Before You Apply: The Questions Nursing Education Applicants Actually Ask Admissions Counselors

by Imed Bouchrika, PhD

Co-Founder and Chief Data Scientist

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Most nursing school websites answer the same handful of questions: program length, tuition, and course sequence. But if you sit in on actual admissions conversations for an MSN in Nursing Education, a different set of questions comes up again and again, and they rarely make it onto a marketing page.

To get real answers, we asked Judi Kuric, DNP, APRN, ACNP-BC, FNP-BC, ENP-C, NEA-BC, Associate Dean of MSN NP and Specialty Practice Programs at Walden University, to shed some light on common admissions questions. Her perspective, combined with data from national nursing organizations, fills in the gaps that a typical curriculum page leaves open.

Key Things You Should Know

• An MSN in Nursing Education opens doors beyond traditional teaching. Graduates can pursue roles as clinical instructors, staff development educators, simulation specialists, and continuing education professionals in hospitals, universities, and healthcare organizations.
• You can work while earning your degree, but planning is essential. Many students continue working full-time, although demanding coursework and practicum requirements may require additional time. Recent clinical experience is also important for admission and success in the program.
• An MSN can qualify you for many teaching positions, but some require a doctorate. A master's degree in nursing education is a common qualification for clinical instructor and pre-licensure faculty roles, while research-intensive and tenure-track university positions typically require doctoral preparation.
• Building your teaching portfolio early can give you a head start. Students should begin collecting teaching philosophies, lesson plans, assessment tools, and practicum reflections from their first courses to create a portfolio that supports both graduation and future job applications.

What This Degree Actually Prepares You To Do

The single most common question Kuric hears is some version of: what can I actually do with this degree besides teach in a classroom?

That question makes sense once you look at the numbers. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) reports that U.S. nursing schools turned away more than 92,000 qualified applications in 2025 because of insufficient faculty, clinical sites, and classroom space, and a national faculty vacancy survey found a 7.2 percent vacancy rate across responding schools. It is easy to assume an MSN in Nursing Education leads to exactly one job title, but the career paths available to nursing education master's graduates are far broader.

"There are many more opportunities than just teaching a class," Kuric said. "Nursing education graduates work as clinical or staff development educators in hospitals, academic clinical instructors or simulation lab educators, and in hybrid roles tied to quality, onboarding, or continuing education for health systems and professional organizations."

That range shows up in how the Bureau of Labor Statistics and workforce data classify the role. Nursing education isn't confined to a single job code or setting.

Can You Keep Working While You Earn It

The second recurring question is practical: can I keep working full-time, and how much recent clinical experience do I actually need?

Kuric's answer reflects how most working nurses actually experience these programs. "Most of our students do work while enrolled, but there are heavier weeks when you will need some dedicated time to successfully complete the assignments and program," she said. "You should have enough recent practice where you can share your clinical judgment in teaching, typically at least a couple of years of RN experience."

That guidance lines up with the eligibility rules for the Certified Nurse Educator (CNE) credential offered through the National League for Nursing, which expects candidates to hold an active RN license and a graduate degree with a focus in nursing education, plus documented practice experience. A few things worth checking before you commit to a start date:

• How many hours per week the program expects during a typical term versus a heavier practicum term
• Whether your employer will count practicum hours as part of your job, or whether you need separate time off
• Whether the program helps you find a preceptor and clinical site, since that is often the part applicants underestimate
• How the school defines "recent" clinical experience for admission purposes

Does an MSN Actually Make You Competitive for Faculty Jobs?

Given how often the faculty shortage gets mentioned in nursing media, applicants want a straight answer about whether the degree will actually open doors. Kuric's answer has nuance that doesn't always make it into recruiting materials.

"An MSN in Nursing Education is a standard preparation for many clinical instructor and pre-licensure faculty roles, especially in community colleges and some universities," she said. "For research-intensive or tenure-track positions, a doctorate is expected, but the MSN gives a strong foundation and a good start in gaining educational experience to build on."

That distinction matters because faculty vacancy data shows the shortage is not evenly distributed by degree type. The AACN's most recent faculty vacancy survey found that the large majority of open positions required or preferred a doctoral degree, while a smaller share required only a master's. In practice, that means an MSN is a genuine entry point into teaching, particularly in community college and pre-licensure settings, but it is not automatically a ticket to a tenure-track university role.

What Goes Into the Teaching Portfolio, and When to Start Building It

Almost every nursing education program requires a culminating portfolio, and applicants rarely understand what that means until they are already enrolled. Kuric described the portfolio as serving two purposes.

"Think of the portfolio as both a graduation requirement and a job-search tool," she said. "It typically includes your teaching philosophy, a few examples of course or module design, sample teaching materials like slides, cases, or maybe a simulation, some assessment tools like test items or rubrics, plus evidence from your practicum and brief reflections that tie it all together."

Timing is where most students go wrong. "The students who do best start saving good work from their very first education course," Kuric said. "Those key assignments are designed to become portfolio pieces, so the final term is about polishing, not building from scratch."

The mistake she sees most often is the opposite approach. "What trips people up is waiting until the end and then trying to reconstruct everything, or just dumping in every assignment they've ever done," she said. "We really want a curated, reflective story about you as an educator, not just a folder full of files."

A simple way to think about portfolio components and when they typically get built:

The Misconception That Comes Up Again and Again

When asked what she corrects most often in conversations with applicants, Kuric pointed to a narrow view of what the role actually involves.

"Most people assume nursing education is just for faculty roles, but it's much broader than that. There are opportunities in staff development, clinical education, simulation, quality, and continuing education across many settings," she said. "And it is a rigorous track with substantial expectations around curriculum design, teaching strategies, and evaluation."

She was direct about what the coursework actually demands. "Nurse educators are designers and evaluators as much as instructors. You're building courses, choosing teaching strategies, creating fair assessments, and integrating technology," she said. "Your clinical background still really matters, because that's what you draw on to teach clinical reasoning and judgment."

That framing matters for applicants deciding whether this specialization fits their goals. It is not a lighter academic track than a clinical MSN specialization. It replaces advanced clinical coursework with coursework in curriculum design, learning theory, assessment, and evaluation, and it still expects candidates to draw on real clinical judgment to teach it well.

Questions Worth Asking Before You Apply

Beyond the four themes above, a few additional questions are worth raising directly with an admissions counselor, since answers vary by school:

• Is the nursing program CCNE-accredited? Accreditation from the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education affects everything from financial aid eligibility to whether employers and other graduate programs will recognize the degree.
• Does completing the program meet the education requirement for the NLN's Certified Nurse Educator exam, or would you need additional coursework afterward?
• What does the practicum placement process look like, and who is responsible for finding a site and preceptor?
• Is the program offered in a fixed-course format, a self-paced format, or both, and which one fits how you actually study?
• What do recent graduates report doing with the degree, not just what the program claims graduates can do?

One program that illustrates how these pieces fit together is Walden University's MSN in Nursing Education, which is CCNE-accredited and builds its curriculum around NLN and Association for Nursing Professional Development standards, with a portfolio and practicum structured into the coursework rather than tacked on at the end. It is a useful reference point, but the underlying questions above apply no matter which school you are evaluating.

What to Remember

University webpages promoting MSN in Nursing Education programs typically tell you what courses you will take. An admissions counselor tells you what the degree is actually for, how much of your current life it will realistically absorb, and what you need to start building from day one instead of scrambling for at the end. To get the full picture, be sure to ask more questions before you apply. This saves you from discovering the answers the hard way, after you've already paid tuition.

References:

• AACN Nursing Faculty Shortage Fact Sheet
• Bureau of Labor Statistics: Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary
• National League for Nursing: CNE Certification Eligibility
• Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education
• Walden University: MSN in Nursing Education