Predicting The Career Potential For Nurse Educators In Online Education

by Alberta E. Gudes, BSN, RN

Statistics shows for years now that there is a growing shortage of nurses in the United States alone and this shortage is caused by colleges and universities that can no longer accommodate students to enroll in the nursing degree program in the traditional classroom setting. It is because there is also a prevalent scarcity of nurse educators across the academic world that offers healthcare studies like nursing (Penn, Wilson, & Rosseter, 2008).  According to Kariya (2003), “the annual market for distance learning is currently $4.5 billion, and it is “expected to grow to $11 billion by 2005”. Also, most agree that a rapidly aging RN workforce, the increasing demand for care, and an insufficient pipeline of nurses with master's and doctoral degrees are all contributors to the U.S. nursing shortage, which is expected to last at least through the year 2025 (Buerhaus, Staiger, & Auerbach, 2008).

Given the above scenario, this writer predicts that in the coming years, nurse educators in online education will dominate and grow expansively as this would be the most viable option for students to take, if colleges and universities would continue rejecting students to be accepted to attend the traditional face-to-face classroom setup (Buerhaus et. al., 2008).  Also, if forerunners and leaders of institutions offering online education will emphasize seriously quality online curriculum, supported with a robust technological infrastructure, and a stringent policy framework that would ensure that graduates in distance education would not be treated as inferior to the traditional ones.  Much more, if colleges and universities offering distance education would make available all other basic nursing courses like Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN), License Vocational Nurse (LVN), Nursing Assistant (NA), and the likes (http://onlinenursingdegreeguide.org/), then it would really shift the paradigms of nurse educators in online education, and definitely would transform their career potentials to be an irresistible societal trend that people would look up to.  

References

Buerhaus, P., Staiger, D.O. & Auerbach, D.I. (2008). The Future of the Nursing Workforce in the United States: Data, Trends and Implications. Boston: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

Kariya, S. (2003) Online education expands and evolves. IEEE Spectrum. 40(5): 49-51.

Penn, B., Wilson, L., & Rosseter, R. (2008). Transitioning from nursing practice to a teaching role. Online Journal Of Issues In Nursing, 13(3),

Online Nursing Degree Guide, (n.d.), Guide to Online Nursing Degree and Schools, Retrieved on July 16, 2012 from http://onlinenursingdegreeguide.org/