Transitioning to Nurse Educator?

dudette10, MSN, RN · Mar 31, 2019

For academic nurse educator, it really depends on the type of program/school you will be teaching for to determine if you can get by with an MSN or need a doctorate to even get your foot in the door. An MSN is always required; doctorate is always encouraged and may be required.

For programs, my opinion is to stay away from the for-profits. I know that some swear by them, but I've precepted a few from the for-profits, and it makes me wonder about the curricula.

You will also be limited to what you can teach based on your job experience, as that is a requirement of the HLC. You must be credentialed to teach the classes you teach. Your experience would be very appropriate for community health classes and any of the three Ps (patho, pharm, physical assessment).

Adjuncts get very, very low pay. You can't make a career out of it, but you could do it on the side.

I work in a year-round program, so I don't have summers off. I work A LOT but mainly because I over-extend myself in committee work and the like, and I have a lot of grading in the classes I teach.

There are so many variables to nursing education that it's difficult to give a single overview on it.

allnurses Guide · Apr 1, 2019

If you are wanting to go into professional development (Nurse Educator in acute care), you are going to need to get out of case management and home health and get back into the acute care environment for a couple of years along with obtain a minimum of your MSN.

Nei77, MSN · May 15, 2019

Here is my personal experience I hope it helps. I started teaching Med Surg I Clinicals as an adjunct for the same, not for profit public university I completed my BSN at, I did this with my BSN. Even though I enjoyed it, I did this while still working in an acute setting and did not enjoy having to grade papers during the weekends. As I was doing that as an Adjunct twice a week, I was completing my MSN-Ed online. Then, I quit my acute care job and started teaching part-time at the community college in my city for the CNA program. In my state, the students have to complete a CNA program to be accepted into nursing school so it is like a Fundamentals course. The CNA teaching, although not nursing, it gave me the classroom experience. I completed my masters and got offered a 9-month Lecturer position at the same school that I was teaching the clinical for the BSN program.

On the pay side, I got paid $35/hour for the nursing clinicals as an adjunct (they pay $42/hour with a completed master), and $37/hour for the CNA program. The 9-month lecturer position pay is 65k to 70k depending on clinical and didactic experience.

What I know about the 9-month contract based on talking with other faculty...... I would have to teach 24 credits a year which equals to 3 courses a semester so It can be something like 2 clinicals and 1 course. I don't have to be on campus if the students are not there, so I get 3 weeks off for Christmas and about 10 in the summer. I get all the holidays, spring break, school recess off. The pay is spread out in 12 months so I don't spend the summer without a paycheck. You do have to be involved in committees and of course curriculum and development. I have the option to teach online during the summers for extra income.

If I want a Professor position or teach online for strictly online schools, like WGU, you do need a terminal degree (DNP, Ph.D.)

I hope this helps, you can PM me if you would like. Good luck in your future endeavors.

syoung078, BSN · May 16, 2019

12 hours ago, Nei77 said:
Here is my personal experience I hope it helps. I started teaching Med Surg I Clinicals as an adjunct for the same, not for profit public university I completed my BSN at, I did this with my BSN. Even though I enjoyed it, I did this while still working in an acute setting and did not enjoy having to grade papers during the weekends. As I was doing that as an Adjunct twice a week, I was completing my MSN-Ed online. Then, I quit my acute care job and started teaching part-time at the community college in my city for the CNA program. In my state, the students have to complete a CNA program to be accepted into nursing school so it is like a Fundamentals course. The CNA teaching, although not nursing, it gave me the classroom experience. I completed my masters and got offered a 9-month Lecturer position at the same school that I was teaching the clinical for the BSN program.
On the pay side, I got paid $35/hour for the nursing clinicals as an adjunct (they pay $42/hour with a completed master), and $37/hour for the CNA program. The 9-month lecturer position pay is 65k to 70k depending on clinical and didactic experience.
What I know about the 9-month contract based on talking with other faculty...... I would have to teach 24 credits a year which equals to 3 courses a semester so It can be something like 2 clinicals and 1 course. I don't have to be on campus if the students are not there, so I get 3 weeks off for Christmas and about 10 in the summer. I get all the holidays, spring break, school recess off. The pay is spread out in 12 months so I don't spend the summer without a paycheck. You do have to be involved in committees and of course curriculum and development. I have the option to teach online during the summers for extra income.
If I want a Professor position or teach online for strictly online schools, like WGU, you do need a terminal degree (DNP, Ph.D.)
I hope this helps, you can PM me if you would like. Good luck in your future endeavors.

Thank you so much for the input, this was really helpful! Just curious what state you work in because I know the pay may vary from state to state. Also any tips on the online MSN? This will most likely be the route I go while working and was just curious where you went through for it and if you had any issues with it? Thanks again!

Nei77, MSN · May 16, 2019

I live in NC, although I know the pay varies from city to city within the state. I interviewed at Chamberlain and the pay was $50/hour clinical instructor, but they require a lot of paperwork so it would add up at least 5-7 hours weekly of extra work outside of clinicals which would bring the actual pay per hour a little lower. I have a friend that just accepted at ECPI and they are paying her $40/hour. I also have a friend in Miami, FL working for a technical school like ECPI and she is getting paid $45/hourly. And I know at the community college for the ASN program the pay is $42/hour.

I did my MSN-Ed at Western Governors University WGU. I loved it! It is self-paced so you can do as little or as much as you want, the trick is...the longer you take to finish the degree the more expensive it is. The tuition is a set rate per semester regardless of the number of courses. The tuition is around $3700 to$4000 per semester. I finished my degree in 10 months. I paid monthly and the total was close to $8000 for my masters, without any debt left. It is CCNE accredited. Of course, I did not have a social life during that time, but I had a goal in mind. Contrary to what some people believe, I feel that I learned a lot.

The two things I did not like about the program was having to talk to my mentor every other week (this is very personal because I did not need to be mentored as I was very motivated but I understand other people might need it and I appreciated the service). The other thing was that I was a guinea pig for the program. They had just launched that program the same day that I started, so it was working progress, and I came along discrepancies in the program that drove me mad. I made notes and emailed my instructor about them every time for clarification. My capstone instructor was AMAZING!!!!! She helped me prepare for the interview at the school where I received an offer for full-time faculty.

I know this message is long, but I wish I could have found somebody to talk to when I was in the process that you are now. Good luck with everything!