For clinical instructor Cheryl Maes, her nursing world revolves around three critical areas: education, practice, and policy. She teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses, specifically the family nurse practitioner program. She practices once a week in primary care for Teamsters Local 14 Family Wellness Center, taking care of union workers and their families. She also serves as board member for the Nevada State Board of Nursing, one of many groups she participates in.

Maes admits it’s challenging juggling the various roles, and that’s not including her roles as wife and mother. But she accepts the obligation of being nurse faculty and all that comes with it. “You're balancing many hats. But I do it and I love it,” she said. “It's part of service.”

It’s that mindset that Maes hopes to impart to her students, to understand the gravity of their commitment. “It's a different role at the advanced practice level, because you're actually diagnosing medical conditions and you’re taking on the role as advocate for the patient to support them to promote their own well-being and to keep them as healthy as possible. That's a big responsibility," she said, adding, “At the RN level, you're taking orders from a physician, but it's still a safety concern because if you think there's a question about that order, you certainly would want to not pursue that order and question the physician. It's not just a job.”

As an educator for both undergraduates and graduate students, Maes said it can be tough switching mindsets when going from one program to the next. “It is a little difficult especially with the undergraduate students,” she explains, “because they do not diagnose medical conditions like family nurse practitioners do. So, I have to come down a notch when it comes to talking to them about disease processes as well.” (She clarifies undergraduate students and registered nurses focus on nursing diagnoses, which is coming up with interventions to improve a condition, whereas a medical diagnosis which is identifying the condition to fix). 

Maes asserts that even if she wasn’t obligated to practice for accreditation purposes, she still would, “in order to convey to students current clinical practice guidelines and treatment of the disease processes.”

More importantly, she said she feels that by practicing what she teaches, and vice versa, she can be effective. Being in the family nurse practitioner track affords her that opportunity, teaching subjects such as hypertension, non-pharmacological treatments, as well as diet and exercise to name a few.

There are certain intangibles that can make an educator and a clinical practitioner successful, from time management to top-notch assessment abilities, not to mention experience, but Maes stresses a nurse should ultimately feel comfortable in their role, because they need to advocate for their patients or students. “The patient is the captain of the ship. You always want to instill your thought processes that are best for your patient, but ultimately they are the captain of the ship to drive their decision-making as to what's best for them.”