Nurse educators must work with managers to make the most of their role and build pathways for advancement

Nurse educators must work with managers to make the most of their role and build pathways for advancement.

Blurring and ambiguity of roles are hindering professional identity and job satisfaction for nurse educators.

A study of nurse educators in Australian hospitals has homed in on the need to clarify the role and create clear pathways for role development and care advancement.

"Nurse educators in Australia: High job satisfaction despite role ambiguity: published recently in the Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, sates that "continued development of the nursing profession and its ability to address society's healthcare needs is implicit upon the nurse educator role".

"If teaching and learning [are] valued as core business in clinical environments, then the contribution of nurse educators through role modelling, guiding the development and implementation of evidence, and enabling learning and skill acquisition is invaluable," the report states.

Lead author of the report, Dr Jan Sayers, lecturer in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Western Sydney University, says the nurse educator role in hospitals has become blurred as other nursing roles also assume responsibility for teaching in clinical practice.