How to hire a clinical nursing instructor

How to hire a clinical nursing instructor, step by step

Here's a step-by-step clinical nursing instructor hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a clinical nursing instructor job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new clinical nursing instructor
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you start hiring a clinical nursing instructor, identify what type of worker you actually need. Certain positions might call for a full-time employee, while others can be done by a part-time worker or contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A clinical nursing instructor's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, clinical nursing instructors from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   This list shows salaries for various types of clinical nursing instructors.

   Type of Clinical Nursing Instructor	Description	Hourly rate
   Clinical Nursing Instructor	Postsecondary teachers instruct students in a wide variety of academic and career and technical subjects beyond the high school level. They also conduct research and publish scholarly papers and books.	$19-52
   Nursing Faculty	Nursing faculty members are professionals who are responsible for providing education and instructional materials about topics that are related to the nursing profession. These professionals must maintain communication with the Director of Nursing to discuss the progress and concerns of their nursing students... Show more	$21-43
   Nursing Program Coordinator	A Nursing Program Coordinator typically works at universities and community colleges where they are in charge of coordinating nursing programs. Although the extent of their responsibilities depends on their employment institution, it usually includes conducting research and analyses, liaising with internal and external parties, working together with directors in developing curriculums, and overseeing committee works... Show more	$21-43

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Patients
   • BSN
   • Home Health
   • Community Health
   • Clinical Sites
   • Course Objectives
   • Mental Health
   • Clinical Teaching
   • Clinical Practice
   • Long-Term Care
   • Direct Patient Care
   • Medical-Surgical Nursing
   • Clinical Experiences
   • Med-Surg

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Serve as clinical instructor for students in the process of achieving BSN degree, collaborating with doctorate prepare nursing professor.
   • Complete clinical rotations in Med/Surg.
   • Fall semester supervising and clinical instruction of entry level BSN students
   • Focus: Educating/Mentoring/Training register nursing students in the medical surgical and ICU areas.
   • Provide direct clinical supervision to associate degree nursing students for medical/ surgical and psychiatric patients.
   • Teach Med-Surg lecture with assistance from faculty.

   More clinical nursing instructor duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the clinical nursing instructor job description is a good way to get more applicants. A clinical nursing instructor salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for a clinical nursing instructor in Oklahoma may be lower than in California, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level clinical nursing instructor. Additionally, a clinical nursing instructor with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average clinical nursing instructor salary

   $67,228yearly

   $32.32 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level clinical nursing instructor salary

   $41,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 29, 2025

   Average clinical nursing instructor salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$106,594	$51
   2	District of Columbia	$95,355	$46
   3	Nevada	$87,804	$42
   4	Massachusetts	$84,128	$40
   5	Michigan	$80,995	$39
   6	Colorado	$80,270	$39
   7	New York	$75,085	$36
   8	Maryland	$74,150	$36
   9	Tennessee	$71,594	$34
   10	Florida	$71,466	$34
   11	North Carolina	$64,232	$31
   12	Texas	$62,460	$30
   13	Virginia	$59,895	$29
   14	Oklahoma	$55,697	$27
   15	Illinois	$54,809	$26

   Average clinical nursing instructor salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Cook Children's Medical Center	$179,184	$86.15	14
   2	University of Maryland Medical System	$174,144	$83.72	65
   3	The University of Kansas Health System	$158,333	$76.12	57
   4	Northwestern Medicine	$154,451	$74.26	74
   5	The Moses H Cone Memorial Hospital	$151,280	$72.73
   6	Saint Francis Health System	$144,590	$69.51	25
   7	Covenant Health System	$140,357	$67.48
   8	Loma Linda University Health	$137,658	$66.18	35
   9	Cedars-Sinai	$137,167	$65.95	149
   10	BayCare Health System	$134,450	$64.64	49
   11	Medical University of South Carolina	$131,885	$63.41	31
   12	Hospital for Special Surgery	$124,276	$59.75	15
   13	Swedish Hospital	$123,105	$59.19
   14	Sinai Chicago	$118,937	$57.18
   15	NorthBay Healthcare	$118,057	$56.76	7
   16	Health First	$115,267	$55.42	11
   17	Kern Community College District	$108,412	$52.12	32
   18	Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center	$105,496	$50.72	16
   19	Grayson College	$103,813	$49.91	8
   20	Stanford Health Care	$102,155	$49.11	57

4. Writing a clinical nursing instructor job description

   A job description for a clinical nursing instructor role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a clinical nursing instructor job description:

   Clinical nursing instructor job description example

   With over 150 years of caring for our community and each other in the Washington DC area, Howard University Hospital has a world-renowned reputation for high-quality, patient-centric care. Howard University Hospital is the nation’s only teaching hospital located on the campus of a Historically Black University and has created a superior learning environment, with groundbreaking research and positive patient outcomes.
   Howard University Hospital seeks to hire a Clinical Registered Nurse in Labor & Delivery who will embrace our reach and historic tradition of excellence. If you want to make a difference in someone’s life every day, consider a position with a team of professionals who are doing just that, making a difference.
   
   This full time position consists of three 12-hr shifts on Days from 0700-1900, rotating every other weekend. Differentials and Premiums apply.
   
   The Labor & Delivery Clinical Nurse: Collaborates with patient/family and health care team to determine health goals and interventions and to revise plans of care as needed Maintains awareness of the unit’s periodic statistics regarding core measures, nursing quality indicators, customer satisfaction measures, and actively participates in activities/behaviors that progressively improve the statistics Provides nursing care consistent with the nursing practice standards, policies and procedures established by the unit, department, division, and institution, professional ethics and standards, and legal requirements Serves in the rotational role of charge nurse upon completion of the 6 month orientation period, and with approval by the nurse manager Participates in unit performance improvement programs through ongoing design, assessment and measurement, and performance improvement activities Identifies patient care requirements by establishing personal rapport with potential and actual patients and other persons in a position to understand care requirements Establishes a compassionate environment by providing emotional, psychological, and spiritual support to patients, friends, and families Promotes patient's independence by establishing patient care goals; teaching patient, friends, and family to understand condition, medications, and self-care skills; answering questions Assures quality of care by adhering to therapeutic standards; measuring health outcomes against patient care goals and standards; making or recommending necessary adjustments; following hospital and nursing division's philosophies and standards of care set by Nurse Practice Act of the District of Columbia, and other governing agency regulations Protects patients and employees by adhering to infection-control policies and protocols, medication administration and storage procedures, and controlled substance regulations Maintains nursing supplies inventory by checking stock to determine inventory level; anticipating needed supplies; placing and expediting orders for supplies; verifying receipt of supplies; using equipment and supplies as needed to accomplish job results Demonstrates competency in clinical skills, bedside manner, infection control, physiological knowledge, administering medication, medical teamwork, multi-tasking, listening, verbal communication, health promotion and maintenance Qualified candidates will possess: Associates Degree in Nursing Required. Bachelor of Science in Nursing preferred. Graduate of an accredited school of nursing Current license to practice as a Registered Nurse in the District of Columbia American Heart Association Basic Life Support and Advance Cardiovascular Life Support required Antepartum Testing Center- Advanced Fetal Monitoring Certification required At least 12 months acute care/ hospital experience as an RN in Labor and Delivery, or OR with Postpartum/NICU/Mother Baby experience
   At Howard University Hospital our job is to care for you. We do this by offering:
   
   Work life balance
   Recognition and rewards for professional expertise
   Competitive, comprehensive benefit plans offered (including health, disability, vacation, sick leave, and 403B retirement plan)
   Tuition Remission for employees and their dependent children
   
   COVID-19 Vaccination: Howard University Hospital requires all external applicants to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 before commencing employment. External Applicants may be required to furnish proof of vaccination and, if offered, may elect to be vaccinated at a designated Howard University Hospital location.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find the right clinical nursing instructor for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with clinical nursing instructors they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit clinical nursing instructors who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your clinical nursing instructor job on Zippia to find and recruit clinical nursing instructor candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites such as k12jobspot, learn4good, serious teachers, teachingjobs.com.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting clinical nursing instructors requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new clinical nursing instructor

   Once you have selected a candidate for the clinical nursing instructor position, it is time to create an offer letter. In addition to salary, the offer letter should include details about benefits and perks that are available to the employee. Ensuring your offer is competitive is vital, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and it is important to be open to discussion and reach a mutually beneficial agreement. After the offer has been accepted, it is a good idea to formalize the agreement with a contract.

   It's equally important to follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new clinical nursing instructor. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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