Nurse Educators: Catalysts for Change Through Teaching, Scholarship, and Collaboration - Free Paper

Introduction

A nurse educator's success in nursing faculties in universities and colleges is characterized by meeting expectations in three areas: scholarship, teaching, and service. The resulting tripartite roles are perceived as activities beyond job descriptions that contribute to the good of society, the profession, and the university (Bono-Neri, 2019). Although one of the most common nurse educators' roles is to be an instructor in undergraduate nursing programs, they can undertake many other functions, depending on their settings (Bono-Neri, 2019). For instance, in university settings, nurse educators may hold appointments as clinicians in the university hospital and nursing faculty in a college (Summers, 2017). Other educators work exclusively in a community or hospital setting, educating the community, patients, or staff. Regardless of the settings, however, educators' roles go beyond teaching to include participating in scholarship and service.

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Teaching Role

There are three main roles of nursing educators: teacher, scholar, and collaborator roles. In undertaking the teacher role, an educator nurse assumes leadership in curriculum design and development, instruction, and evaluation (Bono-Neri, 2019). The Educator nurse's teaching role is evident in different education contexts such as curriculum development, classroom teaching, clinical teaching, and virtual teaching (Laurencelle et al., 2016). As a result, teaching remains the core role of nurse educators.

Tripartite Model of Teaching

The knowledge and experiences passed through teaching are critical in engaging students in learning, thus broadening their vision of communities, patients, and their profession. The teacher role's vital element is its capacity to create and promote appropriate and desired behavior within the nursing profession (Laurencelle et al., 2016). Apart from teaching, educator nurses have a scholarship role that entails contributing to the professional literature by writing books, articles, and internet materials focusing on various nursing subjects. Besides, as scholars, educator nurses undertake research to discover, integrate, and apply new knowledge to the profession (Westphal et al., 2016). Lastly, the educator nurses undertake the role of service to society by participating in activities beyond their job descriptions. These services may comprise serving on committees or holding office in professional organizations.

Nurse Educators as Change Agents

Nurse educators play a critical role as change agents in society through education. Education remains one of the most powerful positions in shaping and changing society's behaviors and beliefs (Laurencelle et al., 2016). Nurse educators' teaching role goes beyond training and empowering nurses to acquire desired behavior in educating patients to change behaviors that are harmful to their health. They often change the nursing staff's behaviors by educating them on new practices that are designed to change by equipping them with a new approach to patient care (Laurencelle et al., 2016). Generally, much of nurse educators' work aims at bringing changes, either through adding to knowledge or by providing new experiences so that people are informed on how to solve problems or change behaviors (Westphal et al., 2016). As a result, nurse educators' role is to provide critical knowledge whose goals are to change nurses, patients, and society toward achieving better health outcomes.

Scholarship Plan

Teaching is a complex process requiring advanced knowledge, skills, and experience to achieve the desired goal. Education and nursing are different professions that are merged by nurse educators. Therefore, nurse educators need to have deep insight into the most effective techniques for imparting desired knowledge to nursing students (Summers, 2017). Insight into these techniques is achieved through experience and research. In teaching, research plays a critical role in improving knowledge because the findings are based on scientific evidence. Educator nurses specializing in education should enhance their teaching methods and other education-related fields (Salminen et al., 2016).

Publications that aid Teaching Role

Nurse educators can acquire such teaching knowledge by reading journals such as Nursing Education, health Ed, Nurse Educator Journals, Nurse Education Today, and Nurse Education in Practice. Nurse educators undertaking teaching roles should share their knowledge, findings, best practices, and experiences with other teachers through writing to these journals.

Qualification for Teaching among Nurse Educators

The required qualifications for individuals to teach as nurse educators start by undertaking a master’s course in the nurse educator degree program. The course often covers education and learning theories, teaching strategies for nurse instructors, education technology in training nurses, and curriculum design and development (Summers, 2017). After completing the program, the individual should seek certification as a nurse educator from the National League of Nursing (Salminen et al., 2016).

Areas of expertise related to Teaching among Educator Nurses

The course is critical because it gives aspiring nurse educators insight into various crucial areas of expertise in teaching, such as teaching methods, lesson preparation, examinations, and evaluation. Besides, the knowledge and skills acquired to facilitate effective teaching to nursing students and transform their behavior enables the educator nurse to act as a change agent.

Conclusion

From the discussion above, it is evident that nursing educators have many roles, such as serving as teachers, scholars, and collaborators. Their major role, however, is teaching nursing students. They also act as scholars by sharing their knowledge and experiences with various journals. They also undertake service by participating in activities beyond their job descriptions, such as being committee members in other organizations. Their abilities to transform nursing students make them change agents in society. Nurses can only undertake teaching roles after completing a master's course in the educator degree program and acquiring certification from the National League of Nursing.

Reference

Bono-Neri, F. (2019). Pedagogical Nursing Practice: Redefining nursing practice for the academic nurse educator. Nurse education in practice, 37, 105-108. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1471595318304694

Laurencelle, F. L., Scanlan, J. M., & Brett, A. L. (2016). The meaning of being a nurse educator and nurse educators' attraction to academia: A phenomenological study. Nurse Education Today, 39, 135-140. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0260691716000563

Salminen, L., Stolt, M., Metsämäki, R., Rinne, J., Kasen, A., & Leino-Kilpi, H. (2016). Ethical principles in the work of nurse educators—a cross-sectional study. Nurse Education Today, 36, 18-22. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0260691715002701

Summers, J. A. (2017). Developing competencies in the novice nurse educator: An integrative review. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 12(4), 263-276. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1557308717300173

Westphal, J., Marnocha, S., & Chapin, T. (2016). A pilot study to explore nurse educator workforce issues. Nursing education perspectives, 37(3), 171-173. https://journals.lww.com/neponline/fulltext/2016/05000/A_Pilot_Study_to_Explore_Nurse_Educator_Workforce.12.aspx