Plugging a hole and lightening the burden: A process evaluation of a practice education team

Aim: To investigate the perceptions of clinical and senior managers about the role of Practice Educators employed in one acute hospital in the UK. Background: Producing nurses who are fit for practice, purpose and academic award is a key issue for nurse education partnership providers in the UK. Various new models for practice learning support structures and new roles within health care institutions have been established. To sustain funding and policy support for these models, there is a need for evaluation research. Design: A process evaluation methodology was employed to determine the current value of a practice education team and to provide information to guide future direction. Methods: Data were collected through semi-structured telephone interviews using a previously designed schedule. All senior nurse managers (N=5) and a purposive sample of clinical managers (n=13) who had personal experience of and perceptions about the role of practice educators provided the data. Interview notes were transcribed, coded and a thematic framework devised to present the results. Results: A number of key themes emerged including: qualities needed for being a successful practice educator; visibility and presence of practice educators; providing a link with the university; ‘plugging a hole’ in supporting learning needs; providing relief to practitioners in dealing with ‘the burden of students’; alleviating the ‘plight of students’; and effects on student attrition. Conclusions: Findings provided evidence for the continued funding of the practice educator role with improvements to be made in dealing with stakeholder expectations and outcomes. Relevance to clinical practice: In the UK, there still remain concerns about the fitness for practice of newly registered nurses, prompting a recent national consultation by the professional regulating body. Despite fiscal pressures, recommendations for further strengthening of all systems that will support the quality of practice learning may continue to sustain practice learning support roles

The role of the practice educator in supporting nursing and midwifery students’ clinical practice learning: An appreciative inquiry

High quality, supportive practice learning experiences are crucial for ensuring that student nurses and midwives develop into competent practitioners who are fit for practice. The practice educator role is one model of practice learning support but the role is relatively new and has been little investigated. This paper reports on an appreciative inquiry that explored the current practice educator role at one university in England, with the aim of reaching a consensus for how the role could be enhanced. The first phase involved in-depth interviews with 18 participants: practice educators (n = 10); student nurse representatives (n= 5) and practice based education leads (n = 3). The interviews were analysed thematically. Three themes related to social processes involved in the role: being a bridge, being there, and social identity. The other themes described contributions to the practice learning environment: safeguarding, support, critical thinking. The second phase used a modified Delphi technique. Participants ranked trigger statements, related to the themes, in order of importance. Two consensus workshops were held where the statements were reviewed by practice educators, students and learning environment leads, following which principles and practices of the practice educator role were agreed. In conclusion, the strength of the practice educator role is that it bridges the worlds of university and practice. This bridging resulted from social processes that required a sustained presence in practice to engage in the reality of everyday practice and gain the shared social identity of a practitioner

Nurse educators in Australia: High job satisfaction despite role ambiguity

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the nurse educator role in Australian hospitals, including their practice and performance standards. Methods: A cross-sectional, online survey of nurse educators employed in acute care hospitals in Australia was administered over a three-month period. The survey comprised established and researcher-developed scales, and a single open-ended question. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics. Qualitative data was analysed using a general inductive approach. Results: Nurse educators who were more likely to fulfill nurse educator competency practice domains had master’s degrees in education, defined professional development needs, and met regularly with their managers. These educators also had higher levels of job satisfaction. Participants identified that role ambiguity and role confusion adversely impacted nurse educator role expectations, responsibilities, and job satisfaction. Despite this, the majority of educators intended to stay in their role for the foreseeable future. Conclusions: Role ambiguity influenced professional identity and job satisfaction, highlighting the need for clarification of nurse educator roles. These findings suggest the need for review of the nurse educator role and incorporation of professional and educational requirements and practice competencies. Ongoing role monitoring is recommended to identify the effects of role change

Szu-Feng Chen, Assistant Professor, Department of Theatre and Dance, travels to Singapore

Professor Szu-Feng Chen was invited by The Theatre Practice (TTP) in Singapore to create set and costume design for Lao Jiu: The Musical, its feature musical production for the Singapore Kuo Pao Kun Festival.I was invited by The Theatre Practice (TTP) in Singapore to create set and costume design for its feature musical production for Singapore Kuo Pao Kun Festival. Lao Jiu: The Musical, is a musical version of Kuo’s signature play. It was opened in July 2012 in memory of ten years of Kuo Pao Kun’s passing. Kuo Pao Kun was the pioneer and art educator of Singaporean theatre—awarded the National Culture Medallion in 1989, the Culture Award in 1992, Asean Cultural Award in 1993and the Excellence for Singapore Award in 2002. The festival is hosted by The Theatre Practice and supported by Singapore National Arts Council in honor of Kuo’s contribution to the Singapore performing arts

The ‘Gift Exchange’: a metaphor for understanding the relationship between educator commitment and student effort on placement

It is a truism that a sound working relationship between student and practice educator is a major contributory factor to positive placement experiences for health and social care students. However, there is limited research that goes any further in explaining how this relationship is established and might work. This paper utilizes the metaphor of the ‘gift’ to emphasize the importance of generosity and reciprocity within the student/practice educator relationship. Qualitative research findings, generated from interviews with practice educators, reveal that whilst the educator gives the student the benefit of their expertise and provides access to opportunities to learn from practice, the student is expected to return this ‘investment’ by demonstrating that they too are putting in effort, for instance, by showing keenness to learn, and developing subject knowledge and skills. Although educators demonstrate a sense of obligation or duty to support students in their endeavours this commitment is not necessarily unconditional; reciprocal student effort is an important motivator for some practice educators for whom a demonstrable response to their input confirms their own sense of identity as educators and clinicians

Preparing Tomorrow’s World Language Teacher Today: The Case for Seamless Induction

This essay is a call to action. It offers a comprehensive overview of the challenges facing world language (WL) teacher educators and their employers, the K-12 schools, during the teacher induction period. We propose a new paradigm for WL teacher education based on national accreditation standards, best-practice pedagogy, insights from the professional literature on methods education, and the enhanced role of the methods instructor/supervisor. In order to become successful in the classroom, the pre-service educator undergoes a seamless period of induction that is student-centered and college/university-supported beyond the classroom arena

Digital Collaboration and Classroom Practice: Educator Use of ARIS Connect

A major focus of the booming education technology sector is on products that aim to help teachers improve classroom practice. For their part, districts must figure out which of these resources will be most useful to schools. In New York City, the Department of Education developed its own Achievement Reporting and Innovation System (ARIS), which was rolled out in 2008. ARIS was an early effort at a system-wide data and teacher collaboration platform, and a major undertaking for the nation's largest school district. In 2011, the Research Alliance received a grant from the Spencer Foundation to investigate how this ambitious initiative played out in schools. Our first report focused on overall use and perceptions of ARIS. In the current phase of our study, we honed our focus onto ARIS Connect -- a component designed specifically to help educators improve their practice by sharing resources, posting questions, and giving one another feedback, both within schools and across the district. Our investigation sought to understand what educators thought of Connect, and whether, as its designers intended, Connect supported their ability to communicate with other educators and improve classroom practice. The study is based on two years of "clickstream" data, which tracks user visits to and navigation through ARIS. We also visited nine middle schools that recorded higher-than-average use of Connect, where we interviewed administrators and held focus groups with teachers. This report presents our findings, including insights on why educators did or did not use Connect; what might have made Connect more useful; and what external tools educators use for similar purposes

First Fagnostics: Queering Art Education

This article advocates for a “fagnostic” pedagogy that acknowledges the queer aspects of education in relation to not knowing, of the unknown, of the unknowable, making spaces and opportunities for becoming art educator. The article defines fagnostic, questions the assumptions of heteronormative, binary pedagogies, and considers the possibilities of queering the spaces of art education practice to be more inclusive and culturally sustainable in the 21st century