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Ask the expert: Encouraging nurses to be teachers

HCPro's Weekly Update on the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program®*, November 6, 2007

This week, a reader asks if it's important to provide opportunities for staff nurses to participate in the education of nursing students. Read the response below from our advisor Katherine Riley, MSN, RN, CNA,BC, coordinator for the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program® at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington, VT.

Q: Is it important to provide opportunities for staff nurses to participate in the education of students?

A: As a healthcare organization seeking designation, you need to provide opportunities for staff nurses to participate in the education of students to meet Force of Magnetism 11: Nurses as teachers.

To support nurses' roles as teachers, explore the creation of faculty or adjunct faculty positions and dual appointments with nearby colleges and universities. These positions allow nurses to combine their clinical role with a formal teaching position. For example, a wound specialist nurse may teach a session on skin care to local nursing students, or a critical care nurse may provide a program on care of the patient with acute myocardial infarction.

Describe opportunities for nurses to participate as on-site clinical instructors for nursing students within the organization. As nursing programs often struggle to retain faculty, using staff nurses as clinical instructors can meet the needs of the school while providing nurses with opportunities outside the traditional clinical arena.

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