Salaried Unit-based Educators...

[Wile E Coyote, ASN, RN]

I'm a Charge RN being solicited by leadership to apply for a soon-to-be-created critical care unit-based educator position for a total of 19 beds. We currently have educators for nurse residents and general nursing ed, but the critical care specific gig will be new.

This would be my first salaried gig, so I'll be researching pros and cons to that. My question for now is, how often do you educators find yourselves bringing work home? Assuming I get the job, as a novice, I'd fully expect to need extra time preparing for bigger presentations, but do experienced folks find themselves working at home greater than once/month?

[Wile E Coyote, ASN, RN]

[llg, PhD, RN]

I did when I was new in the job (way back in the 1980's) -- but that became rare after I got a couple years of experience.

Also, I have sometimes left work early and taken work home because certain things are easier to do at home than in a noisy office with lots of distractions. That's an advantage of being salaried. If you have a good boss, you can do that sort of thing sometimes.

I've been in Nursing Professional Development for over 25 years. It's a good field with lots of good job opportunities. Being a unit-based education is often the first step that opens up doors later for lots of different opportunities. You might want to check out the Association for Nursing Professional Development (ANPD) and what it has to offer.

[Wile E Coyote, ASN, RN]

Thank you for your helpful response, llg.

It's long been time to find something easier on my body. I've been told for years now that people enjoy coming to me for my little pearls of knowledge on the job, so this seems like the natural next step.

Lets hope my senior leaders are as enthusiastic about me as my peers.