Introduction
Nursing has been evolving over time. As health care changes, so do the responsibilities of nurses. There are many areas of nursing in which nurses can get advanced degree. An Educator track is an integral part of nursing.
Role of Nurse Educator
Teaching is an integral part of nursing, so becoming a nurse educator is a natural step for many nurses. Whether it is a classroom or the practice setting, nurse educator prepares and mentors patient care providers and the future leaders of nursing profession. Nurse educator plays an important role in strengthening the nursing workforce, serving as role models, and providing leadership needed to implement evidence-based practice and improve patient outcomes (Bakers, 2010).
Nursing educators also have opportunities to perform research, publish articles in nursing and other professional journals, serve as consultants to education and health care institutions, write grant proposals, and participate in community services (Cangelosi, Crocker, & Sorrel, 2009). Nurse educator can be part of the classroom or clinical settings, while assisting in mentoring and counseling students, preparing publications, developing lectures and teaching plans.
Benefits of Becoming a Nurse Educator
- Work satisfaction
- Rewarding
- Research opportunities
- Flexible work environment
- Job security
Nurse educators have a unique opportunity to watch their students gaining confidence and skills which can be very rewarding. Being able to have access to cutting–edge knowledge and research, having opportunities to collaborate with health professionals, being able to share research findings, and a flexible work environment are several benefits of being a nurse educator (Bartels, 2005). Given the growing shortage of nurse educators, the outlook is bright for nurses interested in career in academia. Nurse educators flourish in an environment that allows them to be independent, innovative, and visionary. Analyzing data, advocating for health policy reform, networking at national meetings, serving on committees, and sharing nursing knowledge with other colleagues are other responsibilities typical for nurse educators (Cangelosi, Crocker, & Sorrel, 2009).
Different Roles of Nurse Educator
- Clinical teaching
- Classroom teaching
- Community
- Public health
Nurse educators can serve in diverse roles that range from clinical faculty to becoming an associate dean. Some are devoted to classroom teaching or clinical teaching, while others mentor and counsel student, develop lectures or lesson plans, and prepare publications (Bartels, 2005). Nurse educators typically teach in nursing schools, but they can also work in hospitals, public health agencies, education associations, and other community settings. Nurse educator has the high level of job security and opportunities to advance quickly up the career ladder.
What it takes to be Nurse Educator
Nurse educator must have the solid clinical background, strong communication skills, and high level of cultural competence in order to succeed. Nurse educator must be a lifelong learner, be flexible enough to adapt the curriculum and tech methods in response to innovations in nursing science and ongoing changes in the practice environment (Bartels, 2005).
The American Association of College of Nursing (AACN) has specific standards for practice for various roles at baccalaureate and masters level nursing.
Role of AACN
Serves the public interest by:
- Setting standards
- Providing resources
Develops leadership capacity of member schools to:
- Advance nursing education
- Research
- Practice
The American Association of College of Nursing (AACN) is the “national voice for baccalaureate and graduate nursing education” (AACN, 2013). AACN works to establish nursing educational standards in research, education, publications, federal advocacy, and data collection (AACN, 2013). AACN also influences the nursing profession by promoting public support for professional nursing, research, and practice to improve the nation’s health care (AACN, 2013).
AACN has established Essentials of Master’s Education in Nursing standards that serve as the framework for the nursing program’s curriculum. Nurse Educator is one of several Masters prepared tracks that use standards established by AACN.
AACN Essentials
There are nine Essentials established by AACN, which have significant importance for current and emerging roles in nursing and designed for improving health outcomes. These nine Essentials provide the necessary framework for nursing, regardless the major, focus of a nurse, or intended practice setting (AACN, 2011):
- Essential I: Background for Practice from Sciences and Humanities
- Essential II: Organizational and Systems Leadership
- Essential III: Quality Improvement and Safety
- Essential IV: Translating and Integrating Scholarship into Practice
- Essential V: Informatics and Healthcare Technologies
- Essential VI: Health Policy and Advocacy
- Essential VII: Inter-professional Collaboration for Improving Patient and Population Health Outcomes
- Essential VIII: Clinical Prevention and Population Health for Improving Health
- Essential IX: Master’s-Level Nursing Practice
Nurse Educator & AACN Essentials
Individuals who are focused on a nurse educator role require the preparation across all nine Essentials area. All nine Essentials which are outlined by AACN are applicable to the nurse educator role. To be able to teach patients, students, nursing staff, and caregivers about disease prevention, health promotion, or disease management, the graduate level nurse should have the scientific background to facilitate health-related information (AACN, 2011). Even though all nine essentials are applicable, only three will be discussed here to show how these Essentials can be applied to the nurse educator role.
Essential I (Background for Practice from Sciences and Humanities) recognizes that the graduate level nurse understands nursing and related sciences and can “analyze, design, implement and evaluate nursing care” (AACN, 2011, p. 9). Also, Master’s-prepare nurse uses theories and frameworks in analysis of clinical problems, health promotion strategies, and illness prevention. Furthermore, nurses prepared at master’s level address complex cultural issues and respond to the needs populations who have conflicting cultural needs and preferences.
Nurse educator can play a key role in addressing the educational needs of patients, family, health care professionals. Nurses agree that patients admitted in the hospitals are sicker than ever before. Many of these patients may not have survived year ago to be in the hospital. Continuing education and specialty certification, according to American Association of Critical Nursing, prepares nurses to make better informed decisions and improves overall patient outcome (2013). As a nurse educator, it is imperative that the employer embraces and supports the continuing education and certifications. Also, convincing employers on the benefit of continuing education and certification is important for educational funding. Overall, certification and continuing education reassures patients and families that the nurse taking care of them has experience, knowledge, and skills.
Essential VII: Interprofessional Collaboration for Improving Patient and Population Health Outcomes: Interprofessional education engages students of different professions in interactive learning with each other (AACN,2011). Being able to work effectively as members of clinical teams within and across disciplines as students is a fundamental part of that learning (Institute of Medicine, 2003). Interprofessional learning is necessary to improve the learner outcomes and promote collaborative interprofessional practice to enhance patient care outcomes (American Association of Colleges of Nursing & the Association of American Medical Colleges, 2010). The new Master’s Essentials build this essential component into the learning of all master’s programs with the ultimate goal of increasing interprofessional collaboration in education and practice to impact patient and population outcomes and to prepare graduates to assume leadership roles in healthcare teams (AACN, 2011).
As an example, for a master’s program focused on the nurse educator role, students might work in interdisciplinary teams that include nursing, health administration, medicine, informatics, and others. Learning activities could be intended to ensure that students in each profession are required to interact with each other and patients and families to understand the impact of their performance on each other and the patient. Interprofessional collaboration is suited to stimulate activities, clinical practice experiences, and service learning experiences (AACN, 2013).
Essential IX (Master’s-Level Nursing Practice) looks at the practical aspect of nursing after graduation from Masters program in nursing. It talks about “nursing intervention that influences healthcare outcomes for individuals, populations, or systems” (AACN, 2011, p. 26). For example, nurse educator can use leadership skills to teach, coach, and mentor health care team regarding importance of having new graduate preceptor program. The preceptor program can be costly to the organization, but research supports the need of mentorship for the development of skills and expertise of a new nurse. First step is to show the evidence that the preceptor program is beneficial to the institution. If program is approved, nurse educator has to develop plan for implementation of the program, find mentors, and provide training for them. Once the program is in place, continues monitoring is needed for effectiveness of the program. This is just a one example how nurse educator can use skills learned in school and apply in a clinical settings.
Master’s Prepared Nurse Educator
The Essentials of Master’s education in nursing is critical for the ever-changing health care. With the application of the AACN Essentials, nurse educator will be able to lead the change for quality care outcomes and design innovative nursing approaches and practices; advance a culture of excellence through lifelong learning and translate evidence into practice; and build and lead collaborative and interprofessional care teams in clinical settings. From this point, Master’s degree nursing programs prepare graduates with enhanced nursing knowledge and skills to address the growing needs of the healthcare system (AACN, 2011).
It is important to note that one of the main tasks associated with the role of the nurse educator is the ability to lead and implement the change for quality care outcomes while designing and integrating innovative nursing approaches and practices. While focusing on explaining the role of the change for improving the quality of the care, the nurse educator refers to Essential I because it is important to provide the background for any decision and solution made by the nurse educator as the nurse leader. According to Poindexter, the focus on leading change and proposing new approaches to nursing practice is the characteristic feature of the nurse educator who aims to promote innovativeness and improvement in the sphere of health care (Poindexter, 2013, p. 559).
Nurse educators should also promote the specific culture of excellence when they focus on the lifelong learning and try to translate the evidence into practice. In this context, Essential IX is important because according to Adelman-Mullally and the group of researchers, the practice of the nurse educator is the lifelong learning that is necessary to provide students and future nurses with more knowledge, evidence-based information, and examples from practice and experience (Adelman-Mullally, Mulder, McCarter-Spalding, Hagler, & Gaberson, 2013, p. 29).
In addition, nurse educators need to build and lead specific collaborative and interprofessional health care teams that can be formed within the educational and in clinical settings (Schipper, 2011, p. 216). Much attention should be paid to the necessity to provide young nurses with the knowledge of how to collaborate and communicate effectively with colleagues and specialists in order to achieve high results and find the best solutions for addressing the patients’ problems and specific health care issues.
Conclusion
Nurse Educators play a significant role in directing future generation of nurses and advancing the nursing profession. The nurse educator role is rich and rewarding that associates the clinical expertise with a passion for teaching. Master’s nursing education prepares graduates to implement safe, quality care in a variety of settings and roles. The nine Essentials addressed by AACN guides the preparation of all graduates with master’s degree in nursing.
References
Adelman-Mullally, T., Mulder, C., McCarter-Spalding, D., Hagler, D., & Gaberson, K. (2013). The clinical nurse educator as leader. Nurse Education in Practice, 13(1), 29-34.
American Association of Critical Nursing (2013). Web.
American Association of Colleges of Nursing and Association of American Medical Colleges. (2010). Lifelong learning in medicine and nursing, Final conference report. Web.
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2011) The Essentials of Master’s Education for Advanced Practice Nursing. Web.
Baker, S. (2010). Nurse educator orientation: professional development that promotes retention. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 41(9), 413-417.
Bartels, J. (2005). Your Career as a Nurse Educator. Web.
Cangelosi, P., Crocker, S., & Sorrell, J. (2009). Expert to novice: Clinicians learning new roles as clinical nurse educators. Nursing Education Research, 30(6), 367-371.
Institute of Medicine. (2003). Health professions education: A bridge to quality. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
Poindexter, K. (2013). Novice nurse educator entry-level competency to teach: a national study. Journal of Nursing Education, 52(10), 559-566.
Schipper, L. (2011). The socialization process of newly graduated nurses into a clinical setting: role of the clinical nurse educator. Journal for Nurses in Staff Development, 27(5), 216-219.
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) (2013). Web.