If you have your nursing degree and are considering making a change to leave clinical nursing, you may want to think about becoming a nurse educator. This will allow you to stay in the field but keep you from having to work odd shifts. It can also give you a break from the emotional aspect of working with patients. While some of these positions may require an advanced degree or some type of teaching background, quite a few options are available for anyone with an RN degree. Here are a few things to consider.

Nursing Schools

One option is to teach a nursing class at a technical school or community college. You would be training and teaching the next set of nurses for your community. You may be able to teach in a classroom or perhaps you could teach in a clinical setting helping students learn the medical tasks a nurse needs to be able to perform.

Hospital

If you have been working in a certain nursing area, you can become an educator for that. Many different nursing tasks and procedures require extra training. You would be teaching people who are already nurses but need the extra training required for a certain task. You could be training nurses to work as scrub nurses for surgery, teach them how to take care of wounds, or perhaps teach them to read cardiograms. Think about any extra training you have received to be able to do your job; someone had to teach you. These are good opportunities for nurse educators.

Patient Services

There are many situations where patients need training about their medical condition. You could teach expectant mothers about childbirth, help diabetics with nutrition, or teach patients about how to take care of their ostomy. There are many conditions patients need help with once they get home too. This type of work can be done in a clinical setting, perhaps a conference room in a hospital, or you could go to the patients' homes.

If you have decided it is time to take a break from working as a nurse, think about becoming a nurse educator. There are nurse educator placement companies that will help you find the best job to fill your needs. This is a very good option for people who need to have a regular schedule with nights and weekends off or if you are no longer able to physically do the work nurses have to do every day.