BamaRN10

Thanks HouTx for the info. For me, I enjoy teaching and have been told I am good with it when it comes to pt. teaching and peer to peer explanations of information or skills for which I have a solid knowledge base. I think what you have touched on (from a nurse educator perspective) is a challenge, primarily because it is results oriented and some nurses don't want to hear what you have to say (they only want enough info to get them through another day). Although I am not ruling out a nurse educator on a clinical level, I am more attracted to teaching students. I want to work with those that are open and are trying to learn. I enjoy discussing and breaking down the disease processes, how treatments affect them and building the critical thinking of an individual. I found that while I was in nursing school for my ADN that things were hard for the wrong reasons many times. The best teacher in my ADN program (consensus among my classmates) broke things down on a layman level and built it back up to a nurse perspective. We all left her class that semester thinking, "wow, if only every instructor in this program was THAT good." I would like to be like that. As I alluded to before, nurses (with more than a few years experience) typically find a nurse educator to be, not a educational resource but, a policy implementer infringing upon their years of "tried and true" practice. I've witnessed this all too often and I'm not sure I want to fight the Nurse Ratcheds of the world with a bevy of fliers and tri-fold posters while being judged on a fluctuating nosocomial infection percentage each month. Back to my original post, it is two fold: 1) making more money today and 2) teaching in the future. Although expanding my income is a primary consideration for now, it is because I want to push myself so that I am able to coast financially later. When I get to the point where I am ready to make a move to education, money (for the most part) will not be a motivating factor at that point.

So I am an ADN-RN who will be done with my BSN in August. I am weighing my Master's options for two reasons: 1) I would like to increase my income potential, while staying in the clinical setting (i.e. I don't care for management) and 2) I would like to teach in the future. So I would like to know opinions on Master's options: what are more desirable/ easiest to find jobs? I mean there are several tracks CNS, CRNP, et al, but there are also sub-tracks for these: Family NP, Acute Care NP, etc. Ultimately I could teach with any of these, but what makes me the most marketable going forward? As a side note, I have worked primarily in Cardiac Stepdown (currently) and general med/surg; I like the cardiac, but I am not married to it. Also, I am NOT considering CRNA as an option at this time. Thanks in advance, Mike