Nursing instructor degrees prepare nurses for the ability to educate in a wide variety of different educational institutions. Nurse educators play a truly vital role in the nursing industry because they teach students the essential knowledge and skills that they need to become nurses. The National League of Nursing has said that just as there is a shortage of nurses, there is also a shortage in nurse educators. Many schools are unable to provide the nursing degree programs that they normally would because of this shortage of instructors in the industry. In order to be a nursing educator, you must maintain a registered nurse (RN) license.

Nurse educators, after pursuing nursing instructor degrees, are responsible for a wide variety of different tasks. These include the planning, design and implementation of curriculums for nursing courses and nursing students. They may take roles to teach students that are working to earn an associate's degree, a bachelor's degree or a master's degree in some field of nursing. A nursing instructor may educate in a traditional classroom, they may also educate through online or distance learning courses as well. Students will generally be instructed in a wide variety of different subjects including physiology and anatomy courses.

Students will also learn about chemistry, medical ethics, nutrition and psychology from nurse educators. In addition to teaching this variety of subjects to nursing students, nurse educators with nursing instructor degrees will also prepare clinical training programs or approve the clinical training programs prepared by others. In order to become a nursing instructor you are going to need to begin with a Master's of Science degree in Nursing at a bare minimum. Some nursing teaching facilities may be required an experienced nurse that has a bachelor's degree rather than a master's degree, but these particular opportunities are rare.  

Some universities looking to hire individuals with nursing instructor degrees will be specifically interested in nurse educators that have obtained a doctoral degree in their nursing studies. Nursing instructors that have obtained a doctoral degree are much more likely to earn a higher salary in comparison to nursing instructors that have only obtained a master's degree. Most schools generally prefer that all of their nursing instruction staff be certified. There is a certification examination offered through the National League for Nursing. You must pass this examination in order to become certified as a nurse educator.

In addition to obtaining nursing instructor degrees, you will also be required to have a registered nursing license that is active. You will be required to have obtained either a master's degree or a doctoral degree, and you should have between two years and four years of experience in nursing education in order to walk into most university teaching jobs. It largely depends on how much of your education focused on instructing and how much was basic nurse preparation. Because of the nursing shortage, some teaching facilities may be hire nurse educators directly out of college without related experience, while others may prefer that you have some experience before taking a position with them.