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Career profile Nursing Professor

Also known as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Clinical Nursing Instructor, Faculty Member, Instructor, Lecturer, Nurse Educator, Nursing Instructor, Nursing Professor, Professor

Nursing Professor

Also known as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Clinical Nursing Instructor

Interests Profile
  • Social
  • Investigative
  • Artistic
Pay Range
$41,930 - $133,420 (annual)
Required Skills
  • Instructing
  • Speaking
  • Learning Strategies
Knowledge Areas
  • Medicine and Dentistry
  • Education and Training
  • Psychology
Core tasks
  • Evaluate and grade students' class work, laboratory work, projects, assignments, and papers.
  • Supervise students' laboratory and clinical work.
  • Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
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What does a Nursing Professor do?

Nursing Professors demonstrate and teach patient care in classroom and clinical units to nursing students.

In addition, Nursing Professors includes both teachers primarily engaged in teaching and those who do a combination of teaching and research.

What kind of tasks does a Nursing Professor perform regularly?

Nursing Professors are often responsible for overseeing or executing some or all of the following tasks:

  • Evaluate and grade students' class work, laboratory work, projects, assignments, and papers.
  • Supervise students' laboratory and clinical work.
  • Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
  • Assess clinical education needs and patient and client teaching needs using a variety of methods.
  • Compile, administer, and grade examinations or assign this work to others.
  • Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as anatomy, therapeutic recreation, and conditioning theory.
  • Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, or handouts.
  • Demonstrate patient care in clinical units of hospitals.
  • Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, giving presentations at conferences, and serving on committees in professional associations.
  • Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, course materials, and methods of instruction.
  • Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.
  • Advise students on academic and vocational curricula, and on career issues.
  • Collaborate with colleagues to address teaching and research issues.
  • Maintain regularly scheduled office hours to advise and assist students.
  • Mentor junior and adjunct faculty members.
  • Maintain a clinical practice.
  • Serve on academic or administrative committees that deal with institutional policies, departmental matters, and academic issues.
  • Select and obtain materials and supplies, such as textbooks and performance pieces.
  • Coordinate training programs with area universities, clinics, hospitals, health agencies, or vocational schools.
  • Participate in student recruitment, registration, and placement activities.
  • Compile bibliographies of specialized materials for outside reading assignments.
  • Participate in campus and community events.

The above responsibilities are specific to Nursing Professors. More generally, Nursing Professors are involved in several broader types of activities:

Training and Teaching Others
Identifying the educational needs of others, developing formal educational or training programs or classes, and teaching or instructing others.
Updating and Using Relevant Knowledge
Keeping up-to-date technically and applying new knowledge to your job.
Getting Information
Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
Assisting and Caring for Others
Providing personal assistance, medical attention, emotional support, or other personal care to others such as coworkers, customers, or patients.
Working with Computers
Using computers and computer systems (including hardware and software) to program, write software, set up functions, enter data, or process information.

What is a Nursing Professor salary?

The median salary for a Nursing Professor is $75,470, and the average salary is $84,060. Both the median and average roughly describe the middle of the Nursing Professor salary range, but the average is more easily affected by extremely high or low salaries.

Many Nursing Professors earn significantly more or less than the average, due to several factors. About 10% of Nursing Professors earn less than $41,930 per year, 25% earn less than $57,660, 75% earn less than $100,330, and 90% earn less than $133,420.

Between the years of 2020 and 2030, the number of Nursing Professors is expected to change by 22.5%, and there should be roughly 9,000 open positions for Nursing Professors every year.

Median annual salary
$75,470
Typical salary range
$41,930 - $133,420
Projected growth (2020 - 2030)
22.5%

What personality traits are common among Nursing Professors?

Interests

Career interests describe a person's preferences for different types of working environments and activities. When a person's interest match the demands of an occupation, people are usually more engaged and satisfied in that role.

Compared to most occupations, those who work as a Nursing Professor are usually higher in their Social and Investigative interests.

Nursing Professors typically have very strong Social interests. Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.

Also, Nursing Professors typically have strong Investigative interests. Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.

Values

People differ in their values, or what is most important to them for building job satisfaction and fulfillment.

Compared to most people, those working as a Nursing Professor tend to value Relationships, Working Conditions, and Independence.

Most importantly, Nursing Professors very strongly value Relationships. Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to provide service to others and work with co-workers in a friendly non-competitive environment.

Second, Nursing Professors strongly value Working Conditions. Occupations that satisfy this work value offer job security and good working conditions.

Lastly, Nursing Professors strongly value Independence. Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to work on their own and make decisions.

Psychological Demands

Each occupation brings its own set of psychological demands, which describe the characteristics necessary to perform the job well.

In order to perform their job successfully, people who work as Nursing Professors must consistently demonstrate qualities such as dependability, integrity, and attention to detail.

Below, you'll find a list of qualities typically required of Nursing Professors, ranked by importance:

Dependability
Job requires being reliable, responsible, and dependable, and fulfilling obligations.
Integrity
Job requires being honest and ethical.
Attention to Detail
Job requires being careful about detail and thorough in completing work tasks.
Initiative
Job requires a willingness to take on responsibilities and challenges.
Adaptability/Flexibility
Job requires being open to change (positive or negative) and to considerable variety in the workplace.

What education and training do Nursing Professors need?

Many Nursing Professors have earned a graduate degree. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a doctoral degree, such as a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D..

Nursing Professors may need some on-the-job training, but most candidates will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

Educational degrees among Nursing Professors

  • 0.6% did not complete high school or secondary school
  • 1.4% completed high school or secondary school
  • 2.0% completed some college coursework
  • 1.8% earned a Associate's degree
  • 14.6% earned a Bachelor's degree
  • 32.1% earned a Master's degree
  • 47.4% earned a doctorate or professional degree

Knowledge and expertise required by Nursing Professors

Nursing Professors may benefit from understanding of specialized subject areas, such as medicine and dentistry, education and training, or psychology knowledge.

The list below shows several areas in which most Nursing Professors might want to build proficiency, ranked by importance.

Medicine and Dentistry
Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
Education and Training
Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
Psychology
Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
Biology
Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
Customer and Personal Service
Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.

Important Abilities needed by Nursing Professors

Nursing Professors must develop a particular set of abilities to perform their job well. Abilities are individual capacities that influence a person's information processing, sensory perception, motor coordination, and physical strength or endurance. Individuals may naturally have certain abilities without explicit training, but most abilities can be sharpened somewhat through practice.

For example, Nursing Professors need abilities such as oral comprehension, written comprehension, and oral expression in order to perform their job at a high level. The list below shows several important abilities for Nursing Professors, ranked by their relative importance.

Oral Comprehension
The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
Written Comprehension
The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
Oral Expression
The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
Written Expression
The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
Speech Clarity
The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.

Critical Skills needed by Nursing Professors

Skills are developed capacities that enable people to function effectively in real-world settings. Unlike abilities, skills are typically easier to build through practice and experience. Skills influence effectiveness in areas such as learning, working with others, design, troubleshooting, and more.

Nursing Professors frequently use skills like instructing, speaking, and learning strategies to perform their job effectively. The list below shows several critical skills for Nursing Professors, ranked by their relative importance.

Instructing
Teaching others how to do something.
Speaking
Talking to others to convey information effectively.
Learning Strategies
Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
Reading Comprehension
Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
Active Listening
Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.

What is the source of this information?

The information provided on this page is adapted from data and descriptions published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration under the CC BY 4.0 license. TraitLab has modified some information for ease of use and reading, and the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment, and Training Administration has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

If you have any questions or suggestions about this information, please send a message.