If you're thinking about becoming a nursing educator or a nursing tutor, you might be torn between the two. In this article, we'll see what the advantages are of going it alone as a private nursing tutor and why you should seriously consider doing it.
Fewer Barriers to Entry
If you know about the nursing profession (from being a registered nurse, for example), you can become a private nursing tutor. There aren't technically any requiremening a private tutor.
While you'll definitely want to have some qualifications in nursing, the requirements for becoming a private tutor in any subject are less strict. However, this doesn't mean you can just become a tutor in anything. If you don't know what you're teaching or can't teach your subject effectively, you'll have no chance of holding onto students and making a success out of tutors.
You still have to be good at it, you just don't need as many recognised qualifications to do it.
Find out more about becoming a nursing tutor
Set Your Own Rates
As a nursing tutor, you get to choose how much you want to charge for your private tutorials. There are a few caveats to this, though. Market forces like supply and demand will play a part and there'll be a few things to consider, but you won't have an employer telling you that this is what they offer and you can take it or leave it.
If you're smart about your rates, offer a good service, and differentiate yourself from the competition, students will be more than willing to pay a good amount for your services, especially if they will make the difference between them passing or failing their nursing qualifications.
Setting your own rates is also useful in the event you have student- or job-specific expenses, too. If a student lives a good distance away and it'll cost a lot of time or money to get to them, you can factor this into the rates you charge.
You can also alter your rates to each student's needs. A student looking for minimal help with their nursing studies needn't be charged as much as a student looking for completely tailored nursing tutorials.
Find out how to find students as a nursing tutor
Set Your Own Hours
On top of being in control of how much you charge, you can also choose when you work. If you have other commitments, you don't need to take on students at those times. If you work best in the evenings, you can choose to schedule most of your classes then.
You will have to remember that sometimes you'll just have to go with demand, though, and if you can't find any students for specific times, you may need to compromise and pick times that work for everyone.
If there isn't demand, you can't really be picky about when you work, but if you've got a few students on your books with flexible schedules, you can maintain a pretty good work-life balance by having more control over when and where you work.
Choosing when you work also means that you can choose how much you work. You can limit how many sessions you do each week and, if needed, take time off, move things around, or even do extra sessions if your schedule allows for it.
You can't overdo it, though, and always remember to offer a good service and be reliable when it comes to scheduling so that your students will stick with you. They have schedules, too, and probably won't appreciate too many changes to them.
Share Your Passion for Nursing with Students
If a student has decided to opt for private tutoring, they're likely struggling with their regular classes or are looking to achieve the best possible results they can.
This is where you come in.
Your passion for nursing should be infectious and make your students want to learn more from you. Once they see things your way, you'll see how much easier teaching them becomes.
Help Students on a Personal Level
Generally, teachers have larger classes than tutors. Most tutors work with individuals or very small groups. With smaller sessions, you have more opportunities to tailor your tutoring to the student, which not only makes the class content more engaging for your students, but it allows you to connect with your students on a personal level.
Students in private tutorials aren't just part of a crowd in a large lecture hall. You'll get to know them and while you're not there to be their best friend, you will form stronger bonds with them than you would if you were teaching them as part of a large group.
As you'll know your students better than their teachers will, you'll also have a better idea of when it mightn't be the right day to cover a certain topic.
Control What and How You Teach
As a private tutor, you can choose what you teach your students. You'll have to teach them what they need to know to pass their nursing qualifications, but you won't be as rigidly bound to a curriculum or course plan.
This allows you to spend longer on topics your students struggle with and fly through the materials that they find easy.
One of the biggest reasons students choose private tutors is because the pace of their regular classes isn't working for them. Their teachers have to do what's best for the whole class and this can leave students frustrated, especially when things are going too quickly or too slowly.
You can teach your students at the pace that works for them and even use more engaging and interesting teaching approaches that wouldn't necessarily work for a big group of students.
This also means that you can teach your students as effectively as possible. Students learn much more quickly when all the content and teaching are tailored to them and you won't have to worry about trying something that might work well for one student and not another because you'll rarely have sessions with lots of students.
Find out how to price your nursing tutoring sessions
You're Not Really on your Own
Having all this freedom might sound great, but it doesn't mean that you have to go it all alone. There's a massive community of tutors out there and plenty of resources.
If you need support and ideas, you can find online forums to ask questions, offer up solutions, and just engage with the tutoring community.
You can find lesson plans and activities, too. You may have to adapt some of them for nursing, but the internet is a great place to find stuff and connect with other tutors so make sure you get the most out of it.
That doesn't mean that there aren't offline resources, either. You can still find plenty of books on both nursing and teaching to help you out.
You'll Develop New Skills and Become a Better Nursing Tutor
Tutoring is challenging, but it's also hugely rewarding. In addition to all the students that you get to help, you'll also be able to learn, grow, and develop new skills.
Your interpersonal skills will improve as no two students are alike and you'll need to be able to adapt and communicate effectively as you help them to learn.
As you're in charge of almost every aspect of your tutoring business, you'll also develop your organisational skills because you'll have to. It may be tricky at first as you try to juggle every aspect of tutoring, but you'll get the hang of it and become more organised as a result.
You Can Tutor Alongside Other Jobs
Tutoring doesn't even need to be your main job. Thanks to all the flexibility it offers, you can do it alongside part-time work or even as an extra source of income with full-time work. Since you control the schedule and where and when you teach, tutoring is a great career that can work with almost any kind of lifestyle.
Whether you have work or family commitments, you can tutor as much or as little as you see fit. With no set hours, you're not even obliged to take on more students if you're happy with the current students you have on the books and how much you're earning.
You can even just do it for fun (while still earning) alongside your main job just because you're passionate about teaching and want to pass on your knowledge to nursing students.
Find out how much nurse educators earn
Beware of the Disadvantages
While we've been through the advantages, don't forget that there are downsides to tutoring, too. It can be great, but it can be tough having so many things to keep an eye on while also trying to find students.
It's rewarding, but it's also a lot of work and you'll have less of a safety net than you would with a teaching job. While you may be good for at least a year in teaching, students can leave private tutors whenever they want, leaving you with a hole in your schedule and pocket.
But that's the same for everyone who's self-employed and don't forget you won't be alone in your tutoring journey!
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