Nurse educators play an important role in the academe of developing competent nurses. Students moving from pre-requisite courses to a professional program can be challenging. At the same time, navigating the new milieu of academia can place stress on the novice educator, causing a decrease in self-care and wellbeing. Therefore, the present study sought to understand the concept of self-care and examine the role it plays in the female nurse educator. Self-care can be defined as "deliberate decisions made, and actions taken by individuals to address their own health and well-being" (Slemon et al., 2021, p. 4). Using semi-structured interviews, this qualitative study sought to gather and theme the understanding of self-care from seven female nurse educators in Kansas. Nurses often neglect their own self-care in lieu of caring for the patient, placing medical needs above their own, at times to the detriment of their health. The literature thus far has been sparse regarding the experiences of self-care and the nurse educator. Seeking to care for the students and advance their success, nurse educators will often neglect their self-care as they often did in the bedside setting. The results indicated that time barriers, intrinsic drive, cultural pressures, and sense of duties as a professor, mother and wife, and nurse all contributed to some level of denial of self-care. An enhanced awareness of the level of self-care could illuminate and contribute to the existing literature and in turn, emancipate the nurse educator to place their self-care as important. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]