Self Assessment and Professional Growth

Nurse educators who initiate the core competencies provided by the National League for Nursing (NLN) can create a nursing curriculum that will provide quality educational training for the next generation of all healthcare providers throughout. The National League for Nursing (2018), states the core competencies promote excellence in the advanced specialty role of the academic nurse educator; which nursing education is considered a specialty area of practice. According to Halstead and Frank (2018), the educators in nursing professional development also have teaching, scholarship, and service of responsibilities.

Nurse educators, have the ability to display the professional values, skills and finally influence the quality of care provided by our future nurses.

Strengths

Personal work experience in a county hospital setting, has provided me with the clinical expertise to recognize the need within our community and the resources needed. Having the clinical nursing skills has given me a solid foundation to become a nurse educator. The shared responsibilities of the clinical nurse include sharing knowledge and experiences with other colleagues, giving/sharing constructive feedback and having the ability to work with others allowed myself to promote a mutual respect and the ability for recognition.

Equally, the nurse educator have the ability to implements a need for self-assessment and participation in quality-improvement activities. Many of the skills and processes needed to excel in clinical nursing are similar to those that the nurse educator must exhibit as an educator, leader, scholar, advisor, and mentor. The bedside nurse performs assessment, planning, implementation, evaluation, and communication to endorse positive patient outcomes and create a trusting relationship with patients and their families. The nurse educator carries out the same processes when relating to educating nurses.

Areas of Professional Growth

Areas of professional growth is the preparation and transition from besides nursing to a nurse educator. The more preparation one can get in nursing education, the easier the transition to the educator role (Halstead and Frank, 2018). According to Melesis (2010) role transition involves the need to attain new knowledge, changes in social status and interactions with others that may lead to feeling of instability and uncertainty since self-identity and role change can occurs simultaneously as you move from novice to master in the newly defined role. But, it is unrealistic to expect the new nurse educator to be an expert in their new academic role.

Conclusion

Transitioning from the clinical traditional role to a nurse educator is a worthwhile journey that compels a new level of professional development and a resilient commitment to ensure that the nurse educator are well-prepared for contemporary practice. However, many experienced nurse educators have welcomed the opportunity to serve as guides and mentors novice nurses to their facility. Especially, with shortage of nursing faculty; which will help us to sustain the future of the nursing profession.

References

1. Halstead, J. A., & Frank, B. (2018). Pathways to a nursing education career: Transitioning from practice to academia (2nd ed.) New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.
2. Meleis, A. I. (2010). Transitions theory: Middle-Range and situation-Specific theories in nursing research and practice. New York, EUA: Springer publishing company.
3. Nurse Educators Apply Core Competencies to Learning and Teaching. (2018, July 18). Retrieved November 26, 2018, from https://onlinenursing.duq.edu/blog/nurse-educators-apply-core-competencies-learning-teaching/
4. National League for Nursing. (2018). Nurse Educator Core Competency. Retrieved from http://www.nln.org/professional-development-programs/competencies-for-nursing-education/nurse-educator-core-competency

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