I was just working with one of my other classes of nurse educators and it occurred to me that many VN instructors are nurses with BS degrees. Have any of you ever considered working with VN students? I have taught every level of nursing student (NA to PhD) and I have to say that VN students are one of my favorite. As many of your surely know, there are quite a few 'mercenaries' in ADN and prelicensure BSN programs - people who are only coming to nursing for the paycheck. Now while I will defend the right of a person to do a job for whatever reason they like, they need to do a good job, and many of these types of students seem unable or unwilling to adopt the attitude that a nurse requires to provide quality care.
What struck me about VN students is that almost all of them really wanted to be nurses. They weren't looking at 60k/year graduating, but $8-12/hour. And they were willing to go through an enormously stressful year in school to do it. They had the sort of passion that I imagine all nurses used to have back when they were paid poorly (before my time), and teaching them was truly a joy. It provided a way for me to help teach nurses how to be better nurses than I was taught to be - to learn from my experience and exponentially improve the care of patients and the culture of acute and long-term care.
It's an interesting job also in that it provides a decent amount of time off and is not terribly difficult once you get the first year or two out of the way (learning to teach your classes, etc). Unfortunately, the pay is lousy, and the rewards are more intrinsic than extrinsic. What do you think? Is anyone interested in teaching VNs? It would make an interesting job for a student who was working their way up to an MS in nursing education. Let me know if you have questions about this, as I have a lot of experience to share on the topic.
Graduation Time
15 years ago
Dr. Anderson,
ReplyDeleteI have actually thought about doing that once I receive my BSN. I do think that it would be very fun and interesting to teach VNs. Even though I am persuing my FNP instead of the educational track, it is something that I would do while finishing my FNP. To be very honest, I would rather teach, but I have to admit that I need the pay that is offered to FNPs vs nursing instructors. If pay was not an issue and I could do what I truely wanted, I would choose to teach. Instead, I do need the better paying job, so I am choosing to do the FNP track. I do look forward to doing this, and it is not that I will not enjoy what I do, but it would not be my first option. Someday when my children are grown and I am tired of doing patient care, I will at that time change to a teaching position.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI agree with Tessie. I actually enjoy teahing students. I have been asked to do clinicals for the VN program recently but due to the assignments and my work schedule I was unable to do so. I started out as a LPN for 3 years in Georgia simply because I didn't know what would be expected of me as a nurse. That was a very interesting 15 months but learned a lot during that time. I will also seek the FNP program as I need more income but after finishing I would be more than happy to do this on the side. I would like more information on teaching VNs and the qualifications that are required. I will always have reapect for LVNs because I have walked in their shoes.
Hopefully they'll start paying nurse educators more. As it is, we're often just hiring nursing faculty into "semi-retirement" jobs because of the poor pay. It's unfortunate that we don't get market-equalized pay!
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