Question 1
Long distance educators are usually faced with many challenges when it comes to them delivering their content to their students. The technological and logistical requirements required to complete the tasks that they are supposed to fulfill limit the extents that they can reach in making sure that they effectively deliver the content to their students (Du et al., 2014). From this realization, therefore, there is the need for having additional criteria for one to become a distance nurse educator.
The first standard that should be developed in regards to the requirements of being a distance educator is the ability to manage intuitively and harness the resources that they have including time so as to address the challenges they will probably face in the process. Secondly, there is the need for appropriate communication technologies to be developed in ensuring that content delivery is done within the most suitable timelines. The inclusion of web cams for Skyping purposes is an essential step towards efficiently delivering content (Button et al., 2014). The third standard that needs to be addressed in taking care of distance educators is the need for them to eradicate instances of isolation by conducting online video and audio webinars. These efforts are also useful since they help in saving on resources of time and money which are efficient to the educator in the long run.
Question 2
Going by the current trends, there have been many reported cases of nurse shortages in the United States going by the fact that nursing colleges and universities are not able to enroll nursing students in the classroom settings. Another compounding factor that is in line with this realization is that there are very few educators that can adequately teach nursing students across the world. Furthermore, there are also many aging RNs and as such, there is the need for new nurses to be trained to fill the spaces that they leave when they retire (Sherman & Pross, 2010). As such, from these facts, the future need for online educators is going to increase as they will be the most viable option for aspiring nursing students to follow. This is also in line with very few colleges and universities offering very minimal face-to-face interactions between nurse educators and students. Additionally, if institutional leaders put more focus in offering online education and providing the required resources for tutors responsible for filling these roles, then online educators have got the ability to cut a niche in the nursing profession.
References
Button, D., Harrington, A., & Belan, I. (2014). E-learning & information communication technology (ICT) in nursing education: A review of the literature.Nurse education today, 34(10), 1311-1323.
Du, S., Liu, Z., Liu, S., Yin, H., Xu, G., Zhang, H., & Wang, A. (2013). Web‐based distance learning for nurse education: a systematic review. International nursing review, 60(2), 167-177.
Sherman, R., & Pross, E. (2010). Growing future nurse leaders to build and sustain healthy work environments at the unit level. OJIN: The online Journal of issues in nursing, 15(1).
