Nurses and midwives teaching in the academic environment: an appreciative inquiry

Abstract

Background The past two decades has seen significant change in nursing and midwifery education in Australia. Although, regulatory documents explicate expectations of teaching, and supervising in the context of being a nurse or midwife, the move from hospital-based to higher education learning nessitated a change in how students receive their education and who provides it. The quality of teaching by nurse or midwife academics is subject to the academic\u27s ability to transition from a clinical educator to academic. Objective To explore the experiences of nurse and midwife academics teaching in the academic environment. Design Appreciative Inquiry (AI) was used to explore the experiences of academics teaching final year nursing and midwifery students. Setting Two regional universities in Australia. Participants Seven nursing and midwifery academics teaching a unit of study focusing on mentorship, leadership and teaching. Methods Narrative data from interviews conducted using AI were collected, transcribed and analysed to produce themes. Results Three key themes were identified; ‘Feeling valued’, ‘Feeling safe’ and ‘Having connections’. These themes and related subthemes impacted teaching experiences and role transition from experienced clinician to academic. Conclusion Nursing and midwifery academics would benefit from organisational support in their role transition from clinician to academic. Further research is crucial regarding initiatives that can support academics to feel safe, valued and connected when teaching the next generation of nurses and midwives