Teaching at a proprietary school

llg, PhD, RN · Jul 11, 2010

That's a good question ... and a tough call. I guess a lot depends on the details. How reputable is the proprietary? Do you have hopes of teaching for one of the other schools someday? What is the attitude of the people at the other schools towards the propriatary? Are you thinking of making your career at this propriatary school, or thinking of it as a short-term job?

What are your long-term goals? There are no hard and fast rules on these things. You're going to have to get the information on the particular schools, local politics, etc. before you can make any truly informed decisions.

Might you be interested in hospital-based education? Generally, Staff Development jobs pay better than MSN faculty jobs. You might have more career opportunites by working for a hospital doing education rather than working for a school.

RadRNMSN · Jul 11, 2010

I hope to teach at a higher level someday. I would like to pursue my PhD too. I have been a clinical educator and didn't get a lot of satisfaction out of it. Partly because there is no real education department in the hsopital I work at and partly because staff development doesn't particularly interest me.

I have a passion for nursing students. My main love is the research of test taking skills and learning styles. I would like to research this one day on a university level.

In the meantime, I'm looking for experience as a lecturer and clinical instructor. Could working at a proprietary school hurt my resume?

caliotter3 · Jul 11, 2010

Not in a similar situation, but my question would be, "Wouldn't no experience be worse than teaching at a proprietary school?" With the possible stigma in mind, I think I would be more on the lookout for anything available in a traditional program. Your thread reminded me of a job posting I saw often at the community college I was attending. They wanted an assistant for the clinical lab courses in the nursing program. At the time, I thought that would have been a great job for me, but they wanted someone who had a nursing license and I didn't qualify at the time. Even something part, part time, or along the lines of lab assistant would get your foot in the door at a good school. Good luck. The profession needs more good educators.

llg, PhD, RN · Jul 11, 2010

In the meantime, I'm looking for experience as a lecturer and clinical instructor. Could working at a proprietary school hurt my resume?

It depends on the local sentiment -- and the attitudes within the university you hope to work for some day.

I have a friend who works at a proprietary school. She is getting her DNP -- and was told by the faculty at that university that she needed to get out of that proprietary school soon if she ever wanted to be considered seriously for a faculty position at their university. I'm not saying all schools feel that way, but I can't believe this one university is the only one who would hold it against you -- though I suspect there would be a big difference between doing it for a short time, and spending years there.

jlcole45 · Jul 11, 2010

They are saying things like that even when there is a huge shortage of qualified nursing professors?

llg, PhD, RN · Jul 11, 2010

They are saying things like that even when there is a huge shortage of qualified nursing professors?

Yes. The more prestiges schools are maintaining their standards for full time tenure track positions. They may compromise on part time and/or adjunct clinical instructors, but those compromises will be distasteful to them -- and people who haven't had a career that is "academically focused" will be at a disadvantage in the faculty job market if they want to work at a university that prides itself on its academic work. Proprietary schools are not generally academically focused. Their model/culture is more of a "training" model than a "scholarly" one. Their purpose is to provide training to customers to qualify those customers for specific jobs. The role of the university in society is much more focused on developing new knowledge as well as developing the student as a scholarly practitioner. It's a totally different focus, culture, and perspective on education.

So ... if a person's long-term goals are more in line with the mission and culture of proprietary schools, then there is no problem with working for a proprietary school. But if a person has long term goals of getting a full time tenure track position at a university (having a scholarly career, doing funded research, etc.), then he/she needs to be careful about spending too much time in that other culture. A little bit of experience there to get some exposure to teaching beginner level clinicals might be OK ... but if you stay there too long, it could hurt your chances of crossing over to the other type of institution (which is where the scholarly faculty jobs are).

As with the general "nursing shortage," the "faculty shortage" is a complex issue. There are plenty of potential faculty members who can teach beginner-level students how to do beginner level skills. However, there is a shortage of people who will do that type of work under the crappy working conditions and for the lousy compensation that exists for those jobs. And there is a shortage of nurse scholars to fill the need for the higher level faculty positions. It's complicated.

This is where some of the energy behind the push for DNP's comes from. Schools want a supply of doctorally prepared nurses to teach clinical courses. But not enough nurses want to go the PhD route. They are hoping that the DNP program will attract some students who could be good clinical faculty members, but who don't want to get a PhD -- thus supplying them with potential faculy members who can meet the university's need for doctorally prepared faculty -- thus allowing them to be high enough on the career ladder to earn a decent wage to make the faculty job attractive.

jlcole45 · Jul 12, 2010

Thanks for the information.