academic and clinical nurse educator interviews
Introduction
C.B. has been a full-time academic educator at a small private liberal arts college since September of 2011. J.G. is the full-time pediatric service educator for a large children’s hospital settled within a larger, university affiliated medical center, also since 2011.
Academic Educator
C.B. is an RN and has her MSN degree in adult health with a certification in nursing education. She became certified as a nurse educator through the National League for Nursing in October 2014 and also is certified as a Critical Care Registered Nurse (CCRN). Additionally, she has her Ph.D. in health practice research which she obtained in 2011.While working in a pediatric intensive care unit, she gained experience as an OB and med-surg clinical instructor and taught a 5 credit graduate research course at the University of Rochester for three years while she was working towards her doctorate degree.
Her area of expertise is research as she currently teaches a graduate research course at the small, private liberal arts college in addition to a 5 credit med-surg course for nursing students in their 1st semester of their senior year. She is also an NCLEX review course instructor for senior nursing students in the last semester of their program.
She states that challenges of her role as a nurse educator include having the strength and understanding to not take things personally when students get frustrated or angry throughout the course or if they fail, for example. She states it is hard not to internalize those experiences but has come to understand that her student population represents a nontraditional type which means they have a tough load to manage which may make it more difficult for them to succeed and consequently, set them up to get stressed and frustrated more easily. Additionally, she states that one of the challenges of her position is that it is very time consuming. It is not a 40hr/wk type of job as she must always be available to be responsive to her students, plan her classes, and grade student work.
On the other hand, C.B. describes the highlights of her position as being able to watch students progress and see her students who were once in her classroom, now in the professional setting. She enjoys working at the bedside along with some of her graduates. C.B. also states that a highlight of her role is that it makes her further appreciate what it means to be in this practice. Teaching others about what it means to be a nurse and how to be a nurse allows her to truly appreciate her own role as a nurse and describes the whole experience as rewarding.
C.B. is in year 5 of 7 for tenure so her future plans include obtaining tenure and then going into administration. She has interest in an undergraduate chair position however, she doesn’t wish to do this full time because it is year-round and she does not wish to have that type of position until her children are in college.
C.B’s first piece of advice she offered was to get a doctorate degree since it provides many different opportunities. Additionally, she simply stated to find a job I love because then, it won’t be work. She stated, “for a job that requires so much of your time, it will at least be enjoyable if it’s something you truly love and remember, you won’t be good at it if you don’t love it”.
Reflection
Interviewing an academic educator was an interesting and enlightening experience especially because I have no experience in teaching to really compare to her perspectives. I thought all of her certifications and credentials were admirable, to say the least, and was in awe of how she was able to gain great experience while pursuing each of her degrees. Needless to say, the hard work must have been endless which aligns with how she described one of the challenges of her positions today. The only difference is that she is now in the educator position rather than the student position which surely involves a significant amount of time and effort however in the educator position, the reward is shifted from the learning and the degree that was received as a student to the enjoyment of teaching others about a profession nurses and nurse educators alike are passionate about.
The way in which she described the challenges and highlights of her position will shape how I practice as a nurse educator in that while I will strive to build relationships with my students and do all I can to support their success, I will remind myself that I cannot be ultimately held responsible for their shortcomings. I recall having to teach myself the same lesson as a new nurse when patients I took care of have decompensated to their death despite our team’s best efforts. What was learned was that we could not take it personally, it was not our fault, we did everything we could, we wanted them to survive, but in the end, we were not responsible for the ultimate unfortunate outcome. Once we can free ourselves from the belief that it is our responsibility to save everyone and ensure everyone’s success despite their personal abilities and efforts, we are able to relinquish the control that unnecessary stress may have on us and learn to not internalize those feelings.
Clinical Educator
J.G. has worked as a RN in the pediatric service for 15 years. Her positions have included a staff nurse in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, a pediatric clinical resource nurse, a staff nurse in the pediatric emergency department, and a member of the pediatric transport team. Since 2011 she has served as the full time pediatric clinical educator. She is certified by NYS as a Clinical Nurse Specialist and also has her CCRN certification. Additionally, she is recognized as an American Heart Association Faculty Instructor for Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) and Pediatric Emergency Assessment, Recognition, and Stabilization (PEARS) certification. She received her MSN and is a Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. J.G. was also pleased to announce that in May, she will graduate with her doctorate in nursing practice.
In her current position, her area of expertise is coordinating Pediatric Service Orientation (PSO) for new hires which is a program that provides introductory lessons on the children’s hospital’s standards of care for pediatric patients which lays the foundation for topics to be reinforced and further explained by the individual pediatric units. Additionally, J.G. serves on the nursing education council and is part of the value analysis committee in which she collaboratively reviews various products, policies, campaigns, and educational roll outs that are required by different mandating organizations. She is responsible for taking a systems-based look at those elements that are being initiated to determine the effects they would have in the children’s hospital. She also plays a large role in writing or reviewing mandatory educational competencies in addition to coordinating the rollout of annual education competencies.
J.G. states that the challenges of her role as a clinical nurse educator include working for a children’s hospital that is inside a larger adult hospital as compared to a standalone children’s hospital. She explained that this is because she has had to pick her battles when intervening with new policies and procedures that may work very well for every other unit in the hospital but does not work well for pediatric units. She states it has been tough because what may be evidence-based practice for adults and what is evidence-based practice for pediatric patients do not always overlap and for this, it comes down to her role in evaluating whether or not a safety risk for pediatric patients is involved. Another challenge she mentions that more directly relates to her role as an educator is that it requires such broad knowledge to not only be able to do her job, but to be able to do it well. In the same breath, she explains how she considers this to be both a challenge and a highlight because while it is difficult to obtain and learn such a wide variety of knowledge, it has been fun learning each aspect, gives her a more broad perspective of the pediatric service, and allows her to be a truly valuable resource to others. Her extensive history in nearly every department of the pediatric service has allowed her to have insight into how each system works and has given her much of the knowledge she needs to be a clinical nurse educator for the pediatric service today. Another highlight of her role is that she really enjoys running the PSO program. She enjoys being able to instill in new hires a sense of excitement from day 1 for the work that we do as pediatric nurses. She also mentioned that she enjoys being able to be in a position that can push for practice change that benefits children due to her role in policy, product, and procedure review.
In terms of her future plans, J.G. is excited to graduate from the DNP program in May. Beyond that, her short-term goals include serving as an adjunct faculty member and her long-term goals include potentially holding an administrative role. She aspires to have an even greater role in being able to create and write new or revised standards of care for children.
Advice J.G. provided was to find my passion and figure out what works best for my lifestyle and then use both of those factors to guide my future job searches. Additionally, she advised me to not take simply any position that comes up as that will set me up for failure because getting teaching experience is not as important as finding my passion. By taking a job simply to have a job and “get experience” I won’t succeed because it won’t be something I’m passionate about. She also said that her advice would be to gain more clinical work experience if need be until I either discover my passion or have the opportunity to apply for a teaching position that meshes my passion with a teaching role. She suggested I ask myself “Now what? If I can make up my own job, what would it be?” and then dare to create a position for myself that aligns with that answer.
Reflection
From interviewing J.G., a clinical nurse educator, I was intrigued by her experience in the various nursing roles she has had and the valuable impact that must have on her ability to perform as a service-wide clinical educator now. I can imagine how exciting gaining experience in each of those roles must have been and believe it has allowed her to gain a well-rounded, full picture on an organizational level that allows her to then provide the most relevant and dynamic education to others. I think this is especially useful in her role in the PSO program since some of those hires will be working in units she has experience in which will allow her to appropriately steer the educational direction of the new hires.
I thought her advice on considering what I believe would be the perfect job is an example of an innovative strategy or way of thinking that she has impressed upon me. Not only was it original and creative to develop that question but to encourage others to embrace that future, forward-focused and visionary way of thinking is a necessary and refreshing quality to see shine through a “real-life” educator. Additionally, I can understand how challenging her role must be as she navigates through each new or revised policy or procedure to evaluate the impact it has on the care that is delivered to our pediatric patients. I never knew this was an aspect of the clinical educator role but can understand how there truly isn’t any other position better suited for those types of responsibilities. This will inform my practice as I stay on the look-out for hospital changes that may affect pediatric patients or think of ways that patient safety or quality of care can be improved on my own unit. Overall, I was thoroughly impressed with the multiple hats this person is able to wear in the unique position she holds.
Final Reflection Synthesizing Both Interviews
The understanding I have gained from interviewing both types of educators and exploring the meaning of nursing education through their separate lenses has been tremendously insightful. Both roles were equally impressive in their credentials and work history which is only more motivating and encouraging for me to become recognized as an educator of that type of caliber. Similarly, both positions emphasize the importance of hard work, dedication, work ethic, and above all else, passion. Without any hesitation, both educators stressed the importance of finding passion in lifelong work and provided reassuring insight into the value of waiting to find that passion and position of perfect fit should it not suddenly appear upon graduation. Both educators placed emphasis on the role of professionalism and approachability as each quality is required to be successful in each position.
Contrastingly speaking, while the academic educator may pass or fail a student based on the evidence provided by the student in front of him or her, the clinical educator may pass or fail a new policy or procedure initiated by the hospital based on the evidence, or lack thereof, for applicability to a specific type of patients. Additionally, in regards to the highlights and challenges of each position, I believe I received and overall more emotional type of response from the academic educator in comparison to the analytical/logistical and practical type of response from the clinical educator. Perhaps the only caveat to this conclusion is the undoubtedly emotional response from the clinical educator that was provided regarding the passion and enjoyment of instilling a sense of thrill and excitement in new hires in the pediatric service orientation program.
All aspects of each position considered, it is without question that both the academic and clinical educator each hold unique roles in the overall delivery of nursing education. Since the academic educator focuses on pre-licensure students and the clinical educator focuses on the continuing education of licensed nurses, both are vital to ensuring that care providers of the nursing level are the most up-to-date, professional, safe, ethically sound, and comprehensive providers as possible. With the value of life-long learning instilled in nurses across the continuum of professional standings, it can be both believed and trusted that the future quality of care received by patients in all settings will be held to the highest degree and standard of care possible. Surely, neither type of educator can exist without the support from the other as it takes both roles to produce effective nurses which in turn, provide patients and communities with thoroughly educated and respectable nurses.
C.B. has been a full-time academic educator at a small private liberal arts college since September of 2011. J.G. is the full-time pediatric service educator for a large children’s hospital settled within a larger, university affiliated medical center, also since 2011.
Academic Educator
C.B. is an RN and has her MSN degree in adult health with a certification in nursing education. She became certified as a nurse educator through the National League for Nursing in October 2014 and also is certified as a Critical Care Registered Nurse (CCRN). Additionally, she has her Ph.D. in health practice research which she obtained in 2011.While working in a pediatric intensive care unit, she gained experience as an OB and med-surg clinical instructor and taught a 5 credit graduate research course at the University of Rochester for three years while she was working towards her doctorate degree.
Her area of expertise is research as she currently teaches a graduate research course at the small, private liberal arts college in addition to a 5 credit med-surg course for nursing students in their 1st semester of their senior year. She is also an NCLEX review course instructor for senior nursing students in the last semester of their program.
She states that challenges of her role as a nurse educator include having the strength and understanding to not take things personally when students get frustrated or angry throughout the course or if they fail, for example. She states it is hard not to internalize those experiences but has come to understand that her student population represents a nontraditional type which means they have a tough load to manage which may make it more difficult for them to succeed and consequently, set them up to get stressed and frustrated more easily. Additionally, she states that one of the challenges of her position is that it is very time consuming. It is not a 40hr/wk type of job as she must always be available to be responsive to her students, plan her classes, and grade student work.
On the other hand, C.B. describes the highlights of her position as being able to watch students progress and see her students who were once in her classroom, now in the professional setting. She enjoys working at the bedside along with some of her graduates. C.B. also states that a highlight of her role is that it makes her further appreciate what it means to be in this practice. Teaching others about what it means to be a nurse and how to be a nurse allows her to truly appreciate her own role as a nurse and describes the whole experience as rewarding.
C.B. is in year 5 of 7 for tenure so her future plans include obtaining tenure and then going into administration. She has interest in an undergraduate chair position however, she doesn’t wish to do this full time because it is year-round and she does not wish to have that type of position until her children are in college.
C.B’s first piece of advice she offered was to get a doctorate degree since it provides many different opportunities. Additionally, she simply stated to find a job I love because then, it won’t be work. She stated, “for a job that requires so much of your time, it will at least be enjoyable if it’s something you truly love and remember, you won’t be good at it if you don’t love it”.
Reflection
Interviewing an academic educator was an interesting and enlightening experience especially because I have no experience in teaching to really compare to her perspectives. I thought all of her certifications and credentials were admirable, to say the least, and was in awe of how she was able to gain great experience while pursuing each of her degrees. Needless to say, the hard work must have been endless which aligns with how she described one of the challenges of her positions today. The only difference is that she is now in the educator position rather than the student position which surely involves a significant amount of time and effort however in the educator position, the reward is shifted from the learning and the degree that was received as a student to the enjoyment of teaching others about a profession nurses and nurse educators alike are passionate about.
The way in which she described the challenges and highlights of her position will shape how I practice as a nurse educator in that while I will strive to build relationships with my students and do all I can to support their success, I will remind myself that I cannot be ultimately held responsible for their shortcomings. I recall having to teach myself the same lesson as a new nurse when patients I took care of have decompensated to their death despite our team’s best efforts. What was learned was that we could not take it personally, it was not our fault, we did everything we could, we wanted them to survive, but in the end, we were not responsible for the ultimate unfortunate outcome. Once we can free ourselves from the belief that it is our responsibility to save everyone and ensure everyone’s success despite their personal abilities and efforts, we are able to relinquish the control that unnecessary stress may have on us and learn to not internalize those feelings.
Clinical Educator
J.G. has worked as a RN in the pediatric service for 15 years. Her positions have included a staff nurse in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, a pediatric clinical resource nurse, a staff nurse in the pediatric emergency department, and a member of the pediatric transport team. Since 2011 she has served as the full time pediatric clinical educator. She is certified by NYS as a Clinical Nurse Specialist and also has her CCRN certification. Additionally, she is recognized as an American Heart Association Faculty Instructor for Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) and Pediatric Emergency Assessment, Recognition, and Stabilization (PEARS) certification. She received her MSN and is a Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. J.G. was also pleased to announce that in May, she will graduate with her doctorate in nursing practice.
In her current position, her area of expertise is coordinating Pediatric Service Orientation (PSO) for new hires which is a program that provides introductory lessons on the children’s hospital’s standards of care for pediatric patients which lays the foundation for topics to be reinforced and further explained by the individual pediatric units. Additionally, J.G. serves on the nursing education council and is part of the value analysis committee in which she collaboratively reviews various products, policies, campaigns, and educational roll outs that are required by different mandating organizations. She is responsible for taking a systems-based look at those elements that are being initiated to determine the effects they would have in the children’s hospital. She also plays a large role in writing or reviewing mandatory educational competencies in addition to coordinating the rollout of annual education competencies.
J.G. states that the challenges of her role as a clinical nurse educator include working for a children’s hospital that is inside a larger adult hospital as compared to a standalone children’s hospital. She explained that this is because she has had to pick her battles when intervening with new policies and procedures that may work very well for every other unit in the hospital but does not work well for pediatric units. She states it has been tough because what may be evidence-based practice for adults and what is evidence-based practice for pediatric patients do not always overlap and for this, it comes down to her role in evaluating whether or not a safety risk for pediatric patients is involved. Another challenge she mentions that more directly relates to her role as an educator is that it requires such broad knowledge to not only be able to do her job, but to be able to do it well. In the same breath, she explains how she considers this to be both a challenge and a highlight because while it is difficult to obtain and learn such a wide variety of knowledge, it has been fun learning each aspect, gives her a more broad perspective of the pediatric service, and allows her to be a truly valuable resource to others. Her extensive history in nearly every department of the pediatric service has allowed her to have insight into how each system works and has given her much of the knowledge she needs to be a clinical nurse educator for the pediatric service today. Another highlight of her role is that she really enjoys running the PSO program. She enjoys being able to instill in new hires a sense of excitement from day 1 for the work that we do as pediatric nurses. She also mentioned that she enjoys being able to be in a position that can push for practice change that benefits children due to her role in policy, product, and procedure review.
In terms of her future plans, J.G. is excited to graduate from the DNP program in May. Beyond that, her short-term goals include serving as an adjunct faculty member and her long-term goals include potentially holding an administrative role. She aspires to have an even greater role in being able to create and write new or revised standards of care for children.
Advice J.G. provided was to find my passion and figure out what works best for my lifestyle and then use both of those factors to guide my future job searches. Additionally, she advised me to not take simply any position that comes up as that will set me up for failure because getting teaching experience is not as important as finding my passion. By taking a job simply to have a job and “get experience” I won’t succeed because it won’t be something I’m passionate about. She also said that her advice would be to gain more clinical work experience if need be until I either discover my passion or have the opportunity to apply for a teaching position that meshes my passion with a teaching role. She suggested I ask myself “Now what? If I can make up my own job, what would it be?” and then dare to create a position for myself that aligns with that answer.
Reflection
From interviewing J.G., a clinical nurse educator, I was intrigued by her experience in the various nursing roles she has had and the valuable impact that must have on her ability to perform as a service-wide clinical educator now. I can imagine how exciting gaining experience in each of those roles must have been and believe it has allowed her to gain a well-rounded, full picture on an organizational level that allows her to then provide the most relevant and dynamic education to others. I think this is especially useful in her role in the PSO program since some of those hires will be working in units she has experience in which will allow her to appropriately steer the educational direction of the new hires.
I thought her advice on considering what I believe would be the perfect job is an example of an innovative strategy or way of thinking that she has impressed upon me. Not only was it original and creative to develop that question but to encourage others to embrace that future, forward-focused and visionary way of thinking is a necessary and refreshing quality to see shine through a “real-life” educator. Additionally, I can understand how challenging her role must be as she navigates through each new or revised policy or procedure to evaluate the impact it has on the care that is delivered to our pediatric patients. I never knew this was an aspect of the clinical educator role but can understand how there truly isn’t any other position better suited for those types of responsibilities. This will inform my practice as I stay on the look-out for hospital changes that may affect pediatric patients or think of ways that patient safety or quality of care can be improved on my own unit. Overall, I was thoroughly impressed with the multiple hats this person is able to wear in the unique position she holds.
Final Reflection Synthesizing Both Interviews
The understanding I have gained from interviewing both types of educators and exploring the meaning of nursing education through their separate lenses has been tremendously insightful. Both roles were equally impressive in their credentials and work history which is only more motivating and encouraging for me to become recognized as an educator of that type of caliber. Similarly, both positions emphasize the importance of hard work, dedication, work ethic, and above all else, passion. Without any hesitation, both educators stressed the importance of finding passion in lifelong work and provided reassuring insight into the value of waiting to find that passion and position of perfect fit should it not suddenly appear upon graduation. Both educators placed emphasis on the role of professionalism and approachability as each quality is required to be successful in each position.
Contrastingly speaking, while the academic educator may pass or fail a student based on the evidence provided by the student in front of him or her, the clinical educator may pass or fail a new policy or procedure initiated by the hospital based on the evidence, or lack thereof, for applicability to a specific type of patients. Additionally, in regards to the highlights and challenges of each position, I believe I received and overall more emotional type of response from the academic educator in comparison to the analytical/logistical and practical type of response from the clinical educator. Perhaps the only caveat to this conclusion is the undoubtedly emotional response from the clinical educator that was provided regarding the passion and enjoyment of instilling a sense of thrill and excitement in new hires in the pediatric service orientation program.
All aspects of each position considered, it is without question that both the academic and clinical educator each hold unique roles in the overall delivery of nursing education. Since the academic educator focuses on pre-licensure students and the clinical educator focuses on the continuing education of licensed nurses, both are vital to ensuring that care providers of the nursing level are the most up-to-date, professional, safe, ethically sound, and comprehensive providers as possible. With the value of life-long learning instilled in nurses across the continuum of professional standings, it can be both believed and trusted that the future quality of care received by patients in all settings will be held to the highest degree and standard of care possible. Surely, neither type of educator can exist without the support from the other as it takes both roles to produce effective nurses which in turn, provide patients and communities with thoroughly educated and respectable nurses.