UW Master of Nursing: Educator Track

I'm excited to announce I'm in grad school! I started my graduate studies at the University of Washington Bothell campus, in their MN Nurse Educator focus track. This is a two year program when attending full time. It's a hybrid program with the majority of work done online, coupled with attending classes 5 days per quarter. Most of my cohort work full time (or like myself have multiple jobs), although some are in the Leadership track, so will take several different course electives throughout the program. I'll have 4 courses dedicated to education, learning styles, teaching methods, pedagogy, etc. I've already started learning some of these fundamentals (verbal versus discovery learning) which is also helping me reshape and reinforce best practices for my Diabetes Educator role.

I am one month into my first quarter and still giddy with excitement. I've had a couple exhilarating moments while studying or participating in online discussion posts with my cohort where I've said out loud to myself "Oh, I love this!". This group is diverse - with a broad range of nursing (and other) backgrounds - supportive, and mentally stimulating. I'll also share that I've received multiple complements on my writing style and ability to communicate effectively (including my very first introductory post)!

I am still learning how I need to adjust my life to accommodate the additional hours of work for the program. In addition to 8 hours of class every other week, it's expected (and so far, has been requiring) working 24 hours weekly dedicated to my two courses (Healthcare Systems Leadership For Advanced Roles and Disparity And Social Justice In Healthcare). This has taken one of my weekend days away (goodbye Saturdays!) and I was able to move around my Kaiser schedule so that I have every Friday off from my 1.0 FTE job, now allocated to either class, group project work, research, paper writing, discussion engagement, and/or studying. I'm thinking "a rolling stone gathers no moss" so perhaps this will help me prioritize my overall health (force me to schedule in exercise, social time, and sleep) - to be determined.

As most of you know, my long term goal has been to obtain an advance degree and teach at the collegiate level to support the adult learner and develop the next generation of healthcare workers. Obtaining my MN will launch me further into the professional, academic realm. I also want to utilize the MN degree to signify to speaking opportunities that I take lifelong learning seriously. Lastly, after graduating, I plan to obtain my Board Certified-Advanced Diabetes Management (BC-ADM®), which is the ADCES-owned credential for advanced level, masters-prepared practitioners.

I am grateful to have the option of participating in the Nurse Faculty Loan Program, where 85% of my loans will be forgiven over 4 years if I work as a full time faculty or nurse educator role post graduation. Since I am able to continue working full time, and have the majority of my loans forgiven over time, this MN program was the best decision for the current stage of my life. I still may pursue my doctorate degree in the future, but for now I am enjoying all the learning, late night literature reviews (so much fun), and high-level discussion engagement with my cohort.

I look forward to keeping you all updated throughout the quarters. Here's to graduation, Spring of 2025 and all the learning inbetween!