Original post was published on June 6, 2017. Updated: March 20, 2019.

This career advice question came from a comment on my YouTube video about nursing doctorates. The writer, a hospital clinical educator, asked which terminal degrees I suggested for a nurse educator to pursue.

I could really go into the weeds to answer this question – because it’s more complicated than it looks! But I’ll try to hit some key points about different degree levels and end with a discussion of the terminal degrees (DNP/DSN, PhD/DNS/DNSc, EdD) for you to consider as you make this decision.

Whether you are a preceptor, a unit educator, a hospital educator, or an academic faculty member, educating the next generation of nurses is an awesome responsibility! What you do as an educator will influence how your students treat patients and families, nursing and medical colleagues, and themselves in the future.

 

 

Part of my teaching philosophy is to remember what it was like to be a student – and then treat each student with kindness and understanding of their anxiety, fears, and overwhelm. Remember the support that you needed – and maybe didn’t get – and do better for your students.

 

 

Thank you for stepping up to teach. You are appreciated!

“Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.”                         

William Butler Yeats

Degrees for Teaching Nursing

Baccalaureate Degree in Nursing

Okay, so first let’s talk about minimal degrees for teaching. You don’t necessarily have to have a four-year degree to teach in a hospital setting, such as for a unit educator position. But I would submit that you have to understand a variety of theoretical approaches to teaching and learning, to be the best educator that you can be – and that requires at least a bachelor’s degree in nursing (BSN).

I know there are wonderful educators out there who are self-taught and keep up with the education literature who don’t have a baccalaureate degree, but the reality is that if you want to advance in the hospital hierarchy you will need to have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in nursing. Hospital educator job requirements will typically state that a bachelor’s degree is the preferred degree for hiring consideration.

Hospital educators may be able to sit for certification for hospital nursing professional development. Nurse educators can apply for through the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). The credential is Registered Nurse-Board Certified (RN-BC). This certification requires a bachelor’s or higher degree in nursing and clinical practice of at least 2 years full-time as a registered nurse, along with practice hours in professional development. Certification is a voluntary credential, but it shows a dedication and commitment to excellence that is personally satisfying and professionally desirable by many institutions. 

Depending on the hospital, clinical preceptors may be volunteers (Hey, Sue, can you precept a student today?) or may have to formally apply for this position. Many schools appoint clinical scholars – official preceptors for a specific school, who may be paid or not. The recommendation for clinical preceptors is that they should hold the same degree or a degree higher than the level of students they want to teach (NCSBN, 2008). That means nurse preceptors with a BSN degree may precept BSN students; but, in general, nurse preceptors with an associate’s degree may not precept BSN students. There may be exceptions allowed by the state boards of nursing for institutions that are not able to hire fully qualified hospital or academic faculty (NCSBN, 2008).

You could teach in a practical nursing program with a bachelor’s degree in nursing. You would be working as a team member alongside master’s-prepared and doctorally-prepared nurse educators. But, as you will see, the master’s degree is the desired degree for full- or part-time faculty.

There is a new certification for academic clinical nurse educators from the NLN. “The academic clinical nurse educator facilitates the learning of nursing students throughout clinical components of an academic nursing program” (NLN, 2019). If you are a clinical scholar or in an “official” role as a university preceptor, you may be eligible for the  CNE®cl credential. There are two routes of eligibility: a master’s degree in nursing education and professional practice experience or a baccalaureate degree or higher, coupled with professional practice experience, and experience in an academic setting.

Becoming Academic Faculty: Master’s Degree in Nursing

If you want to teach in practical nurse (PN) or registered nurse (RN) programs, you have to have an unrestricted registered nurse license and need to hold at least one degree higher than the level of students you want to teach; you need to be identified as “qualified faculty” (NCSBN, 2008). The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) define qualified faculty as those with either a master’s or doctoral degree in nursing. Along with the NCSBN, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN, 2017), the National League for Nursing (NLN, 2002), and nursing leaders (e.g., Benner, Sutphen, Leonard, & Day, 2010) agree that to prepare a more highly educated nursing workforce to meet the needs of our complex healthcare systems, nurse educators must have graduate preparation in education-focused coursework.

Most nurse faculty will start their academic careers teaching baccalaureate-level students, so a master’s degree is the first step on that path. However, to move up the ranks in academia, a doctoral degree is required.

You can get a master’s degree in nursing as an advanced practice nurse (APN) or as a nurse educator, nurse administrator/leader, nurse informaticist, public health specialist, or in another specialty.  Master’s degrees in nursing education are best for future faculty members because you are sure to get nursing education courses as part of your curriculum. Getting your master’s as an APN or in another nursing track will mean you will have to seek out additional nursing education courses on your own – these won’t be required for your non-education track, so you have to initiate this quest! Either way, you can teach as long as you have a master’s in nursing.

FYI – Master’s-prepared nurse educators are not considered APNs — because they do not have a clinical practice. The only four nursing roles considered advanced practice are the clinical nurse specialist (CNS), nurse practitioner (NP), certified nurse midwife (CNM), and certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA).

When making the decision as to which APN master’s track you want, a question to consider is:

Do I want to practice in a hospital or institutional setting?

OR

Do I want to have an independent practice serving patients, families, or communities?

The answer to this question may help you to consider which APN role you may want to pursue.

Note: The route to entry into an APN role has been mandated to be a DNP and many nursing programs are changing their curricula to meet this mandate. The APN organizations (NP, CNS, CRNA, CNM) have differing deadlines for if and when their members need to have a DNP for entry into advanced practice. You can check out their professional organization sites to find those answers.

Many schools are transitioning their traditional master’s in nursing programs to the DNP curriculum. Programs may be labeled BSN-DNP; you will still have to decide on your focus as an advanced practice or advanced nursing track student. So, if you do not want to be an APN, nursing education, nurse administration or informatics, or public health may be the master’s degree path for you.

You will need a master’s degree to get into a doctoral or post-master’s DNP program. (You will “get” the master’s on the way through a BSN-DNP or BSN-PhD program.) Note that the DNP, though it was created to support an advanced level of advanced practice, is available for other tracks such as executive and healthcare systems leadership, administration, and informatics.

As a nurse educator, you should be able to sit for the Certified Nurse Educator^CM (CNE) Examination; a master’s degree or higher is required. 

Bottom line: You can be hired as nurse faculty in a practical nursing program or as a nurse educator or preceptor in the hospital with a minimum of a baccalaureate degree in nursing. A master’s degree in nursing is the minimum required for academic teaching – though a doctorate is the preferred academic degree. How far you can move up the ranks after that will depend on your institution’s policies.

Terminal Degrees in Nursing Education

A terminal degree is the highest level of education for the professional or academic track for a specific discipline. So it’s the highest degree one can earn; in some professions, a master’s degree is the highest degree. The terminal degrees in nursing are the PhD/DNSc/DNS, DNP/DSN, or EdD. Professional degrees are practice-focused and are required for licensure (e.g., MD, JD, DDS). AACN (2017) has recommended doctoral degrees as “the preferred terminal degree for the professoriate” (p. 1). Both research-focused and practice-focused degrees are necessary for nurse faculty to prepare “students and professional nurses to lead change, spur innovation, and transform health care” (AACN, p. 1).

Okay, you have your master’s degree in nursing and now you want to advance your career by obtaining your doctorate. First, good for you! As I said in my other posts about doctoral education — we need doctorally-prepared nurses, desperately! So, congratulations on taking that first step of considering your next steps — because considering leads to planning, planning leads to implementation, and implementation leads to you being able to say, “Hi, I’m Dr. (fill in the blank). I’m a nurse educator, nursing professor, clinical nurse specialist, nurse practitioner, (again, fill in the blank).” YAY!

Once you’ve made a decision to get your doctorate, the first question is which of the terminal degrees should you obtain?

I would say that which degree to get depends on a lot of things. Which route you go depends on how you answer this question —

Do I want to primarily create knowledge (conduct research, create a theory, etc.) to build the science of nursing? (Then, go for the research doctorate.)

OR

Do I want to primarily use knowledge to change practice? (Then, the practice doctorate is for you!)

Please realize that both a PhD or DNP can create and use knowledge, which is why I qualified with “primarily,” but this is a simple way to differentiate the main purpose of each degree. 

Research-Focused Doctorates in Nursing: PhD, DNSc, DSN, EdD

The main purpose of the doctor of philosophy degree (Ph.D. or PhD) in nursing is to create researchers and scientists to study and report on the clinical and professional issues of our profession. The doctor of nursing science (DNSc, DNS) are also research-focused degrees.

The doctor of science in nursing (DNSc, DSN) may be a research or a professional degree. However, because of confusion over the credentials and unclear outcomes for the educational programs and practice, these programs are either being converted to PhD programs or being discontinued (Reid Ponte & Nicholas, 2015).

A doctorate in education (EdD) is a route that some nurse faculty take. The EdD can be considered a research doctorate or a practice doctorate (I’ve seen it described both ways!), but its curriculum is focused more on administrative and higher education leadership than the PhD curriculum (EducationDegree.com, n.d.; Teach.com, n.d.). If the program description is more about creating knowledge in education (a research emphasis)  and has a dissertation then you are probably looking at a research-focused doctorate and if the EdD program is described as application of education research (a practice emphasis) with a project, then the doctorate is a practice doctorate. The EdD is not a common degree for nurse faculty, just FYI.

In general, the research doctorates in nursng education focus on a higher level of teaching and learning knowledge and on conducting educational research.

I found a very helpful grid that outlines some of the differences between the PhD from the EdD. This grid shows the EdD as a practice-focused degree. I have permission from the authors to reproduce this here:

Practice-Focused Doctorates: DNP, DNAP, DSN, EdD

The main purpose of the doctor of nursing practice degree (DNP) is to create scholars who will take the knowledge created and change practice to produce positive patient, nurse, and organizational outcomes. This is the program with which you are probably familiar as it’s the most popular with about 384 DNP programs currently accepting students (AACN, 2019).

Certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA) programs will require the Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia Practice (DNAP) by 2025. Masters programs preparing CRNAs are currently being transitioned to the DNAP to meet the new requirements (https://www.aana.com). 

You can teach in a nursing college/university with any of the terminal doctoral degrees. There is a major nursing faculty shortage, so nurses with a doctoral degree are, and will be, in demand! At this time, in some colleges and universities, the path to tenure may be limited for DNPs. But as more DNPs graduate and universities and nursing faculty get used to the DNP degree, I expect those barriers to come down.

Again, if you will be going to school to become an APN, I would advise you to choose a DNP program at the get-go. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2017) has pushed for the DNP degree to become the entry into practice for advanced practice nursing  since 2004 — that is, in the future, to become an APN you will have to be a DNP. While the deadlines for when this will happen for the different APN roles differ, my advice is to just do it now!

If you are still not sure whether to go for the research doctorate or the clinical doctorate, check out my posts and video on doctoral education:

PhD or DNP: Which One to Choose? 

PhD or DNP: Is the Pain Worth It? The Benefits of Doctoral Education in Nursing 

Video: Why Should You Get a Doctorate in Nursing? 

You can also check out my presentation on how to choose a PhD or DNP that I gave at the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists 2019 conference. The presentation is on the NEE Education Center page for members at the NEE Insider level or above.

My Path to the Doctorate: Hands-on education practice in the hospital setting often leads to an academic career. It did for me. I was a unit teacher in a 41-bed cardiovascular recovery/ICU. I had an associate’s degree in nursing when I started in this unit and when I got one of the unit teacher positions. By the time I left I had obtained my BSN and then my MSN as a critical care clinical nurse specialist.

 

 

Once I had my MSN, I was recruited by the university I attended to teach. I hadn’t even considered teaching in academia when I first went back to school! So I worked full-time at the university and part-time as a Faculty Associate (no CNS title) at the hospital.

 

 

Within my first year of teaching, I was counseled by my Associate Dean. She said that if I planned to stay in academia and if I wanted to hold an academic rank, I should get a doctorate. So that’s what I did. I chose the PhD program at a nearby university. This move was helpful as it exposed me to a different philosophy of teaching and learning and also ensured that 

all my higher degrees would not be from the same university. 

 

Completing this level of education was the best thing I ever did! Less than 1% of nurses in the US hold a doctoral degree. I’m proud to be one of those doctor nurses!

How to Cite this Post in APA: Thompson, C. J. (2019, March 20).

Career advice: Which of the terminal degrees do you suggest for a nurse educator? [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://nursingeducationexpert.com/terminal-degrees-nurse-educator

References

American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). (2017, October). The preferred vision of the professoriate in baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs [Position statement]. Retrieved  from  https://www.aacnnursing.org/Portals/42/News/Position-Statements/Professoriate.pdf 

American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). (2019, March). The doctor of nursing practice (DNP) [Fact sheet]. Retrieved from https://www.aacnnursing.org/Portals/42/News/Factsheets/DNP-Factsheet.pdf 

Benner, P., Sutphen, M., Leonard, V., & Day, L. (2010).  San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

National League for Nursing (NLN). (2002). Position statement: The preparation of nurse educators. Retrieved from http://www.nln.org/docs/default-source/advocacy-public-policy/the-preparation-of-nurse-faculty.pdf?sfvrsn=0

Reid Ponte, P., & Nicholas, P. K. (2015). Addressing the confusion related to DNS, DNSc, and DSN degrees, with lessons for the nursing profession. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 47(4), 347-353. doi:10.1111/jnu.12148