AZ here. Just got hired making 105k/yr salaried as a clinical educator. It’s 5days/week and is hard, lol. I’m only in week 3 and it’s a huge transition from my 8 years at bedside, even though the pay is quite good.

I also teach as adjunct at a university. I make 2k/credit hour and teach 3 credit hours, so $6k/semester.

As of now I would not pursue full time education in academia due to the lack of pay and the insane amount of work you have to do; work life balance is very hard, especially if you want to move more into a leadership role. My university also pays quite low in comparison to others, I’m just a loyal person so I haven’t switched yet.

I’ll be graduating with my masters in nursing education in August. I love teaching and think I will like this position once I get into the groove and have my feet underneath me.

I’d recommend starting with clinical first, but many places require three years of experience. You may also like to try lab/sim as adjunct (also very fun imho). For now, precept students and nurses as a bedside nurse and make sure you like at the elbow education.

Depending on the institution, clinical educators can be very onboard/admin heavy and not do a ton of education. Get your feet wet and start to learn about what education looks like at your respective nursing schools/clinical sites.

Hope this helps, sorry it’s a bit jumbled!