What is the role of clinical educator?

The medical field is diverse with specialities. From rewarding medical sales careers through to nursing and doctorships, this industry is enriched with roles that have advanced the health sector to where it is today. One such valuable role is that of a clinical educator.

Clinical educators are a lifeline to the medical field. These educators are respected nurses with strong organisational and leadership skills – qualities that are essential for steering towards the very best therapies and patient care.

A clinical educator or a nurse educator is responsible for several training and development duties within a healthcare environment. Most of the work focuses on ensuring that nurses and other healthcare students have the skills and training to succeed in their individual units. But nurse advisor jobs such as this also require collaborative partnerships with professional healthcare teams, nursing faculties, and even patients who have special requests and needs. These partnerships help ensure that all gaps between nurse training and patient outcomes are fulfilled successfully.

Essentially, the responsibilities of a clinical educator include:

·       Educating and assessing nursing students

·       Collaborating with educational faculties to develop, implement, and test students’ knowledge and skills

·       Researching techniques to improve student education in a clinical setting

·       Implementing strategies and learning opportunities for nurses that adhere to policies and standards of the healthcare environment

·       Educating nursing students on optimal task performance

·       Providing support to nursing students while ensuring that the needs and requests of patients are put first

With an increasing demand for advanced healthcare services across the globe, nurse educator roles are increasing in demand. This is good news if you plan to pursue or advance in a career in this sector.

The first step toward becoming a clinical educator is to gather experience working as a registered nurse. To become a nurse, you will need a postgraduate diploma or a degree in nursing. Specialist nursing courses and workshops will also be to your advantage.

However, this role is not without its challenges, and apart from training, core skills are also needed to fulfil the role successfully. For example, you will need to be good at:

·       Organisation. Clinical nursing advisors have several moving parts to keep track of. From research, training, tracking, and assessments through to support and administration, this role requires that you have a firm grip on processes to ensure success at every stage.

·       Relationship-building. Being able to relate to student nurses will help to streamline and enhance the educational process. This means that clinical educators should be eager to build and maintain excellent relationships.

·       Research. All nurse specialists need to stay up to date on any changes to healthcare rules and regulations. They then need to be able to integrate these rules and regulations with their training materials and programs to ensure the most relevant and helpful outcomes are attained.

·       Mentoring. You’ll need to play the role of cheerleader as well as an educator while you help your nursing students learn and eventually grow in their careers.

Start or advance your clinical educator career with IQVIA today!

At IQVIA, we’re committed to delivering results to medical solutions to customers in the healthcare industry and we’re a diverse community of individuals.

If you have the core skills and qualities needed for a clinical educator career, then IQVIA can help you find a purposeful role. We are passionate about creating solutions for our clients by connecting them to the very best candidates – all so that we can actively contribute to a medical workforce where everyone thrives. Browse our latest clinical nurse advisor jobs or clinical educator trial jobs so that you can find a role that will help you to change healthcare for the better.