How do you measure your value as a nurse educator?

To provide a 30,000-foot view of your role in nursing education, here are three things you must never forget as a nurse educator amid the battle just around the corner that a new school year represents:

1. You positively impact the next generation of professional nurses. I loved teaching students and soon recognized that HOW I taught was influenced by my WHY or primary motivation to teach. Just as we must teach our students to be motivated by a heart of care and compassion to serve our patients, you must role-model this needed virtue ethic by demonstrating the same care and concern for each student.When your students recognize how much you care by your visible passion to positively influence them, you will discover that your passion is contagious and will impact your students more than you will ever know.
2. You improve patient outcomes. By emphasizing preparing graduate nurses for practice in all you do, you have the power to positively improve patient outcomes and even save patient lives. As a nurse educator, you impact many more lives through the students you teach and their future patients.Embrace educational best practices, including active classroom learning that replicates clinical practice. Use case studies and your own stories from practice to contextualize everything taught so your students quickly realize that nursing is not about the content, but about the patient and the importance of providing safe patient care in all a nurse does.
3. You bridge the ongoing academic practice gap. You have the power to be a needed link in closing the gap between how nursing is taught and practiced. By focusing on active learning to better prepare nurses for practice, we will improve patient outcomes and the likelihood that each graduate nurse from your program will be retained and have a rewarding and satisfying career as a professional nurse.

Our Mission

Keith RN’s mission for the past 12 years has focused on transforming nursing education one nurse educator at a time by providing the tools and essential resources, such as case studies, to practice the thinking of practice.

But as I look back at my journey, I now have a slightly different perspective on the true mission of KeithRN. We have always put first things first. You, the nurse educator.

Focusing on the student will not bring about the needed change in nursing education. Educators’ needs must come first, as they are the true gatekeepers of our profession. 

I founded KeithRN to practically demonstrate God’s love and care for nurse educators by focusing on serving their needs by creating innovative resources to transform nursing education. We will continue to do so.

In addition to our current membership platform, Think Like a Nurse, which provides hundreds of unfolding case studies, we will soon add additional faculty-centric resources to continue the needed innovation in nursing education, so stay tuned!

Closing Thoughts

Never lose sight that the true value of your work as a nurse educator is determined by the legacy you leave behind as you serve your students as you would serve your patients in practice. 

By positively impacting the next generation through using your God-given talents to serve others, sharing your passion for nursing, and living that out, you possess and demonstrate a power to improve patient outcomes and leave the program and our profession better than when you entered it!

Teach and serve your students with this spirit, and you will receive a reward far outweighing silver or gold.

Related Blog to Check Out!

• Why Every Student (and nurse educator!) Needs to Develop a Personal Mission Statement Before They Graduate