Nurse Educator : Job Description, Career Opportunity and Pay scale

Who is a Nurse educator

Nurse educators are registered nurses with advanced education who are also teachers. Most work as nurses for a period of time before dedicating their careers  to educating future nurses. Nurse educators are responsible for designing, implementing, evaluating and revising academic and continuing education programs for nurses. These include formal academic programs that lead to a degree or certificate, or more informal continuing education programs designed to meet individual learning needs.

How to become a nurse educator

To become a nurse educator you must be a registered nurse with a valid license and several years of work experience. Most nurse educators complete a master’s degree in nursing, although a doctorate is required to teach at most universities. If you have a post graduate certificate or degree in nursing education, it will be considered as an additional qualification.

In addition to knowledge and clinical experience, nurse educators must be good teachers. That means you need exceptional communication skills, no fear of public speaking, an easy rapport with people and the ability to clearly explain complex concepts to students.

Role or job descriptions of a nurse educator

• Perform nursing practice in accordance with relevant policies.
• Identify strategies for optimizing patient care in the retrieval environment based on current research and trends in clinical practice. 
• Implement and evaluate clinical education programs and in-services for nurses. 
• Develop, implement and evaluate a unique service orientation program in collaboration with the Clinical Nurses and Nurse Manager. 
• Initiate, participate and contribute to the development of clinical knowledge and skills of new and existing nurses. 
• Provide clinical support to new and existing nurses. 
• Identify individual learning needs of nurses in consultation with the nurses and Nurse Manager in order to support individual learning plans. 
• Perform clinical assessments of nurses and provide certification of competency where required 
• Participate in the delivery of formal and informal education.. 
• Develop, implement and evaluate extended skills programs for nurses
• Actively participate in activities that promote the professional development and education of nurses.  
• Foster an environment that supports the utilization of nursing research 
• Participate in the development and review of clinical guidelines. 
• Promote and participate in quality improvement activities and organisational accreditation processes 
• Actively pursue opportunities to advance own professional knowledge and skill development. 
• Participate in relevant ongoing professional development programs. 
• Demonstrate awareness of current nursing trends, initiatives and related health issues that enhance nursing practice. 
• Participate in health promotion and community development activities including public relations exercises for the service. 
• Act as an effective role model for staff, through mentoring, and teaching in an endeavor to achieve optimal staff development and service outcomes

Career Opportunities for Nurse Educator

Currently most of the hospitals are hiring nurse educator to conduct orientation and in- service programmes for their nurses. Through on job training nurse educators can  improve the quality of nursing care and standards of practice. Nurse educator can also work in teaching sectors like nursing schools or colleges where they can work as a tutor. Middle east countries having vacant positions for Nurse educators in their hospitals, in India you can get the post of a Nurse educator in many of the reputed hospitals.

Salary for Nurse Educator

The mean annual wages for nursing instructors and teachers in U.S were around $70,200 

In India the salary ranges from Rs. 2,50,000 to 4,50,000 annually.