The Work-Role Transition of Expert Clinician to Novice Academic Educator

Abstract

The shortage of academic nurse educators has many baccalaureate programs recruiting master's-prepared clinical experts to fill faculty vacancies. A work-role transition occurs when entering a new community of practice. Naturalistic inquiry guided this study involving 18 nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists in their first or second year of full-time teaching in a baccalaureate program. Analysis of data from semistructured interviews with participants resulted in six patterns. These patterns are depicted in the metaphor of a mermaid entering a "sea of academia." Patterns included sitting on the shore, splashing in the shallows, drowning, treading water, beginning strokes, and throughout the waters. Findings present insight into the holistic experience of the work-role transition, viewing it from psychological, sociological, and cognitive perspectives. Nurse educators and nursing education administrators can use this information in designing effective orientation programs to facilitate healthy transition.

Vivencia de estudiantes de enfermería de la transición a la práctica profesional: un enfoque fenomenológico social

“…[16][17] Una desconexión entre las expectativas y la realidad de la experiencia fue un hallazgo común en la literatura revisada. 18 La preparación para la transición de la prácti-ca profesional de enfermería comienza cuando los estudiantes se acercan al final de su clínica supervisada y dan cuenta de que pronto se es responsable y deben rendir cuentas de su propia práctica como una enfermera registrada. La transición de ser una estudiante de enfermería para convertirse en un profesional de enfermería es la vez desafiante y estresante.…”

A Qualitative Study of Role Transition from RN to APN

“…However, studies examining APN role transition are limited to socialization after graduation (Carryer et al, 2007) or in specific work settings (Cleary et al, 2009), or they involve only nursing educators (Anderson, 2009;Manning & Neville, 2009). A gap in the literature exists with few studies examining APN role transition during educational programs.…”

“…Initiating role transition in the first semester in an APN program will establish a foundation for increasing awareness of the APN role throughout the educational process (Anderson, 2009). Nursing faculty strive to identify innovative and effective evidence-based educational strategies to assist students in role transition (Kim, Ellefsen, Han, & Alves, 2008).…”

The role of faculty advisors in preceptorship: From a faculty point of view

“…[25,39] Past experiences as a nurse and exemplar experiences such as having met and dealt with a specific challenging student situation, has also been found to enhance the confidence of new faculty advisors. [25,39] Several authors [9,37,40] also acknowledge, how-ever, that although the clinical expertise of faculty advisors is vital to nursing practice, clinical expertise alone is not sufficient preparation for the faculty advisor role. While the findings of this current study and the literature support the need for faculty development with regard to the transitioning of clinical nurses into faculty advisor roles, unfortunately, with the current shortage of nursing faculty and the fact that few academic nursing programs offer specializations in education, [41] the trend of employing individuals as faculty advisors who are academically unprepared is likely to continue.…”

“…In addition, emphasizing the need for and effective transition into a new role is vital to the success of a faculty development program for faculty advisors. [33,37] Rinner and Billings [36] found that years of teaching and type of program or type of institution account for little difference in the need for faculty development. This implies that although participants in the current study had 1 1/2 years to 25 years of teaching in nursing education, and were located in different institutions (collaborative colleges and university) they would all benefit from faculty development programs.…”