TEACHING AND SUPERVISING RESEARCH: CHALLENGES OF NOVICE EDUCATORS

Nurse educators play a pivotal role in strengthening the nursing workforce. They serve as role models and provide the leadership needed to implement evidencebased practice. To be successful in this endeavour nurse educators should not only be role models as researchers, but must also be able to teach research methodology and supervise students who conduct research projects. Educators at some education institutions, who have recently entered the higher education sphere and are not in possession of a master’s or a doctoral degree, ultimately lack a research background. The purpose of this article is to report on a study conducted to identify and describe the challenges faced by nurse educators in teaching research methodology and acting as supervisors when students have to conduct their own research. A qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual study was conducted. Data were collected by means of a focus group discussion with all nurse educators involved in the research module. Participants acknowledged that they face many challenges. They highlighted a lack of human resources; research experience and competencies; research guidelines; physical resources; and a lack of support from the management as major challenges, and provided suggestions to support them and enhance a research culture in the institution