From the Guidelines
Clinical experience is a crucial factor in the hiring of health educators, as it provides them with practical knowledge and skills to develop effective educational materials and programs. When considering the hiring of health educators, employers often prioritize candidates with clinical experience, as it demonstrates their ability to apply theoretical knowledge in real-world situations 1. This experience can range from direct patient care to clinical rotations, internships, or volunteer work in healthcare facilities, and it provides health educators with a firsthand understanding of patient needs, healthcare systems, and effective communication strategies. Some of the key benefits of clinical experience for health educators include:
- Greater credibility with both patients and healthcare professionals
- Ability to develop relevant educational materials and programs that address actual health challenges
- Understanding of the nuances of health conditions and treatments
- Ability to bridge the gap between complex medical information and public understanding While formal education and certifications are important, the combination of academic knowledge and practical clinical experience creates a well-rounded health educator who can effectively promote health education and improve patient outcomes 1. In real-life clinical medicine, prioritizing clinical experience in the hiring of health educators can lead to better health education programs, improved patient outcomes, and enhanced quality of life. Key aspects of clinical experience that are valuable for health educators include:
- Experiential knowledge gained through thoughtful practice of clinical medicine
- Ability to inform therapeutic decisions and improve performance
- Capacity to detect new disorders or changing manifestations of existing ones
- Understanding of the strengths and limitations of clinical experience in clinical decision making 1.
From the Research
Influence of Clinical Experience on Hiring Health Educators
- Clinical experience can play a significant role in the hiring of health educators, as it is often considered an essential characteristic for effective clinical instruction 2, 3.
- Studies have shown that students rank instructor knowledge and support as the highest desirable characteristics in clinical instructors, followed by patience, creating challenges, enthusiasm, and organization 2.
- The ability of the instructor to convey knowledge, demonstrate professionalism, and exhibit enthusiasm and caring are key characteristics that influence the clinical experience 2.
- Nurse educators can use the results of these studies to target hiring and placing of desired characteristics of clinical instructors and to support mentoring programs that promote clinical teaching excellence 2, 3.
- Recruiting senior clinician educators transitioning to retirement could significantly increase the number and quality of resident observations, addressing a previously insoluble problem with a relatively significant return on investment to the academic health center 4.
Attributes of Effective Clinical Educators
- Attributes of a good clinical nursing educator include knowledge, interpersonal presentation, and teaching strategies 3.
- Educators can improve the clinical education experience by developing teaching strategies and evaluation tools that build on the positive attributes and phases of the clinical experience identified in these studies 3.
- Clinical experience is essential for building critical thinking skills, and reflective writing can be used as a teaching tool to develop critical thinking ability, foster self-understanding, facilitate coping, and lead to improvement in clinical practice 5.