Abstract
D.Cur.
Nurse educators have a multifaceted and ambiguous professional as well as
personal role. They teach nursing theory, accompany student nurses in the
clinical area and are expected to carry out research. Very few — in the nursing
colleges — are actually involved in scientific study and relate this to unavailability
of resources like sponsorship and time, to support such efforts. Added to this is
their personal role as spouse or partner, as parent, as significant other and as
friend.
Faced with the challenges of the change from curative to the primary health care
approach to health services delivery, and according to provincial legislation, the
restructuring and rationalisation of health services, induding rationalisation of
nursing colleges, the nurse educator is negatively affected by these changes and
gets stressed. As a result of the complex and changing social, economic and
political dimate, these challenges pose a threat to the nurse educator, who
perceived herself as being unable to cope. Change occurs continuously in nursing, and therefore in nursing education,
because of the dynamic health care system. Change, for better or for worse, can
be stressful. It puts big demands on a person's ability to cope. The nurse
educator in this changed climate, being unable to cope, gets stressed, and if any
stressful situation is allowed to progress to distress, the health — mental, physical
and spiritual — of the nurse educator might be adversely affected. Supporting the
nurse educator to cope with this change may help her to accept the dynamic
changes taking place around her. Learning to cope will not only give nurse
educators control over their lives and well-being, but would leave them free to
concentrate on helping themselves and others and teaching student nurses.
The purpose of this research was to generate and describe a support approach
and to describe guidelines to operationalise the support approach, for the psychiatric nursing clinical specialist to utilise for the nurse educator who is
working in a nursing college that is earmarked for rationalisation, in order to
promote, maintain and restore mental health as an integral part of health.
Based on the above discussion, the following questions were addressed in this
research:
How do nurse educators experience life in all its dimensions?
What support do they think they should receive?
What approach can be described to support the nurse educator?
What guidelines can be described to operationalise the support approach?
A qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual research design was
followed. The research was conducted in four phases with a pilot study
preceding the first phase of the research. In phase one, phenomenological interviews were conducted with seven nurse
educators to explore their experience of life in all its dimensions. Data was
analysed according to Tesch's method. Based on the results of analysed data,
fear and uncertainty, anger and hope/hopefulness were the identified themes.
In phase two, focus group discussions were held with the same group of nurse
educators to explore their views on what could be done to support them. Selfmanagement,
justice and fairness and enrichment were the identified
themes. In phase three themes from phase one and phase two were utilised to
form a bridge, leading to the description of an approach to support nurse
educators. Phase four dealt with the description of guidelines to operationalise
the support approach. Recommendations and limitations of the research were
also discussed.