How to Become Nurse Educator in Australia

The role of nurse educator is to mold the minds of students in nursing schools and turn them to be the finest nurses in the coming days. There is much demand for nursing educators in Australia at this time when the country needs to train more nurses to provide care for the increasing number of aging population. Nursing educators get a chance to teach some of the brightest and compassionate individuals.

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What Makes A Great Nursing Educator?

Any nursing trainer should be well-educated and accomplished in the nursing profession. It is a profession involving passing of knowledge you possess about the profession to your students. A nurse educator stands out because of these qualities;

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Qualifications to become a nurse educator

The first step to becoming a nurse educator is to become a registered nurse or an advanced practice nurse. In addition training and experience to be a certified professional, you need to continue with your and take additional courses as most employers are now requiring nursing educators to have a minimum of master's degree.

When applying to become a nurse educator at any nursing school in Australia, you should have covered the following degree programs:

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Most nursing schools require you to possess several years of experience in the profession before you advance your education with the intention to become a nurse educator. You also need to consider sitting for NLN (The National League for Nursing) certification exam for nurse educators. This certification is not mandatory but it will give you an advantage especially when your career plans from early days of your career is to become a nurse educator.

Duties of a Nurse Educator

A simple explanation about the work of nurse educators is that they teach nursing students. However, their work is more complicated as they are training professionals who patients and care facilities can trust to manage the health of patients. Any nurse educator performs these three important roles:

Identify and Address Learning Needs

Teaching is the main responsibility of nurse educators. They work in a classroom and at clinical settings teaching. They train students on new nursing courses as well as give continuing education. For perfect performance in their jobs, nursing educators should have in-depth knowledge of their respective fields and excellent leadership skills. Most nurse educators double up as advisers and roles models to students assisting them in various ways in their journey to become successful nurses.

Design, Evaluate and Revise Academic Programs

Some point, a nursing school may ask a nurse educator to create new courses, update and re-design the old courses. To fit into this role, it is inevitable for the educator to stay abreast of trends and new developments in nursing so as to make the curriculum relevant. It is the reason why nurse educators continue practicing nursing in their field and continue to become active participants in activities of the nursing community often through various professional organizations.

Workplace for Nurse Educators

Nurse educator job openings are in nearly all the facilities offering nursing classes. Educational institutes that offer nursing certificate, diploma and degree programs usually require a large number of nurse educators. An example includes universities, community colleges, vocational, trade and select high schools. Hospitals and long-term care facilities that run nursing training programs also hire trainers.

Nurse educators play a crucial role in training a new nurse to boost the current workforce and replace those who leave the career. Their work is as noble as nursing itself.