellent teachers.

They are so desperate for nursing professors that the standards are set very, very low.

I had one professor who couldn't, to save her life or anyone else's, use the correct form of the verb "to be." I also spent much of my class time editing her powerpoint slides as her grammar was dismal. She was a native speaker. How she ever graduated from even the worst master's program in the nation is still a mystery to me.

I'm disappointed to hear it's not much different at the master's level.

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Specializes in ER.

I believe, in my experience, instructors to have varied experience. Hopefully they have some insight into their specific area and can pull out resources for those areas they are not skilled. I have heard from many a professor that working clinical and faculty is difficult. Some try to stay current in their profession, but soon realize it is too much. I would say that it almost should be a requirement to at least be PRN in your specialty, so as not to lose your clinical skill.

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What is the worst masters program in the nation?

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No idea.

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Specializes in adult ICU.
What is the worst masters program in the nation?

Apparently wherever Fribblet's prof graduated from?

So Fribblet, you are saying that ONLY two of ALL of your prof's were good? That seems about right.

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finding out the hoops they are going to have me jump through this time around to complete my degree -- .

You have my sincere condolences.

Last year I toyed with the idea of seeking a degree in Astronomy, (too busy raising a daughter). That's how disinteresting I find the MSN curriculum.

Best of luck!

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Apparently wherever Fribblet's prof graduated from?

So Fribblet, you are saying that ONLY two of ALL of your prof's were good? That seems about right.

Yeah, pretty much. The others were either poor or terrible.

Sadly, I went to one of the top BSN programs in the country. Oh, how quickly I was disillusioned.

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Specializes in Health Information Management.

What's the average salary like for nursing profs?

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Specializes in adult ICU.

Salary.com Salary Wizard- Do you know what you're worth?

This is what I got for a nationwide search on salary.com. I hope it comes through in an internet posting. There are also listings for associate and assistant professors.

25th percentile -- 66K

75th percentile -- 116K

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No joke. They are also very brittle insecure people. Masters of "use your nursing judgement" translation: "H*** if I know".

My instructors:

One said half of us would fail, nobody ever receives a 4.0 (sorry, wrong. my MIDDLE NAME is 4.0)

Two were experts at totally leaving the floor during med passes in hopes staff would take over. This cause the entire units of nurses to resent us.

One would offer herself to physicians as assist, and leave us, off she'd follow an MD somewhere to do a procedure and be gone for an hour at a time... only later when she returned would she say it was an emergency, or, that she was the only one who knew how to assist this procedure (in the whole frick'n hospital).

One stated clearly she was afraid of blood and someone her age did not need to get exposed to any blood. (this explains why she would not be available for required supervised pushes, and any intravenous thing). Someone found she had left her locator badge on the unit but left the floor, actually found her hiding spot our last day of clinical. BTW she stuck herself anyway... on a insulin pen. Also endeared herself to unit nurses by trying to belittle them in front of us, and us in front of them. Great.

All but two were masters of the prepackaged powerpoint, and reading from the book, like in church. Not one original lecture, as I recall. The last great instructor I had was my A and P instructor.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

I did an MSN and two post MSN certificates at a two different places. I had some excellent professors and some abysmal ones.

The good ones were in the majority though.

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