Healthcare Workforce Summit

2 Build Awareness of the Need for Nurse Educators

Tactics highlighted by attendees include: >> Need a full-fledged marketing campaign to raise awareness. >> More advertisement of needs at the college level – college reps need to be present on healthcare campuses. >> Create marketing and advertising campaigns that promote awareness of the nurse educator shortage, and the ramifications of the shortage for the community in both the short and long term. >> Need better advertising for educators as there is low awareness of the need. >> Demonstrate to employers how providing potential educators with flexible schedules, compensation, etc. will benefit the organization in the long run. >> Create a structured way to communicate and raise awareness of the need for nurse educators with employers. Need more networking. >> Start the ‘educator’ conversation very early with students and how it is a career path worthy of their consideration. >> Use success stories as part of any marketing campaign.

Panel and group discussions acknowledge the fact that generally, the public is aware of a national nurse shortage, but that this awareness does not extend to the lack of nurse educators. It was felt that a concerted effort is needed to educate the public as well as those in healthcare, policymaking, and education about how the lack of infrastructure to teach new nurses is impacting the community right now, and ramifications for the future.

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Finger Lakes Workforce Development Center