The Nurse Educator's Role in Designing Instruction and Instructional Strategies for Academic and Clinical Settings

Background

In considering that a consistently reported mission of Master’s degree programs in Nursing Education is to prepare its graduates for the role of nurse educator in a highly dynamic academic setting as well as in complex clinical settings, it may be efficacious to move a step beyond the linear curriculum development model that many programs maintain as a core element in informing the nurse educator’s practice. Further, and specific to the mission in nurse educator programs, precision in the design of instruction may serve to support confidence in addressing emergent technologies that require a skilled approach in practice, support effective communication in assessment, and help to develop highly efficient problem solving skills in a demanding interdependent work environment. Each of these areas offer support in leadership as nurses gain needed confidence in areas where they may be called upon to lead however potentially feel unprepared to do so (Ashton, 2012).

A deeper understanding of the instructional process and the environment for which the learning takes place mirrors the reasoned decision process nurses must engage in consistently and efficiently each day of their practice. Without focused skill building in a reasoned approach to the design and delivery of instruction, nursing education programs may fall short of their goal of equipping future nurse educators with the needed tools to integrate their medical expertise with experience in high quality design of instruction that might better ensure positive learning outcomes for their own learners in the varied settings in which they will teach.