Re: Nursing Educator Interviews

Dara Yastrzemski
Saturday, September 8, 2018, 8:13 PM

Hi Bryan,
I enjoyed reading your interview and found some similarities in opinions and thoughts related to the
barriers and challenges of Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) Educators. I noticed one common thread in
both our interviews, that of time constraints for further education and networking. Both your interviewees
and mine expressed concerns regarding the amount of preparation and independent study and the
research required to continue building the educators' knowledge base. The other barrier discussed by
your APN Educator was the difficulty or unavailability of collaboration between colleagues.
Stressors with Continuing Education
The ability to educate other nurses cannot come from clinical experience alone. Nurse educators must
continually seek additional learning for their scope of practice, leadership, evidence-based-practice,
ethics, and much more to uphold the nursing standards. The nurse educator must be responsible for the
development of their own educational practice, as well as those of their fellow nurses. The time spend
away from the job of instructing to obtain and preserve these skills can create discord professionally and
personally. Most nurses can never "leave work at work" and that time and energy of many hours spent
can lead to burnout. This can create a poor professional and personal lifestyle (Owens, 2017). The
amount of time required for coursework preparation, collegial networking, and research can add up and
the pressure to perform can have a negative effect for the APN educator role.
Collaboration and Mentorship
Nurses are required to educate, regardless of their specific title. The bedside nurse in the surgical unit
must instruct their patients and families on a whole host of care plans. That same nurse is also required
to precept the nurse graduate in orientation. The same is said for the nurse educator. The question and
concern has remained: do they have the ability to implement that education? In some cases, although
expert in their clinical skills, the ability to know how to teach is lacking. The novice educator is expected to
perform in their new role, but needs support and guidance, which can be unavailable. This is where a
strong mentorship program should be in place for the new educator (Merrill, 2017). This mentorship is
vital for the support and collaboration needed to fulfill the challenge teaching by building rapport, creating
contacts, and establishing the trust needed to assist the novice educator for a successful practice.
Thanks again for an interesting insight on the barriers to APN educator roles.
Dara
References
Merrill, A. (2017). Helping educators become teachers through mentoring. Reflections on
Nursing Leadership. Retrieved from https://www.reflectionsonnursingleadership.org/features/more-
features/Helping-educators-become-teachers-through-mentoring
Owens, J.M. (2017). Secondary stress in nurse educators. Teaching and Learning in Nursing.,12(3), 214-
215. doi:10.1016/j.teln.2017.02.004