The nursing shortage is no secret. There has been an open dialogue for years about the diminishing number of nursing students and the pressing nursing shortage that will last at least through 2025 or beyond according to most predictions.

What may be less well-known is that the United States is also experiencing a massive nursing faculty shortage.

• “In a statement released in March 2008, The Council on Physician and Nurse Supply, an independent group of health care leaders based at the University of Pennsylvania, has determined that 30,000 additional nurses should be graduated annually to meet the nation’s healthcare needs, an expansion of 30% over the current number of annual nurse graduates.”

• “In June 2011, Wanted Analytics reported that employers and staffing agencies posted more than 121,000 new job ads for Registered Nurses in May, up 46% from May 2010. About 10% of that growth, or 12,700, were ads placed for positions at general and surgical hospitals, where annual turnover rates for RNs average 14% according to a recent KPMG survey. “

Reading and hearing the dialogue about the nurse educator shortage has motivated many nurses to consider undertaking a transition from clinical nurse to nurse educator.

Currently, the turnover for clinical registered nurses stands between 9.8% to 39.8%. According to statistics from BES, the national average “TOTAL” RN turnover rate in 2014 was 16.4%, a 2.2% increase from 2013. Hospitals that only measure full/part time terminations reported a 1.5% increase to 14.0%.

While  clinical nurses may not be fully committed to their positions  those same nurses could and should be encouraged to take  nurse educator positions in order to impart their wisdom and experience to student nurses so that it is kept in the workforce.

It’s been suggested that no nurse educator should be permitted to lead a nursing class without several years of experience as a clinical nurse. The reason for this is that it’s imperative that the nursing faculty knows more than the written word, but knows the actual hands on nursing –those small tips and tricks that it takes to be an effective nurse. For this reason alone it behooves us to encourage experienced, expert critical care nurses to transition to nurse educators.

Nearly every nurse is a natural educator by virtue of what they do for a living. Many question what they could do to transition to educator. Realistically there is a lot of help in making the change and there are myriad of ways to approach the transition.

In many cases it requires additional education and nurses are understandably concerned about the expense involved, but often even that can be mitigated.

Faculty development programs and scholarship programs are available nearly everywhere that will help to prepare you for the role of nurse educator. Among just a few of these programs are:

• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
• Johnson and Johnson
• Jonas Center for Nursing and Veteran’s Healthcare

What does it take to become a nurse educator and what kind of nurse is well suited for this role?

The role of a nursing educator is challenging, but it does offer some vast rewards. The ideally suited candidate for a nurse educator:

• Will be a baccalaureate or master’s degree level nurse
• Probably will not be primarily salary motivated as financial compensation is usually not commensurate with the current critical care nursing salary.
• Will be capable of working autonomously and enjoy the challenge that it presents.

A stand-out candidate for a nurse educator will have an RN licensure as well as being able to meet minimum degree requirements.

Educators can earn a professional credential to specialize in a specific area of nursing, such as oncology, legal nursing, geriatric nursing, or prenatal care. The NLN also offers a certified Nurse Educator Credential.

What is the Salary and Job Outlook for Nurse Educators?

The vast majority of nurse educators are working at Professional schools, colleges and universities. As of 2014, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that there are “29,700 out of a total of 56,840 postsecondary professors were employed at the above-mentioned types of higher education institutions. The second-highest number of nurse educators (19,950) was hired for positions at junior colleges.

Other academic work environments for nurse educators include trade and technical schools, and business schools. Outside of the college and university scene, nurse educators are also employed at hospitals and medical services companies, which may hire job candidates with as little as a bachelor’s degree, an RN license, and relevant work experience.

Further, there are going to be an additional 150,000 nursing educators required in the next 3 years alone.

As of 2015, there is a 6 percent vacancy in nurse educator positions that must be filled. Quality nurses are necessary in order to impart their skills and experience to new nurses.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported a median salary earned by nurse instructors and professors who taught or demonstrated patient was $66,100 in 2014.

Again, according to BLS, the highest paying industry for nursing instructors and teachers are specialty hospitals where the nurse educator could earn a salary of $116,210 in 2014.

Nursing teachers and instructors are also hired to teach at:

State government agencies pay approximately $88,000

Med-Surg hospitals where the average salary is $83,650

Vocational and Technical schools where they may earn $73,400

Universities and professional schools where they may make $72,210

In addition to compensation for different certifications and added education, as well as where they teach, the location or area of the US has a big effect on what a nursing educator may make salary wise with  the highest wages being paid in California, at approximately $97,000 versus Rhode Island which offers an average of $82,000.

If you think being a nurse educator may be the right move for you, the transition can be painless and there are people out there who are looking for ways to help you to accomplish it.

Article provided by, Advocate Search Group – a recruiting firm focused exclusively on filling academic nursing program positions throughout the USA

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