MSN Program Preparing Nurse
Educators: Four Decades in
Review
Judith P. Ruland, PhD, RN, CNE
Jean D. Leuner, PhD, RN, CNE
Purpose
• Descriptive study to
• Document growth trends and to
• Review current curricular patterns
in Master’s level programs designed to prepare nurse educators.
• Annual report data from National League for Nursing [NLN]
(1968-1995) and American Association of Colleges of Nursing [AACN] (1996-2010) over four decades was used to review program enrollment and graduation data.
• A review of Websites for all listed programs was the source of the
• Nurse Educator students accounted for a large percentage of the
enrollment in Master’s programs until the 1980s when the advent of Nurse Practitioner education changed enrollment patterns.
• This is especially evident by comparing NLN data from 1968 to 1995.
A 16 year sharp decline started in 1979 and ran until 1995 when it slowly started to reverse.
Year # of MSN Programs Total MSN Enrollment % Enrolled in Nurse Educator Programs 1965 66 4,018 1,344 (33%) 1983 154 18,112 382 (6.5%) 1995 306 35,707 576 (1.6%)
Enrollment Patterns
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000Nurse Educator Program Enrollment 1968-2010 *1968-1994 NLN data, 1995-2010 AACN data
Millenium Growth
• Growth in the number of Nurse Educator programs and enrollment in
the new millennium has been an amazing phenomenon. From 2000-2009 enrollments grew between 15 and 80% per year.
Year Total # Schools with MSN Total enroll. # of Nurs Ed Prg Nurse Ed Enroll. Nurse Ed Grad Total MSN Grad 2000 330 31,835 84 1,285 (4.0%) 278 (2.7%) 10,223 2008 444 69,565 258 12,111 (17.8%) 2,816 (16.8%) 17,247 2009 468 77,146 296 13,883 (18%) 3,175 (16.7%) 19,063 2010 485 86,746 304 15,243 (17.6%) 3,864 (17.8%) 21,730
Graduation Growth 2000-2010
•
278 Nurse Educator graduates represented
only 2.7% of the total # of 10,223 MSN
graduates in 2000.
•
3,864 Nurse Educator graduates in 2010
represented 17.8% of the 21,730 MSN
graduates in 2010.
Program Growth
0 93 93 96 88 82 84 98 122 148 175 193 233 243 258 296 304 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010Nurse Educator Programs
Nurse Ed Programs
From 2000-2009, 193 new nurse educator programs were added at the rate of an average of 15-38 new programs per year. Over 2009-2010, this rate slowed to 8 new programs added with an overall enrollment growth last year at 10%.
Questions…
•
As these programs continue to proliferate, what
curricular guidelines have been applied to these
programs?
•
Are there core requirements that appear in all
curricula?
•
In addition to the core MSN courses & education
courses, do the curricula offer courses in nursing
specialties?
•
What national standards for practicum hours are
being applied?
Website Review Method
• List of schools with Nurse Educator Programs purchased
from AACN—based on Annual Report Data.
• The website for every one of these programs was reviewed
in search of the MSN curricula.
• Of the 258 schools, 198 (78%) schools demonstrated their
curricular plans or had attachments of the curricular plans.
• Only the schools with available and evident curricular
Website Review Method
The curricula were reviewed using the curriculum model in AACN Essentials for MSN Education (1996) for :
• Total credit hours= 39 credit hours with range 30-56
• Graduate Core courses (research, theory, healthcare policy, issues/ethics; health promotion)
• Advanced practice nursing core – ( 3 P’s : Advanced pathophysiology; pharmacology; health assessment)
• Nursing Education ( curriculum, teaching strategies, evaluation, instructional technology, teaching practicum etc.).
• Clinical Specialty and evidence of required courses and clinical hours in clinical nursing specialties.
Findings: Graduate Core…
• Legal and ethical issues are often built into the roles course
according to the course descriptions.
Course # of programs % of total programs
Theory 180 91%
Research 191 96%
Health Care policy 133 67%
Issues/Ethics 98 49%
Role Development 97 49% Health Promotion 43 22%
Findings: Advanced Practice Core…
•
When programs require the advanced practice
core, they tend to omit courses such as healthcare
policy, role, issues and ethics.
Course # of programs
% of total programs
Require all 3 courses 46 23% Advanced Health Assessment 81 41% Advanced Pathophysiology 96 48% Advanced Pharmacology 54 27%
Findings: Education Courses
• Practicum varies in credits and hours. Some are offered
throughout the program, others in concentration at the end. Hours vary from 45-300 hours.
Course # of programs % of total programs
Curriculum Development 191 96% Teaching strategies/Instruction 193 97% Evaluation Methods 176 89% Instructional Technology 51 26% Adult Learning 38 19% Clinical Teaching 34 17% Teaching Practicum 182 92%
Specialty Courses
• CCNE is discussing the need for Nurse Educator programs
to prepare graduates in their area of nursing specialty as well as in the area of education.
• AACN 2011 Master’s Essentials reflects this requirement
as well.
• What does this mean for Nurse Educator curricula?
• From where will these extra credits come and how will
Transformation of MSN
• 63% of all schools offering the MSN now have a Nurse
Educator Track.
• What is the most sound model to develop an a graduate to
practice as a clinical educator or in Associate Degree education?
• Where will the resources for teaching and clinical
supervision come for the new Specialty courses that will need to be independently developed and staffed?
Transformation of MSN
• As the Nurse Practitioner and CNS and in some cases
Leadership and Management tracks move to the DNP, what will be left for shared course work at the MSN core course level?
• How will these programs develop and change?
• How do we best prepare graduates for PhD education that
is needed to sustain practice as a nurse educator long term?
• What does all of this mean in terms of standardization of
Curriculum Standards …
•
NLN Nurse Educator Competencies (not
specific to courses)
http://www.nln.org/facultydevelopment/index.htm
•
NLN Nurse Educator Certification exam
listed courses.
http://www.nln.org/facultycertification/information/eligibility.htm
