Reality shock in the nurse educator

The nurse educator, as with many other nursing roles, is a prime target for reality shock. The nurse educator who is aware of reality shock and the possible ways it may be exhibited in her current position, can also identify strategies to assist her through this transition. Graduate schools and universities hiring new clinical instructors and nurse educators can work together to alleviate this problem. The goal of this article is to make nurse educators, graduate schools, and universities hiring neophyte instructors aware of reality shock and to assist in this transitional period. Preliminary exposure of graduate students to stresses they may be experiencing during the early years as a clinical instructor, may assist universities assigning a mentor for the new clinical instructor, so she can have a consistent, nonthreatening source of feedback. Discussing these new feelings and being reassured they are normal, may serve as a preventive measure for developing reality shock. And lastly, the nurse educator has to realize that along with the exhilaration of finally holding a faculty position, comes change and new challenges which she must accept. As the neophyte becomes seasoned, these triumphant challenges will become a part of the position she has struggled for and deserves.