Nurse Educator Interview

Nurse Educator Interview

Betty Martinez

HSN/548 - Role of the Health Care/Nursing Educator

University of Phoenix

Dr. Lili Lee

Nurse Educator Interview

Let’s suppose you are a new graduate registered nurse. You are about to start your first job as a nurse in a medical- surgical unit in a hospital. You have just completed your hospital’s general orientation with all the new employees. Now, you are about to meet one of the hospital’s Nursing Professional Development Specialists (NPDS), who is going to help you through your next steps in the process and you wonder what is an NPDS?

The NPDS or Nurse Educator is the person who helps you navigate through all things related to clinical, with potential knowledge, skills review, development, as well as provide support during your orientation period. She will assess what your clinical comfort level is, the training necessary, resources, and present you to your preceptor. She will meet with you and your preceptor during the orientation to help you stay on track and ensure a successful transition to the unit’s team (Swihart & Johnstone, 2010).

The American Nurses Association recognizes the NPDS as a practice specialty, as it’s based on the science of nursing, research, technology, evidence-based practice, leadership, communication, and education. The NPNS is proficient in adult learning strategies, career and program development, management, leadership and continuing education (Swihart & Johnstone, 2010).

They can work in different environments, but in the hospital arena they design and implement new nurse hire clinical orientations, as well as certification classes. They maintain competencies, manage skill labs, teach the new grad programs, and handle quality improvement through the professional development of nurses (Nurse educator background, n.d.).

Let’s compare what the literature reports as the NPDS role and the training needed from the information obtained from an interview with an NPDS at a local hospital in Pasadena, California.

AT has been an NPSD at this hospital for four years. She has been a nurse for 15 years with a background in Critical Care and then hospital supervisor. She also held a position at the University of Southern California (USC), as a clinical and lecturer instructor until the program closed. Nine years ago on arrival to this hospital, while working in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), she sought out opportunities to teach unit base in-services and clinical updates.

AT voiced that she had always had an interest in teaching even before she became a nurse. She loves those “a-ha” moments when concepts become clear to students and things “click” into place and a true understanding takes place.

AT continued to develop her experience in education by moving on from unit-based in-services to assisting in workforce development projects and educational councils. When a positioned opened up in nursing professional development, she interviewed and was hired.

AT holds a BSN degree and did not require a Masters degree for the position. She was eligible and received a Nursing Professional Development (NPD) certification by the American Nursing Credential Center (ANCC), based on her experience and extra training. According to the ANCC a person is eligible for the NPD certification if:

1. They hold a current RN license in the US.

2. Hold a bachelor’s degree or higher.

3. Have practiced as an RN for two years full-time.

4. Completed 4,000 hours or more of clinical practice in professional development within the last five years.

5. Completed 30 hours of continuing education in professional development in the last three years (NPD certification eligibility criteria, n.d.).

According to Swihart and Johnstone (2010), the education and training needed for an NPDS varies from institution to institution. Even though a Masters is a plus, the most common practice of hospitals is to hire a nurse educator without specialized training in teaching adults or staff development. They hire clinical experts