Becoming a lecturer in nurse education: the work‐place learning of clinical experts as newcomers

Abstract

Usage of any items from the University of Cumbria's institutional repository 'Insight' must conform to the following fair usage guidelines.Any item and its associated metadata held in the University of Cumbria's institutional repository Insight (unless stated otherwise on the metadata record) may be copied, displayed or performed, and stored in line with the JISC fair dealing guidelines (available here) for educational and not-for-profit activities provided that• the authors, title and full bibliographic details of the item are cited clearly when any part of the work is referred to verbally or in the written form The study has implications for all of those concerned with enhancing the academic workplace as a learning environment for lecturers in professional education fields such as nursing. These include the need to recognise and respond to tensions within 2 the workplace and to nurture non-formal collaborative learning.

Evaluating academic workplaces: the hyper-expansive environment experienced by university lecturers in professional fields

“…This analysis aligns broadly with the findings of previous research on the experiences of lecturers in nursing that identified a struggle for these academics to prioritise apparently conflicting areas of work especially research activity in a workplace characterised by excessive workload (Boyd & Lawley, 2009;Fisher, 2006;McArthur-Rouse, 2008). To some extent the excessive workload perceived by lecturers in professional fields may be attributed to the strong partnership with employers and with knowledge exchange and in the case of teacher educators a key aspect of this time-consuming work that has been termed 'relationship maintenance' (Ellis et al, 2014).…”

“…In the UK, lecturers in nursing and midwifery are often appointed on the basis of their clinical expertise and may begin their new academic career with no significant prior experience of research activity. This creates particular challenges for academic induction including the need to support research capacity building (Boyd & Lawley, 2009;Fisher, 2006, McArthur-Rouse, 2008. This approach to recruitment of lecturers in nursing has been found to create a conflict within departments and institutions in the value placed on knowledge and identity as a clinical expert and as a researcher (Barrett, 2006;Fisher, 2006;McNamara, 2010) and this conflict has been considered as a tension between 'rival knowledge regimes' (Findlow, 2012, p. 117).…”

“…This approach to recruitment of lecturers in nursing has been found to create a conflict within departments and institutions in the value placed on knowledge and identity as a clinical expert and as a researcher (Barrett, 2006;Fisher, 2006;McNamara, 2010) and this conflict has been considered as a tension between 'rival knowledge regimes' (Findlow, 2012, p. 117). Studies of lecturers in nursing (Boyd and Lawley, 2009;McArthur Rouse, 2009;Barlow and Antonio 2007) suggest that the clinicians moving into higher education roles report many positive aspects but also experience varying levels of disorientation, de-skilling, conflicting priorities and work-overload.…”

“…In the UK small-scale qualitative studies have suggested that many newly appointed higher education lecturers in nursing are primarily motivated by their contribution to the development of new clinical practitioners (Boyd & Lawley, 2009;McArthur-Rouse, 2008). In more traditional subject disciplines this might be interpreted as a priority for teaching by these new academics but in the professional field of nursing 'teaching' includes at least an element of knowledge exchange activity because programmes run within an educational partnership with employers rather than within the boundaries of a university department.…”

The contemporary academic: orientation towards research work and researcher identity of higher education lecturers in the health professions

“…They may have a masters level qualification, but otherwise often have little or no direct experience of involvement in research activity. Small-scale qualitative studies have identified the considerable challenges faced by newly appointed academics in nursing (McArthur-Rouse, 2008;Boyd & Lawley, 2009). For academics in nursing there is a tension around the extent to which they should maintain more procedural knowledge in clinical skills and experience as well as propositional academic knowledge (Fisher 2006;Barrett, 2006;McNamara 2010) and this has been positioned as a tension between 'rival knowledge regimes' (Findlow 2012).…”