jef

HI! I spent 13 years as a staff nurse working long hours, nights, weekends, etc, before becoming a facultymember at at university. I have been teaching for 8 years now... The rewards of teaching are: better hours, weekends off, summers off, more flexibility, the satisfaction of making a difference to students, and the students who truly love nursing and will be great someday. The downsides are: low salary, lots of paperwork and careplans to read, students who don't care about anything, being caught between students and staff nurses in clinical, serving on committees, and pressure to do research and publish. You need to balance out the pros and cons and what is really important to you. I have seriously considered leaving academia several times over the past few years, but now i have applied to a Phd program and will stick it out for the long-term. Why don't you try teaching clinical for a semester part-time to see if teaching interests you? Look around at local community colleges - they may hire faculty with a Master's degree. Good luck! :)

In our evaluation form, there is a whole section for professional development. This includes a statement "conducts self in a professional manner at all times, eg demeanor, dress, punctuality, language, confidentiality." Another statement is "shows receptivity to guidance, supervision and constructive criticism." I have failed students at mid-semester for non-professional behavior such as you described. A letter goes into their student file. We then write a remediation plan for improvement, the more specific the better. For example, every remaining assignment must be in on time, no more lateness, etc... I think that deception and lying certainly fall under professional behavior and should not be tolerated. The more you have in writing, the better for backing up clinical failures. Hope this helps!