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Steps towards empowerment: An examination of colleges, health

services and universities

MARGARET MCALLISTER, LEONIE MOSEL WILLIAMS, TARA GAMBLE, KRIS MALKO-NYHAN AND CHRISTIAN M JONESUniversity of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, QLD, Australia

ABSTRACTIn Australia, nursing educators work across three main contexts – training colleges, health services and universities. Because the pace of change for nursing has increased dramatically and the curricu-lum is becoming even more crowded, educators in these contexts are likely to be experiencing work-related stress. This study investigated this issue utilising a purposive sampling strategy to interview a cross section of nurse educators and those supporting educators. Eighteen in-depth interviews were completed, which included fourteen nurse educators and four key stakeholders. Qualitative analysis revealed that regardless of context, nurse educators found their role rewarding but there are com-mon challenges. These included: Work role pressures, a non-validating culture, the pace of change, isolation and concern for the profession. There are also differences amongst the cohorts. Finally, participants elaborated on specifi c solutions to these problems and there is strong support for the establishment of a national community of practice to bring diverse educators together to share, sup-port, extend and evaluate each others’ work.

Keywords: needs, nurse educator, nurse education, community of practice

INTRODUCTION

Nurse education at all levels in Australia is acknowledged worldwide as being compre-

hensive and of a high academic standard (Heath, 2002). However, this tenet is being challenged by signifi cant changes in population demographics, service delivery systems and health care professional roles (Baltimore, 2006; Benner, Sutphen, Leonard, & Day, 2009; Wieclaw, Agerbo, Mortensen, & Bonde, 2006). Health Service delivery systems and the roles of those who work within them are likely to continue to develop given the recent re-election of the Labor Federal Government whose aims include reform of the health system through the ‘stepping up’ of a primary health care agenda

(Australian Government National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission, 2009). In order to produce and inspire the critical and creative think-ers that will be needed to take this agenda forward in health services, an effective, empowered nurse education sector is needed.

Nurse educators, however, are in short sup-ply worldwide (Hegney, Eley, & Plank, 2006). Many are reaching retirement age, and according to US-based reports, are being diverted to work in areas other than education because conditions and professional development opportunities are being eroded (Benner et al., 2009).

In Australia, nurse educators work across three main contexts; these include Universities – where

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patterns and to revise understandings and continu-ally improve teaching practices relevant to changing needs in learners, and changes in nursing practice. This can only be achieved when this evidence-based information is widely disseminated to nurse educa-tors and when the culture of the working environ-ment for nurse educators values and fosters critical thinking, dialogue and knowledge generation.

In a recent Australian study of nurse educa-tors working in health services, Sayers and Di Giacomo (2010) Identifi ed specifi c barriers to the role. These include fragmented and poorly described roles and pay disparities. These authors suggest that the barriers reduce educators’ role fulfi lment. Ultimately, lack of role fulfi lment con-tributes to diffi culties in recruitment and reten-tion and to a worsening in the critical shortage of nurse educators worldwide.

Little is known about barriers operating for educators working in the other sectors in Australia. Deeper insight into barriers and opportunities in the role of nurse educator in Australia may help to illuminate specifi c strategies for educators to: learn from and with each other; improve the quality of Australian nurse education; and advance the dis-course and discipline of nursing education globally.

Therefore, a qualitative study was designed to explore Australian nurse educators’ working conditions and answer the question: what are the needs of Australian nurse educators?

THE STUDYThe aim of this study was to explore the needs of nurse educators in a variety of Australian con-texts. In order to research this question, 5 sub-questions were posed:(a) What are the experiences and needs of nurse

educators working in the Clinical setting?(b) What are the experiences and needs of nurse

educators working in the University setting?(c) What are the experiences and needs of nurse

educators working in the TAFE setting?(d) What existing and potential strategies would

be relevant for assisting with nurse educators’ needs in terms of information exchange?

degree and post-degree studies are offered – Institutes of Training and Further Education (TAFE) – where certifi cate and diploma courses are offered and in clinical environments where health-service based precepting and supervision occurs.

Perhaps because nursing is considered a skill-based profession, educators are frequently appointed because of their clinical expertise. Whilst they may be expert practitioners, as educators they are likely to be novices. In Australia there are no consistent or national requirements for nurse educators to have educational qualifi cations. Ironically, however, posi-tion descriptions commonly expect that educators use an evidence-base in their teaching practice. For example, an examination of position descriptions advertised online indicate that only a very small number of positions require some form of educa-tional qualifi cation. This is highlighted in policy documents from The Royal College of Nursing Australia that indicate while postgraduate studies in education are benefi cial to the role of nurse educa-tors and that the knowledge of evidence-based prac-tice of nurse educators is critical to the provision of optimal care, there are no mandatory requirements (Royal College of Nursing Australia, 2011). It is dif-fi cult to understand how and where these educators would acquire this evidence base, without opportu-nities to formally and informally learn educational theories and strategies.

Whilst working conditions, experiences and needs of nurse educators have not been widely researched in Australia, Cruickshank (2003) found that Australian nurse educators want more opportunities to collaborate and work in teams. Educators themselves identify a need to learn, share and develop teaching and learning strategies.

Penn, Wilson, and Rosseter (2008) have argued that nurse educators require considerable support, particularly in making a successful transition from a clinical to a teaching role, but that collaboration and peer networking was not common. Valiga (2006) has also stated it is very important for nurse educators to be well informed about current education-focused research. There also needs to be thoughtful critique of that research in order to identify trends and

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Education Minister that is set up to enhance the student learning experience by supporting quality teaching and practice. It acknowledges outstand-ing teachers and teaching practices, funds research and teaching innovations and facilitates networks and dissemination of knowledge. The ‘Exchange’ is an online network designed to support profes-sional communication and collaboration across the higher education sector. It provides models of professional exchange and, given that it is known that some nurse educators already identify a need for peer interaction and networking (Cruickshank, 2003), an analysis of this site may give an indica-tion of strategies to promote best practice.

Ethical considerationsThe study was granted ethical clearance from the University of the Sunshine Coast Human Research Ethics Committee. An information sheet was provided to all participants, which explained that anonymity would be protected by publishing only aggregated data. Participants were advised that interview transcripts would be provided to them, and they could change or delete any infor-mation that would make them more comfortable. No participant chose to do this and we received no indications of concerns throughout the study.

RigourIn order to promote trustworthiness of data, interviews were audio taped, transcribed by an independent person, checked by participants to ensure accuracy and completion, cleansed of iden-tifying data and coded in preparation for analysis. Clarifi cation of participants’ key issues enhanced trustworthiness by providing participants with an opportunity to refl ect on the reality of the issue being discussed (Guba & Lincoln, 1989; Koch, 1994; Sandelowski, 1995). The fi rst stage of the-matic analysis of the transcripts utilising the itera-tive mode (Grbich, 1999) was completed by two members of the research team to identify emerging concepts, commonalities and differences based on the experiences and refl ections of the participants. This involved becoming immersed in the data to

(e) What are the attitudes of nurse educators and key stakeholders towards the establishment of an online environment that would facili-tate and encourage supportive networks and collaboration for sharing of resources and innovative ideas among nurse educators?

MethodologyThe research design was based on the qualitative ‘exploratory’ model described by Creswell and Plano Clark (2007, p. 53). This model essentially values the use of mixed methods and multiple phases of data collection so that knowledge gained in one phase can be used to inform the next and thus explore the phenomenon more completely. In this study, data were derived from two sources: in-depth, semi-structured interviews, followed by a content analysis of the ALTC (2010) exchange.

Population and samplingThe population of interest in this study included Australian nurse educators working in universities, health services and TAFE colleges. It is diffi cult to identify exactly how many nurse educators there are in Australia. There is no national register of educators working in the three contexts. There are 36 Universities in Australia that offer nursing, 61 TAFEs and approximately 750 public and 557 pri-vate hospitals across Australia. All of these organ-isations employ nurse educators, although some educators occupy multiple positions. For example, some health service educators also work as TAFE educators. It is possible that there are between 500 and 1000 nurse educators working in Australia.

A purposive sampling strategy of educators, and stakeholders who had opinions about the nurse education role due to their positions as managers and administrators was chosen as the most effective and effi cient method of exploring diverse experiences and opinions about the nurse education role.

This study also aimed to explore the ALTC exchange site, an online environment.

The ALTC is an Australian Government initia-tive, regulated by a Board appointed by the Federal

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A framework was developed that allowed the identifi cation of features present in the literature as well as those that arose in the data analysis pro-cess (see Table 1). The content analysis explored all available resources in the area of nursing edu-cation specifi cally and more broadly across other discipline fi elds such as medicine and school edu-cation. The scope and variety of processes that had the potential to create collaborative com-munity networks and to support sharing of inno-vative teaching approaches in nursing were also analysed.

As a preliminary step in understanding nurse educators in Australia, the cross-sectional sam-pling technique recommended by Sandelowski (1995), together with semi-structured interview strategies, were chosen to collect data rich in detail. A more complete survey of the Australian nursing population was not undertake given the size of Australia and the number of nurse edu-cators working in Australian Universities, TAFEs and clinical settings.

FINDINGSEighteen in-depth interviews were completed, which included fourteen nurse educators and four key stakeholders representing each of the educa-tional sectors and employers and registering author-ities. An understanding of the nurse education role across the three sectors in Australia was produced. Thematic analysis revealed a number of prominent themes in the interviews. The most signifi cant of

support comprehension, identifi cation and analysis of pertinent statements to support synthesis, and collation of these statements into clusters of themes (Grbich, 1999). This was followed by a collective analysis by members of the research team, includ-ing review by the interviewer, to obtain consensus on identifi ed signifi cant data rich themes as recom-mended by Rice and Ezzy (1999).

Data collectionIn-depth interviewsOne-on-one, in-depth interviews were conducted. Eighteen of the 20 people contacted agreed to participate with metropolitan and regional rep-resentation from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. Given the size of Australia, time differences, the limited budget to conduct the data collection and the busy work-life of educators, telephone inter-views were selected as the most effi cient method to access the participants.

A semi-structured interview method was cho-sen in order to allow the participants to speak openly and broadly about their roles, associated rewards, challenges and potential areas for support and development. A cross-sectional sampling tech-nique (Sandelowski, 1995) was used to investigate the issues broadly. The approach facilitated our likelihood of being able to scope across the issues, and understand the full nature of experiences and views, to enhance validity (de Vaus, 2004) prevent bracketing (Clark, 1999) and ensure data satura-tion (Pope, Ziebland, & Mays, 2000).

Content analysis of the ALTC exchangeThe content of the ATLC Exchange was exam-ined using Kincheloe and McLaren’s (2000) pro-cess of critical interpretation, which involved an examination of content on the site, strategies for giving voice to marginalised issues/groups, as well as what was absent from the site. Critical inter-pretation is also useful for helping to challenge conventional perceptions and contribute to new knowledge (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2000).

TABLE 1: FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYSIS OF THE ALTC EXCHANGE

1. Examine all links pertaining to nursing education and an estimation of which of these provided for group participation.

2. Examine all links which refer to group participation, sharing, networking and collaboration.

3. Analyse interaction among the groups and assess whether problems were identifi ed and resolved.

4. Identify any projects/reports relevant to the current study.

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workforce in nursing education as well as in its advancement professionally.

The stress really comes from the pressure from the University to constantly be updating mate-rials and to be driving you to have all these whizz bang things in programmes or units, when you’ve got face to face teaching and you’ve got your 100 odd, 200 students, and you’ve got to manage clinical placements and everything else, the pressure to do research and to write is just an added burden. People don’t have the time to search but they need new information.

Further challenges that impede work satis-faction were identifi ed, as the following data exemplifi es:

It can be stressful for lots of reasons; workload can be a problem, dealing with the require-ments of registration bodies, academic bodies, trying to balance those for the benefi t of stu-dents can be problematic.

This last comment particularly articulates col-lective concerns regarding infl exible curricula and its constraints on creativity, disharmonious politics within and between institutions, the high demands of governing bodies and a perceived lack of support to assist with compliance.

Non-validating cultureWork role stress was exacerbated by the expecta-tion and pressure for educators to maintain clini-cal relevance within a non-validating work culture.

Staying current is really important. That’s one of the biggest problems facing other people that work full-time at TAFE that don’t work in the industry, that it’s very easy to be teaching dated information.

[There is] little appreciation of how hard we work and how diffi cult it is to recruit people with PhDs. [The] campus is fi ghting for sur-vival - can’t compete with medicine. But we are dancing as fast as we can, trying to be

the emergent themes was that regardless of context, nurse educators all found their role rewarding. The interviews also revealed a deeper understanding of the challenges to job satisfaction and an apprecia-tion for the unique challenges facing nurse educa-tors because of the nursing context. Participants’ suggestions for changes they thought would be productive and benefi cial were also elicited.

Six common themes arose from the thematic analysis through a cyclic process of immersion, identifi cation, analysis and collation of the data into clusters which were reprocessing until no fur-ther themes were evident. Additional areas were identifi ed that highlight unique concerns in each of the educational contexts (Table 2).

COMMON THEMESThe rewarding nature of the roleAll participants found the nurse education role in Australia challenging, rewarding and enjoy-able. Being involved in the development and empowerment of students, facilitating their career advancement and being sources of inspiration or role models were reported to be deeply satisfying as illustrated in this typical comment:

… sharing my expertise with new students, existing staff and students, encouraging them to learn and gain a passion for nursing, which I have, and not moulding them but facilitat-ing their desire to learn and grow and develop both personally and professionally.

Work role pressuresParticipants identifi ed numerous work role pres-sures that may be impediments to the future

TABLE 2: COMMON THEMES

The rewarding nature of the role

Work role pressures

A non-validating culture

The pace of change

Isolation

Concern for the profession

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We all do infection prevention, we all do com-munications and we all do all that stuff. There’s some commonality across it. We’re all just rein-venting the wheel and it’s crazy and we are all saying how exhausted we are.

Participants indicated frustration with the need to reinvent approaches and processes that it would be more efficient and democratic to share. Examples include evaluation tools for health service training programs, strategies for teaching in changing contexts at TAFE and university level. The need for reinvention is there because educators are not able to share because there is no space or facility for this to happen.

The isolation also relates to geographical loca-tion, lack of communication with and mentoring from other educators, lack of support or opportu-nity to network with educators in the same area of expertise and/or feeling removed from and deval-ued by non-education staff.

Signifi cant inequality exists in relation to access to educational resources amongst rural, remote and regional nurse educators and nurses. Learning spaces and technology were just two examples.’ If you’re in a small hospital, or a small facility of some sort, access to computers and that sort of information is very, very minimal.

‘We are meeting less and less in groups – rural groups in particular, so some get left behind.’

Isolation also emerges because of internal division. This needs to be understood if strate-gies to resolve these problems are to be effec-tive and sustainable. There was a clear tension identified between different cohorts, with some hostility, lack of trust of nurse educa-tors from other sectors, and a lack of under-standing of the roles of each other due to the limited opportunities to share knowledge and experiences.

We’ve got to break down the Berlin Wall between the university, the TAFE and the clinical educators. We’re all doing the same … we’ve all got the same cause.

innovative and learn how to do systematic reviews, to develop a focus in chronic illness, but no increase in staff is provided.

Nurses are terrible. No one gives pats on backs. We need to get that and we need to support each other because, you know, we know that the nurses that are clinical in the hospital are doing it different to us here in education as in an institution.

The pace of changeLack of time, competing demands and informa-tion overload arising from change were identi-fi ed across all groups. Participants indicated that these factors result in a restriction on the ability to search for new information or resources and to satisfy the ongoing research and curricular require-ments of the profession. One participant said:

It’s too much. The pace of change due to tech-nology has increased the workload … Class sizes have increased. … Diversity has increased … [there are] funding chal-lenges … Work is expected to be done on the weekend, and the boundary between work and life is being eroded.

This comment highlights additional com-pounding factors such as the growing expecta-tion to use educational technology, an increasing diversity in the student body, the pressure to stay relevant in a dynamic healthcare environment and the economic rationalist environment where available resources are shrinking and access to innovations is more diffi cult.

IsolationMany participants reported feeling isolated in their role, as illustrated in the following two quotes:

Everybody is working sometimes in their own little silo and I think that everybody is so busy, stretched, and more and more is expected of each person. So there isn’t as much time. You might send an email rather than even walk down the corridor to speak to someone.

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Unique concerns were also raised for educators working in clinical environments.

[If ] they don’t work full time in the clinical fi eld, there’s a real sort of feeling that if you’re not doing it full time then you’re not a proper [sic] doctor or nurse or whatever.

[It is a] diffi cult role because I’m only given a 8 hrs a week to keep 30 staff up to date with annual competencies and [to do] orientation for all new staff … I need more time … I do about 8 hours unpaid work a week … I have to help do the showers so the learner [has time to do] the competencies.

Participants highlighted a culture that is pro-training, but anti-education. There is pressure to invest more in mandatory training than in pro-gressive education. Health service educators are often left with work that others do not want to, or cannot, do. They are also required to backfi ll staff, stepping in to assist with clinical or project work. Additionally, these educators often work in isolation, are compelled to work on issues that are reactive or remediating in focus, rather than capacity building and progressive. These educa-tors also report that the bureaucratic, hospital environment makes open and sustained internal and external communication diffi cult.

Many participants saw that opinion leaders in clinical environments were generally unsup-portive of the mission of education. Rather than appreciate that students are learners who need guidance, appraisal, support and encouragement, the focus for many health service personnel was on mandatory training for its workforce. This focus is only part of the role of nurse educators working in health services. Yet there was minimal recognition of the need to cultivate, incorporate and embed the kinds of teaching and learning activities not overtly linked to training, but that would nonetheless enrich and extend clinicians and others who work in health services. This embodies a culture of managerialism, rather than a culture of learning.

Concern for the professionConcern for the advancement of the profession was raised. Of particular concern for many were the effects of a shortage of nurse educators and an awareness that this would worsen without planning and intervention. The following partici-pants’ views echo those of others:

[We] need to do more succession planning – encouraging the younger nurses to come into education, to think about education as an option because a lot of us are getting on in years.

[There is a] lack of succession planning … [It is] very hard for young people going into academia – they begin with great potential, get overloaded and burn out.

These concerns relate to the ageing nurse edu-cator workforce and a lack of attention to recruit-ment of excellent educators, ongoing professional support for them and containment around the role overload to reduce stress on new academics/educators.

UNIQUE CHALLENGES FOR EACH COHORTIn addition to the themes identifi ed as common to all nurse educators, distinct challenges were also noted for each cohort. Educators discussing TAFE issues raised the issue of infl exibility.

[The] lack of fl exibility within the design of the TAFE programs has really been quite a dif-fi cult task to deal with. I am fi ghting infl exible, industrial style nursing educators. … I hate the fact that I don’t have classrooms big enough to take everybody in.

While it is acknowledged that there is infl ex-ibility and a lack of resources across all educational environments, this quote identifi es distinct chal-lenges facing educators in training colleges, includ-ing a rigid curriculum and inadequate provision of support and resources. Many lack access to infor-mation and, in some cases, the Internet, suffi cient telephone lines and functioning equipment.

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Furthermore, University academics reported a competitive work environment, and compet-ing role demands that contribute to work-related stress.

there’s a lot of preparation, there’s a lot of read-ing and research in preparation for classes, etcetera. And of course, at this time of year there’s tons of marking to do. But then there’s also other things – I’m on a lot of committees and attend a lot of meetings, so there’s those commitments, and there’s of course commit-ments around furthering research.

The differences noted amongst the stakehold-ers and the three cohorts of educators and the distinct challenges identifi ed are summarised and presented in Table 3.

All of these factors ultimately affect teaching and learning quality provided to students of nurs-ing and threatens to exacerbate the already critical shortage of nurse educators.

PARTICIPANTS’ SUGGESTIONS FOR ENHANCING NURSE EDUCATOR EXCHANGEA community of practice for nurse educatorsAll participants welcomed the opportunity for networking and exchange with other educators, to share strategies for dealing with common dif-fi culties, to mentor new educators and to connect with professionals in the same area of expertise.

In [state health departments] the focus is on mandatory skills training, rather than education.

The Nurse Unit Managers dictate. What they say goes. If they don’t support you here, it’s very diffi cult to move forward.

University academics also reported specifi c challenges as they experience an increasingly diverse student body with rising learning and sup-port needs. While this is common to all contexts it was particularly highlighted by nurse educators from the University sector. This stressor is illus-trated in the following quote:

Students don’t seem to come to university full time anymore; they come to university and do full time work as well, and so there’s often a lot of clashes … and it does seem to be the univer-sity type of study activities that suffer. They are much more focussed on getting money from their work to feed the family or themselves than they are on actually fulfi lling obligations to the university, so, it’s, we seem to be juggling all sorts of things for them to ensure that they fulfi l their obligations to the university and get through and graduate, so yeah, so it seems to be a lot of referral work, you know, refer them to people within the university that can help in counselling. … There’s a lot more stress for students now.

TABLE 3: DIFFERENT CHALLENGES FACED BY NURSE EDUCATORS

Universities TAFE Clinical sector Stakeholders

Academics experience a competitive work environment, teaching isolation, work role overload, economic rationalism, an increasingly diverse student body with rising learning needs such as people from non-English speaking backgrounds, specifi c learning disabilities, reluctance to attend classes, multiple roles, larger class sizes.

Teachers are diffi cult to attract and retain. They have a diverse student cohort, face competition with higher education and other VET providers for clinical places. National training packages are continually revised. Teachers feel they are poorly supported and resourced.

There is a culture that is pro-training, but not clear about education. Mandatory training and accountability measures are an increasing role for teachers. Educators work in isolation on issues that are commonly problem-focused. Working in a large bureaucracy makes communication diffi cult.

Caution is needed because some solutions previously attempted have failed, including websites that are diffi cult to navigate, require time to search through, are visited once or twice but not repeatedly, do not succeed in bringing people together, generate dialogue or capacity, or respond to needs.

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to provide material to seed the site, to become a mentor and/or to post and respond to discussion topics.

I would be able to contribute in terms of sup-porting other nurse educators. If somebody has a problem or an issue, I could help by bouncing ideas and giving them support, and saying, ‘Hey, if that’s not working, what about you try this,’ It’s really important that as nurses we look after each other, support in whatever role we’re in.

Lessons for a virtual communityA number of suggestions and cautions were pro-vided by the key stakeholders and nurse educators regarding the online networking proposition.

Stakeholders advised that some solutions pre-viously attempted have failed, notably when web-sites were diffi cult to navigate and required time to search through content. They suggest that such sites are visited once or twice but not repeatedly, and do not succeed in bringing people together or in generating dialogue, building capacity or responding to emerging needs.

[The site will] need two things to make it work. One is someone with the passion, drive and support, money in particular, to drive it along and make sure it’s kept up to date because maintenance is one of the most frus-trating things when you go to a website and there’s nothing new in the last 3 years. The other thing I think with them is that the web-site itself needs to be intuitive and easy to use. If it’s not easy to use then it can really frustrate people, they won’t come back to it.

Such a network needs to be simple and easy to navigate and to offer people time-savers, con-nection and ideas for innovation. It also needs to bring people together on areas of commonalities, be proactive, progressive and solution focused and advocate in areas that advance the scholarship of nursing education in the longer term.

Of additional signifi cance is the need for the site to be staffed by key resource people, to seed

Networking with other people and taking it back to our managers, and telling them, ‘Look, this is what other people are doing and these are the results they’re achieving,’ would be invaluable, I’d love to do that … Through the networking we could pool ideas and confi -dence – let’s pull everybody together and pres-ent that as one, and certainly, I think it would have a huge impact on our time on what we have to do also.

An online platform that was engaging, sup-portive, interactive, and easy to navigate was seen as more feasible than providing face to face sup-port (although this too, was valued). This was related to the lack of support or inability for all staff to attend internal and external meetings or conferences and the rarely available professional development days being tightly scheduled and not allowing for free talk and brainstorming.

Here [the site] is a place where I can go and talk to like-minded people about what is happening right now. I can get it off my chest … help to achieve work–life balance … have inspiring sto-ries. … A place to celebrate, we don’t get a chance to relate to each other, so things to celebrate.

Participants saw value in aggregating resources and in a facility for fi le management, including learning activities, images, literature, videos, pub-lications and useful links. Updates on innovations in education, alerts from peak bodies and profes-sional development opportunities were suggested inclusions.

I think an online site is a very good idea, it [would] help you to keep in touch in a time poor environment … [with] a search service provided … It would be terrifi c if there was something that came around that says ‘here’s the latest thing on this topic’ … I’m thinking there could be groups on there with different interests and be like Facebook.

Several of the participants voiced interest in becoming involved with the project, volunteering

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the state of nurse education. McAllister, Madsen, Godden, Greenhill, and Reed (2010) in their Australian survey of University academics identi-fi ed a growing frustration with a perceived pres-sure to teach students technical and scientifi c skills rather than critical thinking and humanities-based material and a professional isolation leading to reduced creativity and access to resources.

This study has clearly shown that nurse educa-tors across the three cohorts are time poor and are experiencing role overload and isolation. They are expected to keep up to date with a rapidly chang-ing health context and yet are distanced from clinical practice and not well funded to attend clinical conferences. They are expected to develop innovative curricula for today’s generation of stu-dents and yet they are not working in a creative environment where new educational ideas can be accessed, exchanged, researched and published. Succession planning for soon to retire nurse edu-cators is completely lacking and new educators are being employed without access to peer sup-port and the wisdom of experience.

Because nurse educators are necessary for the preparation of new nurses needed in the global nursing shortage, support for the role and solu-tions to the pressures are crucial. Penn et al. (2008) argue that support for nurse educators needs to be targeted to need. Not only do educators require formal workplace support such as through induc-tion, professional development, and collegial meetings to advance practice, various groups such as novice educators may need additional informal support. The authors of the N3ET (2006) study of the Australian situation reinforce this argument saying that peer networking and support needs to be widely enhanced because there are many edu-cators working in isolation, remote from profes-sional associations and the ability to interact on a personal basis.

Sayers and Di Giacomo (2010) in their critical review of the literature on health service educators argue that national standards and performance outcomes be established to ensure that the role is made visible, and accountable, and to prevent

the various inclusions, to generate ongoing dis-cussion and to reach out to nurse educators. It was also identifi ed that the site needs to be located on a neutral and independent site, have a regis-tration process and include activities that draw people to the site regularly.

ANALYSIS OF THE ALTC EXCHANGEIn addition to data from interviews, the study also included an analysis of the ALTC Exchange – a virtual meeting space for educators from a range of disciplines.

Analysis of the ALTC Exchange revealed that many professional groups initiated interaction and obviously saw its value. People were search-ing for networks and information to help them advance learning and teaching in their disciplines. Several clearinghouse projects had been funded. Many disciplines were working towards shar-ing material with their colleagues. Online posts inviting ongoing interactions were not usually followed up. That is, sustained and effective inter-actions on the ALTC exchange were not occur-ring. Thus, evidence for ongoing interaction was not found, perhaps indicating that barriers to networking and ideas sharing were operating to inhibit ongoing dialogue.

In summary, this study has provided more detail about the nature of barriers to educator exchange. Clearly educators want to share infor-mation and see the value in networking and they don’t want to work in isolation, but establishing spaces for this exchange is not suffi cient in sus-taining the networks and nurturing supportive, benefi cial interactions that lead to productive out-comes that improve learning and teaching.

DISCUSSIONThis exploration of the work role of a diverse group of Australian nurse educators revealed that the role is experienced as rewarding and that there are common challenges whether you work in a university, health service or TAFE college. There are also challenges in each specifi c sector. These fi ndings support the reports of others examining

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community; positive experiences to build confi -dence and good will, stories for the enrichment of the expanding community and tools to work effi ciently and effectively.

RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONIn order to achieve a productive culture for nurse educators, three recommendations for develop-ment are suggested:1. Nurse educators need a CoP that brings peo-

ple together from a range of contexts and also to break down silos between work environ-ments. This community could exist in real life as well as online. In this way, previously unconnected nurse educators could be work-ing together, providing each other with sup-port, mentoring and succession planning for their discipline.

2. Because nurse educators are time poor and yet expected to remain up to date with edu-cational and clinical innovations, this CoP needs to be resourced with cutting edge information about nursing and teaching, and provide resources that are useful to nurse educator practice and are easily accessed and downloaded.

3. The CoP needs to connect educators to best practice as well as introduce a system to enable rigorous evaluation of these inno-vations, thus building an evidence base for nursing education and a process to sustain continuous improvement.

This exploratory study of nurse educators working in TAFE colleges, health services and universities has identifi ed numerous challenges being expe-rienced by educators. Three recommendations have been made to begin a process of productive change for nursing in Australia. Nurse educa-tors who are supported, connected, and striving to continually improve their practice are more likely to provide a quality learning experience for nursing students. Ultimately, this strengthens all nurses and contributes to the provision of optimal health care for the nation.

the perception that it is inconsequential and thus easily dismissed. They also urge for more research to be conducted on strategies to enable nurses in academia and health services to work together. Valiga (2006) argues the need for research so that educators in all contexts practice with the best available evidence and so promote a quality expe-rience for learners.

Despite the challenges, participants in this study revealed many nurse educators to be opti-mistic, motivated and able to identify a range of solutions to develop and support the nursing education discipline. Such solutions need to be urgently instituted so that the health care sys-tem can be supplied with the number of nurses it needs to run services and the public can be assured that educated, safe and qualifi ed nurses will be available. By continuing to ignore the pro-fessional development needs of nurse educators, Australia runs the risk of worsening the nursing shortage, threatening the educational quality of nursing graduates and ultimately lowering the quality of care provided to the public.

Wenger’s (1998) concept of the development of a community of practice (CoP) provides an illuminating theory to improve nurse educator communication and exchange. This approach to building a strong professional community emphasises three characteristics: (1) ensuring there is a clear and focused domain of knowledge; (2) valuing the elements that build a strong com-munity, such as opportunities and strategies that bring people together, dissolve barriers, and build trust and relationship; and (3) developing the practice – that is the specifi c activities that defi ne nurse educators and build their knowledge and evidence base, and which can be developed and shared amongst members for the good of both the individual and the collective. In a CoP it is important to ensure there is a purpose to coming together and for that experience to be a positive, supportive and memorable one. The outcomes of a productive CoP include: a shared repertoire of resources; a shared understanding and abil-ity to examine recurring problems facing the

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Received 20 October 2010 Accepted 01 February 2011

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