What does a clinical instructor do?
A clinical instructor is responsible for instructing and evaluating the clinical training of health sciences students. Clinical instructors identify each student's potential and areas of improvement to adjust the teaching approach as needed. They conduct lectures and training in the classroom and health care facilities, testing the students' knowledge by performing actual clinical duties and medical procedures under their supervision. A clinical instructor monitors students' progress, creating comprehensive strategies to enhance interactive learning. A clinical instructor must have extensive knowledge of the medical industry, as well as excellent communication skills to respond to the students' inquiries and concerns during training.
Clinical instructor responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real clinical instructor resumes:
- Manage, direct, and teach ADN nursing students in the clinical setting in Tulsa hospitals.
- Experience with ER & ICU patients, set up and perform portable exams.
- Provide clinical instructions/teaching for the BSN program
- Educate accelerate BSN students on an inpatient pediatric floor with hands-on instruction
- Establish strong rapport with patients through effective therapeutic communication and delivery of compassionate level of patient care.
- Review and demonstrate methods of obtaining accurate health history information for wellness or illness base encounters with patients across the lifespan.
- Implement and evaluate nursing curriculum with an appreciation for diversity, cultural awareness, ethics, integrity, and professional judgment.
- Design and implement learning activities and opportunities for ADN students.
- Develop theory portion of the RN-BSN.
- Program instruction includes both ASN and LPN students.
- Team leader of active ACEN continuing accreditation process; member of nursing curriculum/faculty committee.
Clinical instructor skills and personality traits
We calculated that 22% of Clinical Instructors are proficient in Patients, Direct Patient Care, and Clinical Practice. They’re also known for soft skills such as Interpersonal skills, Speaking skills, and Writing skills.
We break down the percentage of Clinical Instructors that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 22%
Reviewed and demonstrated methods of obtaining accurate health history information for wellness or illness based encounters with patients across the lifespan.
- Direct Patient Care, 6%
Coordinated student fieldwork experiences, supervised staff and students, provided direct patient care.
- Clinical Practice, 4%
Detailed clinical practice including executing nursing care and assessing results, teaching student nurses and providing guidance during OR exposure
- Pediatrics, 3%
Provide assignments to enrich the clinical experience as pertained to pediatrics
- Medical Surgical, 3%
Conduct clinical and laboratory instruction in Nursing Fundamentals, Medication Administration, Pharmacology, Medical Surgical Nursing and Community Health.
- Clinical Supervision, 3%
Provided clinical supervision and academic learning experience in Fundamentals and psychiatric components of their program.
Common skills that a clinical instructor uses to do their job include "patients," "direct patient care," and "clinical practice." You can find details on the most important clinical instructor responsibilities below.
Interpersonal skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a clinical instructor to have is interpersonal skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "postsecondary teachers need to work well with others for tasks such as instructing students and serving on committees." Clinical instructors often use interpersonal skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "observe the graduate nursing student in interpersonal and general patient care skills. "
Speaking skills. Another essential skill to perform clinical instructor duties is speaking skills. Clinical instructors responsibilities require that "postsecondary teachers need good communication skills to present lectures and provide feedback to students." Clinical instructors also use speaking skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "educated and evaluated junior nursing students during their maternal/child clinical rotation formulated and presented fetal monitoring lecture to senior nursing students"
Writing skills. clinical instructors are also known for writing skills, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to clinical instructor responsibilities, because "postsecondary teachers need strong writing ability to publish original research and analysis." A clinical instructor resume example shows how writing skills is used in the workplace: "participated in curriculum development, student evaluation, and test item writing. "
The three companies that hire the most clinical instructors are:
- University of Rochester52 clinical instructors jobs
- University of Colorado20 clinical instructors jobs
- University of Wisconsin System15 clinical instructors jobs
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Compare different clinical instructors
Clinical instructor vs. Assistant professor of nursing
An assistant professor of nursing performs support tasks for professors and facilitates discussions for nursing students. They participate in creating lesson plans and coursework materials, organizing activities, liaising with internal and external parties, grading the students' performances, and teaching while under a professor's supervision. They may also facilitate laboratory activities and assist students in difficult areas. Moreover, an assistant professor monitors the student's progress regularly, all while helping professors maintain a safe and healthy learning environment for everyone.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a clinical instructor are more likely to require skills like "direct patient care," "tertiary care," "medical surgical," and "patient safety." On the other hand, a job as an assistant professor of nursing requires skills like "dnp," "mental health," "patient care," and "curriculum development." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Assistant professors of nursing earn the highest salaries when working in the health care industry, with an average yearly salary of $95,572. On the other hand, clinical instructors are paid more in the health care industry with an average salary of $114,732.The education levels that assistant professors of nursing earn slightly differ from clinical instructors. In particular, assistant professors of nursing are 10.2% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a clinical instructor. Additionally, they're 0.3% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Clinical instructor vs. Nursing department chairperson
Adjunct nursing faculty serve to augment the regular faculty. They are vital personnel in a clinic or hospital; they help nurses with patient care and manage patient documents, medical charts, and other clerical duties. Though they typically work on a part-time basis, there are cases where they are regularly employed to handle an increased incoming patient rate.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, clinical instructor responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "clinical practice," "pediatrics," "tertiary care," and "clinical supervision." Meanwhile, a nursing department chairperson has duties that require skills in areas such as "msn," "educational programs," "program outcomes," and "ccne." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
In general, nursing department chairpeople achieve similar levels of education than clinical instructors. They're 3.2% more likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.3% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for clinical instructors in the next 3-5 years?
Chris Robinson
Clinical Resource Director, NCOPE
Clinical instructor vs. Nursing teacher
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, clinical instructors are more likely to have skills like "patients," "direct patient care," "clinical practice," and "pediatrics." But a nursing teacher is more likely to have skills like "patient care," "in-service education," "emergency care," and "administer medications."
Nursing teachers make a very good living in the health care industry with an average annual salary of $95,761. On the other hand, clinical instructors are paid the highest salary in the health care industry, with average annual pay of $114,732.Most nursing teachers achieve a lower degree level compared to clinical instructors. For example, they're 8.1% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 8.2% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Clinical instructor vs. Adjunct nursing faculty
Even though a few skill sets overlap between clinical instructors and adjunct nursing faculties, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a clinical instructor might have more use for skills like "direct patient care," "tertiary care," "medical surgical," and "cpr." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of adjunct nursing faculties require skills like "mental health," "patient care," "clinical faculty," and "learning environment. "
The health care industry tends to pay the highest salaries for adjunct nursing faculties, with average annual pay of $66,049. Comparatively, the highest clinical instructor annual salary comes from the health care industry.adjunct nursing faculties reach higher levels of education compared to clinical instructors, in general. The difference is that they're 14.1% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 2.4% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of clinical instructor
Updated January 8, 2025
