Becoming an advanced practice nurse educator

Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) roles are expanding internationally, fostering a need for master’s-level programs that prepare APNs. Being an educator requires occupying a position in a social space beyond formal requirements. This study aims to explore how beginning educators express teacher identity in essays in which they reflect on being APN educators in Nordic and Baltic countries. Through reflexive thematic analysis, three themes relating to the participants’ developing teacher identity were identified: establishing themselves as role models, negotiating remaining close to clinical practice, and motivating themselves by accommodating student independence. We argue that the educators, rather than transitioning from nurse to educator, are reinterpreting how they view themselves as nurses. Teaching APN programs, caught between scientific research and practice, challenges the educators further, as APN roles develop in new contexts. Nurse academics are crucial to addressing the nursing shortage, and understanding the development of teacher identity is of major importance.