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Educator Interviews

Amy Scalise

Roberts Wesleyan College

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Introduction

I recently had the opportunity to interview two professional nursing educators who serve

in different roles. Paula Barbel, PhD, PNP is an assistant professor at a public institution. Amy

Roth, MS, RN, CNL, CPHON is a clinical nurse educator for pediatrics at a large medical center.

Both reflected on their roles including the challenges and highlights in their careers, and

provided insight to me, as a future nurse educator.

Academic Educator

The academic nurse educator whom I interviewed was Paula Barbel, PhD, PNP. Paula is

an assistant professor at the College at Brockport. She teaches pediatric nursing, is a pediatric

clinical instructor, teaches senior seminar including capstone placement coordination, and

freshman seminar for nursing students. In addition to her educational work, she continues to

practice as a pediatric nurse practitioner, or PNP, at Starlight Pediatrics in Rochester, to maintain

her nurse practitioner license. Paula originally received her bachelors degree in biology, and

then became a nurse through an accelerated program. She worked as a pediatric nurse on a

pediatric general care floor for several years and then eventually went on to obtain her PNP,

started working at SUNY Brockport, and received her doctoral degree in 2012. She considers

pediatrics to be her area of expertise.

Paula believes that her role as a nurse educator allows her to set an example for her

students, as well as foster engagement and critical thinking within her students. She explained

that she holds her students to high standards, but also tries to be open and understanding to their

unique needs. She always keeps her office door open as a way to demonstrate this openness.
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One of the highlights of Paulas role as an academic educator is seeing students grow and

develop in their role as a nurse. Since she works with both the freshman seminar and senior

seminar, she gets to see nursing students transition in their role over their 4 years at Brockport.

Additionally, in doing clinical teaching, she gets to see many of her former students as

professional nurses, something she is most proud of.

One of the challenges of Paulas role is within the institution itself. She describes that

because SUNY Brockport is not a large institution, it can be challenging to meet the required

research and publication expectations without the resources to do so. She describes one of the

challenges with the teaching nursing students is dealing with all different levels of learning, that

not all students learn the same way, but you have only one class to teach them in.

Paula has a lot of plans for her future in nursing education. One plan is to hopefully

make tenure this year, and be able to spend some more time doing research. Paula also has plans

to write a textbook for a PNP in the primary care setting, focusing on issues like child abuse and

maltreatment, and the foster care system. She expressed interest in potentially taking an

administrative position at some point in the future, especially as she understands that this is a

way to further advance in her career.

Paulas advice to me was to look at the institution where I want to teach, and make sure

that the mission and vision of the school is congruent with my values and beliefs. She expressed

that even within the Rochester community; the higher education institutions have very different

expectations of their educators. She stressed the importance of knowing which environment

would foster my growth. Paula also suggested that I find a good mentor, someone who I am

comfortable bouncing my ideas off of.

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Reflection

One of the aspects that Paula stressed the most was the differences between different

academic institutions, that they all have different concentrations and areas of focus. Learning

this is so helpful, because it will really make me consider what kinds of things are important to

me when looking for an educator position. In addition, Paula talked about the support and

mentorship she received from her colleagues at Brockport. I think that making sure I fit in with

the community and have the support as a new educator will be huge, and allow me to grow into

my role.

Clinical Educator

The clinical nurse education whom I interviewed was Amy Roth, MS, RN, CNL,

CPHON. Following the completion of her masters degree, Amy sat for her certification as a

Clinical Nurse Leader, and is certified in this specialty. Amy has been in her position as a

Pediatric service educator and unit educator for 7 North, a pediatric hematology/oncology unit,

for 1 year. Both positions are within the Golisano Childrens Hospital at the University of

Rochester Medical center. Amy has 21 years of pediatric inpatient nursing experience, and 5

years of experience in outpatient infusion therapy. In addition, she has 12 years of leadership

experience, serving as a nurse leader until taking her current position. She feels her area of

expertise is in pediatric hematology and oncology.

One of the highlights of her career is that she is often one of the first people to work with

new nurses coming to pediatrics as she runs the pediatric service orientation at the hospital. She

enjoys being able to help lay a foundation for the nurses and help mold them within her vision of
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a great nurse. She also likes working with the new nurses because she enjoys learning, and is

able to learn something new every day working with them.

One of the challenges that Amy faces in her role is creating curriculum that applies to all

types of pediatric nurses from different departments. She also finds it challenging to teach to all

types of learning styles, and learners with all different kinds of experiences. She believes in the

80/20 rule--- if the content applies to 80 percent of the learners, keep it in the curriculum.

Some of Amys future plans include growing into her role and continuing to make

improvements with pediatric service orientation. She is just beginning to do some work with

creating a nurse residency program specifically for pediatric nurses. Her dream role would be to

be a full-time educator in pediatric hematology-oncology, working with both inpatient and

outpatient nurses, and creating a better flow between the two entities.

Amy had a lot of advice for me including going into any nurse educator position with an

open mind. She explained that she has been in her position for a year now, and there is still so

much to be learned. Being open minded, and having a good mentor to guide me in my position

will be essential to being successful. Her other advice is that I try to not be afraid to fail and

suggested that I be open to opportunities that may not interest me now, and that I may be

surprised how much I like the challenge.

Reflection

In her role of clinical nurse educator, Amy has many different roles and has spent a lot of

time making changes to an outdated orientation program. While she has made an effort to find

her own mentor, this mentorship has come in the form of non-educator type roles, and she has

had to make a lot of decisions on her own. I think one of the challenges of working as a clinical
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nurse educator is that while you may work amongst many nurses, you may not have support

from educators themselves, who have experience in teaching and learning, as opposed to the

academic setting. If this were a role I pursued, I would have to put a lot of effort into finding my

own resources and mentors. However, I do think that because of this, I would have more

freedom to think creatively and implement my own ideas without any specific criteria that needs

to be met for accreditation. As a new nurse educator, working in a clinical setting may be more

of a challenging role, but a great learning experience.

Final Reflection

There were differences between the two nurse educator roles, but an overall similarity

was felt between the two roles.

One very specific area that both nurse educators mentioned during their interviews was

the challenge of teaching students of varying experiences and learning styles. I feel that this may

be a challenge that most educators experience, no matter what setting they teach in. Knowing

how to teach in a way that highlights as many learning styles as possible is the challenge that

only begins when one begins their role as an educator. Another similarity between the two roles

is that both expressed that one of their more rewarding experiences is watching a nurse grow into

their professional role, especially knowing that they have likely had some part in this

development.

One of the differences between the two educators was their future outlooks for their

careers. I felt that this was very much related to the amount of time that theyve spent in their

current position. For example, Amy, who has been in her career for only a year, was looking to

continue to grow and develop within her role, and create new programs within this role. Paula,
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who has been teaching for many years, was looking at a bigger picture, with roles beyond her

current position. I think this outlook is probably similar in many careers between those new in

their role and those with more experience.

I feel that the meaning of nursing education is the same in both an academic and clinical

setting. Both nurse educators had similar challenges and highlights in their roles, and had an

overall goal to produce caring and competent nurses. There will always be a need for educators

in the academic setting to build the clinical foundations for nurses, and begin the transition in

their role from student to professional nurse. But, the academic setting is only the beginning of

their role development. This is why clinical nurse educators are important as well. They take a

novice nurse and provide education to help them in their specific role. They continue to provide

education to them as they become more experienced, and help them to stay current in their field

of practice. They take challenges and setbacks within the clinical setting and turn them into

opportunities for growth. A nurses education never ends, and therefore, there must be educators

in every setting to help ensure growth for the nursing field as a whole.