Essay Example on Nurse Educators: Who are They & What Do They Do?

We all know what a nurse does in the health care system, but what does the nurse educator do, and in general, who are they? Nurse educators or academic nurse educators are nurses who, together with their clinical practice, they take up academic knowledge so that they can teach students who are in the field of nursing. Their work is to equip and ensure that students get clinical expertise at the end of their studies. Their presence helps to improve the health care system indirectly by producing nurses that know the job as they get the knowledge from one certified one. Knowing who an academic nurse educator is, it is safe to say that we can quickly know their roles and responsibility. One is that they ensure that the students get up-to-date information and skills perfect for patient care. They also advise, teach, and build the curriculum that would fit the nursing students and that can uphold later even in their workplaces. One very important is that they perform the placement of students, ensuring that they go to the right hospital and department depending on their expertise. This makes the hospital run smoothly, thus effective patient care. Finally, they help to coach other nurses to keep them in the now with new healthcare system issues (Nurse Practitioner Schools, 2020).

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Academic nurse educators’ numbers are meager thus making their work very vast. This is because they are said to be the perfect people to pass on the knowledge of nursing to students. To understand further, then one has to understand what parent institution is? A parent institution means a foreign higher education institution. This means that in this institution, international students are allowed to partake in their studies. With that said, we know that most institutions accept very many international students per year. So what are the functions of an academic nurse educator? Are the functions the same as roles or responsibilities? They are charged with passing on the knowledge of nursing as they very well know the department. They also ensure that the number of graduating and registered nurses are kept up-to-date with how clinical practices are to be handled. Because they teach the students and mentor or counsel the registered nurses. They are also supposed to come up with a curriculum that will suit the time and the clinical practices that are there in regards to healthcare (Poindexter. K, 2008).

In every organization, there are said to be stakeholders who help to run the organization by making decisions that benefit it. Stakeholders are divided into two that are internal and external. The internal stakeholders are those who are directly involved with the organization as well as external stakeholders who are indirectly involved. In academic nurse educators, some stakeholders are critical to the performance of the responsibilities of these remarkable people. The critical factor to know is what external stakeholders help to keep the work of an academic nurse educator going? The first and most important one is the government. Most importantly, stakeholder provide funds necessary to keep academic nurse educators working and the whole school system afloat. They know very lightly of the whole issue, but they are a great deal of help to the cause and keep these educators there, thus better healthcare services in the future. The second stakeholder is investors in universities. Some people generously donate money so that individual programs can run efficiently in universities. It is no different from academic nurse educators. The program is funded as what the government provides may not be enough to support it (Virgolesi. M, 2018).

Knowing some of the external stakeholders that are associated with academic nurse educators, it is also best to know how they communicate, as said before, most of the stakeholders hold a say in the decision making of this program. This means that they have to be continuously involved in what is going on. Therefore, they must be kept on the loop so that they can understand if things are going wrong or great. So what are the two most effective ways that the stakeholders can be given information? One, they can carry out annual general meetings with a clear report on how the organization is running. Getting stakeholders’ feedback is very important as they can tell you where things are wrong or right. Communication should not be one way, but in this case, everyone should have a say. The other is that stakeholders’ should be kept in the loop of things. When one new project is brought up, they should be notified so that they are a part of its making. This could either be directly or indirectly. They help to shape the project and what is to become of it (Perumal. P, 2015).

Academic nurse educators have been seen to have a lot of great impact on the healthcare system. It has been said to have a tremendous effect on how nurses correlate at the workplace. So how is this achieved? Interprofessional collaboration is where two or more professionals work together to achieve the goals set; in this case, an effective healthcare system. These collaborations help individuals to grow and also the organization to grow due to that the individuals are having. One way that academic nurse educators help in collaboration is by combining academics and nursing, thus forming a new relationship with educators. The academic nurse educators are nurses, but they combine academic skills to pass on their knowledge to others. Spending their time in an institution, they get to interact with educators, thus can form a new relationship at their workplace. The other is that they help to mentor nurses who are already registered. They can help them get together and share the ideas, challenges, and strengths that they get from their jobs. This helps to keep the nurses together, more reliable, and with a higher goal to help each other. This, therefore, creates an excellent healthcare system (Green. B, 2015).

Just like any other thing, academic nurse educators program also has challenges that they face every day at their workplace. The challenges are grouped into many different categories. There is only one category that is to be analyzed in this paper. The four most significant challenges are; educational, political, cultural, and economical (Fawaz. M, 2018). Out of these four all-important challenges, economic challenges seem to have the most significant weight of them all. What brings about economic challenges in academic nurse educators? Everything we do in the current world requires money, no matter how big or small. For academic nurse educators to work, there must be money to keep them at their jobs. If not so, they will leave, which will bring about poorly-untrained nurses who will be chaotic in the healthcare system (Eta. V, 2011). Without funds too, it will be hard for academic nurse educators to impart knowledge to students. This means that they require funds so that they can carry out some real practicals so that they are prepared for real-life situations. If this is not done, then the students will be poorly prepared to take on their roles as nurses (Dag. S, 2019).

The challenges identified above help us to know what we can do to help make academic nurse educators program and work even better. Every challenge has to have a solution. There so many ways in which these challenges can be reversed to make them strengths that can help in the growth of healthcare systems. The first way is that the government can try and increase the funds for the program. This is to provide enough, which can help nursing students get the knowledge and skills they need to get into the healthcare world. The other is that many nurses can try and get into the academic world so that they can be educators. This reduces the cost of the educators available. When the educators are less, then they are paid more since they are scarce to find. If the numbers increase then the salaries will be reasonably low but enough for the job that they do. Finally, They can be offered orientation when they first enter the job as educators. This reduces future damages as they offer inadequate training to students who will, later on, be nurses that bringing a lot of chaos (Farzi. S, 2018).

As said before, academic nurse educators are nurses who takes up academic skills to train students in the nursing department. Knowing then shows that the transition from being nurses to educators. The shortage of nurses has been a big thing, and one root cause is that not so many people are will to invest in taking it up as a course. With this in mind, then we can understand why we need nurse educators. This is to give students the hope that they can be well trained for their vocations as a nurse in the future. One is that big institutions are offered to those that have an academic title or rank. For example, those with a degree, masters, or even PhD can take up this task. The other is that on entry-level one has to take up the job full-time. Another important one is that the nurse has to get acquainted with the rules, regulations, staff, and environment of the institution, which is very different from the clinical setting. This helps them to settle in their new lives as educators. They just cannot take things the same way they did as nurses. These are the few ways that nurses transition to educators (Penn. B, 2008).

Everywhere in the world, there is a code of ethics, values, and norms that are to be followed. This is no different for nurses that are transitioning from nursing to being academic nurse educators. Without ethics, then the preparation of a nurse to work in real-life will be futile as they cannot adapt quickly. Nurses every day share tough experiences as they see death and sickness everywhere, but they have to deliver services whether the going is tight or not. They are not to discriminate against anyone whether they are from another religion or different sexuality. Their work is to help all of them regardless of who they are. Nurses’ work is to always put the patient above themselves. When a nurse knows all this, then as an educator, they can pass on that information to their student. The student will understand that the working environment will throw everything it has on them. An academic nurse educator, therefore, has to have discipline and understanding, which they can share as they teach. This will later lead to great identity in the workplace (Haskins. K, 2018).

Academic nurse educators, just like any other profession, has their environment that it is set in. They usually are are found in an institution as they are educators. These institutions include; colleges, technical schools, and universities mostly. They are most in the healthcare department as this is their primary setting, after all. They can be there throughout the semesters then they can always go back to their nursing jobs during breaks. They do not have 12-hour shifts like other nurses; they get the flexibility of the job due to the scheduled classes according to the time table. Most of their days are spent on the institution’s grounds, mainly in an office. They plan and schedule their classes and what they are going to teach. Due to their flexible hours, they can quickly work in a nearby healthcare facility as they shift with their work as an educator. In addition to all these, they are expected to participate in peer reviews where they look into new ideas brought up in regards to the healthcare department. This may make their schedule all too busy, and they might have a lot on their plate. Their academic environment is a basic summary of this (Explore Health Careers, 2020).

Conclusion

In conclusion, there is quite a dire need for academic nurse educators if we wa...