My Role As A Nurse Educator

Van Gogh once said “your profession is what you’re put here on earth to do, with such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling”. That is what nursing is to me. A passion that started early in life. During my senior year in high school, I completed the nursing assistant course over a holiday break in order to begin working as a certified nursing assistant at a local hospital and nursing home. I continued serving others, in this capacity, while I pursued higher education earning my Bachelors of Science in Nursing from Clarkson College. After graduation, I began my career as a Registered Nurse at Sacred Heart Hospital. Over the last nine years at Sacred Heart, my experience grew as a staff nurse on a Cardiology Step-down Unit,

I remember various times of my childhood, helping my little sister with her homework, but pretending that I was the teacher and that she was my student. I used to compile ideas on how to make up tests for her, grade them, get creative in lesson plans, and demonstrate many tactics for her to fully learn her homework subject. When I became a freshman in college, I then realized my passion for the Health Field of Nursing when I got a job as a Residence Assistant/ CNA at a local Assisted Living Facility. Serving others through humbling myself in order to meet those needs of the residents with Alzheimer’s disease, Dementia, and disabilities, impacted my life immensely and taught me the rewards of compassion and selflessness. I formed relationships with those residents that I still ponder on to this day. I would love to combine these passions of Nursing and teaching in my career goals of getting a Master’s Degree in the subject of Pediatrics of Nursing and becoming a Nurse Educator in Pediatrics.

Being a nurse not only means compassion, dedication, and intelligence, but the profession also requires endurance, personal sacrifice, and the need for continuous education. I have learned that nurses are some of the most caring and selfless people that anyone will ever meet. Nurses are more than willing to complete challenging tasks and care for others in a way that the majority of people are unwilling to. I am driven to bring all of these qualities into my role as a future nurse practitioner, which is why I am committed to pursuing my Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP).

The webinar titled “Succeeding as a Nurse Educator” was presented by Diane Billings, EdD, RN, FAAN. The three objectives for the webinar were to be able to “differentiate between the roles of faculty appointment: teaching, service, and scholarship; implement strategies for working smarter, not harder; and develop a career plan for success as a nurse educator” (Billings, 2013).

In my current role as a nurse educator I feel the desire to pursue my dream of obtaining a master’s degree, specializing in nursing education. It has been 27 years since I have sat in the student chair in a classroom; therefore, I anticipate a number of challenges and barriers to overcome. In this paper I will present and describe three challenges that I expect to be faced with over the next two years. I will also discuss the strategies I plan to use to address these challenges.

I have come to the decision to pursue a degree in nursing education after spending time as a clinical preceptor for the hospital I work in. This role involves taking a student from the local nursing school and allowing them to work side by side with you for around nine weeks. I love the feeling that teaching someone else the profession gives me. I also took the role of “Skin Care Champion”,

I have always believed in giving back to the community and in sharing my competencies and skills with others. My desire to help people in the field of nursing has powered my decision to take up a graduate degree in Nursing. Overcoming the many challenges in my life has helped me to believe that I can reach any goal I have set for myself, and one of these lifelong goals is to become a nurse practitioner and to obtain

When I became a nurse I wanted to be the best nurse I could be. I have encountered many different types of nurses. I have seen nurses who do the bare minimum and some who go above and beyond for their patients. I wanted to be like the nurses who went above and beyond for their patients because of that patient satisfactory and bond that you can get when you take the time to listen. As you precept with different nurses of different levels of expertise you take in to perspective of how you think a nurse should be or strive to be. I have had different nurses who approach nursing in different ways but in the end the outcome is the same which is we want what is best for our patients.

For many clinical experiences, the instructor assigns a nurse mentor to work with the student for that clinical experience. Some nurse mentors may have negative feelings about having to mentor students, may not take the time to explain things to students, or teach them how to do nursing care. The nurse mentor has the potential to positively or negatively affect the student’s learning experience based on their willingness to work with and teach nursing students.

We had the pleasure of interview a highly skilled Clinical Nurse Educator Darren Page, who currently works at Spaulding Hospital and has been there for the past two years. He has more than eight years of experience as a Clinical Nurse Educator at several healthcare facilities in different states. During the interview he mentioned some of his primary duties in the hospital: besides acting as a resource for all professional and ancillary staff, he implements nursing education programs, provides orientation for newly hired staff, evaluates competency and identifies team or individual performance to assist those unable to meet competency expectations. He explained that he also spends his day assessing staff satisfaction, patient quality indicators, researching best practices in order to promote evidence-based nursing practice, designing interventions and creating policies, guidelines and protocols to improve outcomes. Moreover, his exceptional communication skills made the interview a memorable event, which has provided us many insights.

Six relevant systematic reviews were identified, with two of the reviews focused on the significance of mentoring to promote retention of experienced registered nurses as well as the effect student mentoring has on empowering nursing students and promoting their growth in the profession (Jokelainen et al.,

A major component of my current position is education and working with parents and families. I teach them all aspects of care, including preventative care, necessary to provide a safe and growth enriching environment for their child. I appreciate working with parents and imparting them with the knowledge they need to succeed in caring for their child. Such skills and experiences are abundantly pertinent my desire to continue my education as a nurse practitioner.

The two roles I have selected are the Nurse Educator and Nurse Practitioner. What makes these two roles different lies within the knowledge and skill set each role is accountable for. A Nurse Practitioner’s knowledge is reflected more towards comprehensive disease management that includes advanced assessment skills, diagnosis, pharmacology, and health promotion. They have expert knowledge in a particular concertation such as pediatrics or women’s health. Whereas, the Nurse Educator’s expertise is more generalized and aimed at teaching nursing students how to become nurses.

Academic nurse educators engage in a number of roles and functions, each of which reflects the core competencies of nursing faculty. Those competencies include the following: 1) facilitate learning, 2) facilitate learner development and socialization, 3) use assessment and evaluation strategies, 4) participate in curriculum design and evaluation of program outcomes, 5) function as a change agent and leader, 6) pursue continuous quality improvement in the nurse educator role, 7) engage in scholarship, and 8) function within the educational environment

I am not new to the role of nurse or educator, but to the role of nursing educator. My motivation to teach future generations of nurses prompted my transition from a clinical nurse to an academic nurse educator. My interest in teaching comes from my own positive experiences as an undergraduate student and from a love of learning. My educational philosophy is a work in progress as I continue to grow as a nurse, educator, and scholar of nursing education. As a novice nursing educator today, I plan on progressing to the path of an expert. The purpose of this paper is to express my educational philosophy in terms of teaching and learning, teaching and learning strategies, student learning goals, and the learning environment.