The nurse educators' perception of their clinical instruction role

Abstract
This cross-sectional descriptive survey attempted to:- determine the nurse educators' perception of their clinical instruction role; determine the extent to which nurse educators participate in clinical instruction activities; establish the extent to which nurse educators actually practise activities that they perceive as their ideal functions identify reasons for insufficient or lack of participation of nurse educators in clinical instruction identify problems encountered by nurse educators in clinical instruction This study was conducted in Regions F and H of KwaZulu-Natal Province in South Africa. A questionnaire was used to elicit information from nurse educators that were directly involved in the education and training programme of student nurses undergoing a basic nursing course. The findings indicated that nurse educators perceive assessment, designing of instructional plans, implementation, evaluation and record-keeping in clinical instruction as their ideal functions. The findings also revealed that nurse educators do not sufficiently participate in the execution of the activities that they perceive as their ideal function. Factors such as role overload, lack of clinical credibility and poor preparation during role-taking deterred nurse educators from adequately practising their role functions. Problems such as student absenteeism, lack of facilities, an unmanageable academic workload and distance between campus and practice were also identified as major problems that were experienced by nurse educators. On the basis of these findings, it is recommended that a structured component of clinical instruction be incorporated into a student tutor's programme, and that clinical laboratories, where they were reported to be non-existent be provided to bridge the gap between the academic milieu and the students' practice area
Description
Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of M. Cur, Nursing Science Department University of Zululand, 1997.
Keywords
Nursing--Study and teaching, Nurse practitioners
Citation
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