Practicing what we preach: balancing teaching and clinical practice competencies

Most nurse educators fulfill dual roles of clinical practitioner and teacher and thus have to achieve a balance between these two challenging sets of competencies. The authors discuss the obligation and expectation that nurse educators are concurrently experts in clinical practice and education. Is this dual competence a feasible and sustainable goal? To begin to explore this issue, the meanings of 'expert practice' and 'practice competence,' derived from the nursing education literature, are reviewed. Current professional practice competency requirements related to the nurse educator role are discussed. Questions are raised regarding support for and barriers to achieving these competencies. The potential challenges and rewards of this endeavour are presented and illustrated by two nurse educators who share their stories of achieving a balance in teaching and clinical practice competence. Finally, implications for nurse educators and directions for future research into this issue are proposed.