Clinical Nurse Educator Career Guide

The exact salary of a clinical nurse educator depends on a wide variety of factors, including employer, employer location, years of experience, education, maintained accreditations, and their nature of hire.

In general, the salary of a clinical nurse educator averages $77,170 per year. This means that the top 10% of earners receive as much as $104,000 per year, whereas the lowest 10% of earners take home roughly $58,000 per year.

The career outlook for a clinical nurse educator is positive in the years to come. As an industry, the field of healthcare is expected to add the most jobs of any market by 2024. In addition, nursing occupations are expected to rise 7% from 2019 to 2029, a growth rate faster than the average expansion forecasted across all occupations.

Though the exact rise in clinical nurse educator positions will depend on sustained demand across active healthcare communities, there is a continued need for hands-on nursing education within a hospital, clinical, and other medical settings.

As populations continue to age and require help to address chronic health issues, the need for expert nursing education—to inform best treatment methods, therapy techniques, and other procedures—is only expected to grow in parallel.

Most often, clinical nurse educators work alongside all other nursing staff members in a medical setting. Commonly employed by hospitals, nursing clinics, outpatient centers, rehabilitation facilities, and any other medical environment requiring specialized care, clinical nurse educators provide on-site education to other employed nurses.

Clinical nurse educators must also provide nurses with an understanding of their facility’s technical resources—including computers, handheld monitors, therapy devices, and a variety of other tools. This means that they must maintain proximity to both the onsite nurses and the instruments themselves.