Nursing teaching jobs can be full-time or part-time, with most occurring in nursing schools. In the UK, full-time positions are known as nursing lecturer jobs, while in the US and Canada, they are commonly referred to as professor of nursing. Part-time positions are often filled by nurses with specific knowledge in certain areas. These jobs offer flexibility and allow instructors to maintain their professional edge, but can also have disadvantages such as difficulty engaging with students outside of the classroom.
There are two broad types of nursing teaching jobs: those that are full-time teaching and those that are more occasional teaching positions involving one-off courses or independent lectures on aspects of nursing. Jobs in both categories occur primarily in nursing schools. Teaching hospitals and continuing education programs for nurses can also support teachers in some way. Most often, nursing faculty must have extensive practical nursing experience before being considered for positions in either the full-time or part-time categories.
Full-time nursing teacher jobs are known as nursing lecturer jobs mostly in UK or in schools following UK model. British universities are generally structured around a teaching staff of junior and senior lecturers. A person whose career is to teach in an English nursing academy is usually called a professor of nursing.
In the United States and Canada, a person in an equivalent position is commonly referred to as a professor of nursing. This is not always the case. Some schools, particularly those with large endowments, fund “lectures in nursing,” which often pay full-time teachers’ salaries. A person who has gained this position is usually known professionally as a teacher, but may have an internal designation as a lecturer. Grants like this are more popular in certain specialties, such as neonatal care, cardiothoracic care, or women’s health.
For the most part, however, nursing lecturer jobs outside the British system are more temporary, such as adjuncts or part-time classes. Nurses who take on these jobs generally do not abandon their regular practices. Instead, they commit to teaching part-time, and during their off hours, they continue to see patients or do rotations. Nursing schools usually recruit nurses with specific knowledge in certain areas to teach classes on these subjects. A respected nurse within a specific discipline may also often pose as a professional professor in that discipline as a way to increase professional cache.
There are many advantages to this type of university lecturer system. First, speakers are able to maintain their professional edge by keeping one foot in the practice. Nursing, like most medical professions, evolves and changes relatively quickly as new discoveries are made and technologies advance.
More flexible nursing teaching jobs also allow instructors to focus only on what they know. Full-time nursing faculty generally must have a varied workload, teaching classes that may or may not be directly in your line of interest. Part-time professors, on the other hand, generally teach only for their specialty.
Offering nurse teaching jobs is also a good way for schools to attract top nursing talent. It is often difficult for nursing programs to retain quality faculty members, in part because the salary received in nursing education is often significantly less than in a full-time nursing career. Teachers are essential to the spread of discipline, however, and this type of teacher often offers the best of both worlds.
A part-time academic career also has disadvantages. An occasional professor at a nursing college is often unable to really engage with students outside of the classroom and may have a harder time providing guidance. Too many part-time faculty can also erode an academy’s consistency in teaching and grading. Most schools, regardless of jurisdiction, strive for an even balance between full-time and part-time faculty.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
