Nursing Education Administrators Research Articles

Undergraduate nursing students’ perception on clinical learning environment

Clinical education is a fundamental part of nursing education and forms more than half of Nursing curriculum. The quality of Clinical Learning Environment (CLE) is a valid indicator to show the quality of nursing curriculum. Therefore, assessment of CLE is a duty of nursing education administrators.

Iranian Nursing Students’ Perceptions Regarding Use of Concept Mapping: A Content Analysis

Background: Nursing education provides opportunities for students to create positive changes in a clinical setting. Thus, the use of modern teaching approaches such as concept mapping (CM) in nursing can be useful. The aim of this study is to explain nursing students’ perception of applying CM. Methods: This qualitative study reports CM in nursing students. Research areas were nursing colleges affiliated with the Iran and Tehran Universities of Medical Sciences. The participants comprised 25 nursing students who entered the research purposefully. Interviews were conducted face-to-face and semi-structured. All interviews were recorded, transcribed, reviewed, and the results were then extracted. Results: Two categories and four subcategories were identified. The categories included transcendence of meaningful learning and improvement clinical skills. Transcendence of meaningful learning had 2 subcategories: favorable perception and deliberative interpretation. Improvement of clinical skills also had 2 subcategories: reinforcing critical thinking and facilitating patient-centered care. Conclusion: Identifying nursing students’ perception of CM techniques can assist nursing education administrators in providing better education to students both theoretically and practically based on the use of the aforementioned technique.

Flipped Classroom: A New Teaching Strategy for Integrating Information Technology Into Nursing Education

The traditional "teacher-centered" instruction model is still currently pervasive in nursing education. However, this model does not stimulate the critical thinking or foster the self-learning competence of students. In recent years, the rapid development of information technology and the changes in educational philosophy have encouraged the development of the "flipped classroom" concept. This concept completely subverts the traditional instruction model by allowing students to access and use related learning activities prior to class on their smartphones or tablet computers. Implementation of this concept has been demonstrated to facilitate greater classroom interaction between teachers and students, to stimulate student thinking, to guide problem solving, and to encourage cooperative learning and knowledge utilization in order to achieve the ideal of student-centered education. This student-centered model of instruction coincides with the philosophy of nursing education and may foster the professional competence of nursing students. The flipped classroom is already an international trend, and certain domestic education sectors have adopted and applied this concept as well. However, this concept has only just begun to make its mark on nursing education. This article describes the concept of the flipped classroom, the implementation myth, the current experience with implementing this concept in international healthcare education, and the challenging issues. We hope to provide a reference for future nursing education administrators who are responsible to implement flipped classroom teaching strategies in Taiwan.

A Global Issue in Nursing Students’ Clinical Learning: The Theory–Practice Gap

Problem statement: For many years, there has been a problem with regard to the theory–practice gap in nursing students’ clinical education, as indicated in many studies. Purpose: A description of nursing students’ views on the theory–practice gap in clinical learning.Methods: A qualitative content analysis was conducted to describe nursing students’ (n = 21) views of the theory–practice gap in clinical learning. Semi-structured and interactive interviews were used to collect data. All interviews were recorded and transcribed, then analysed using qualitative content analysis and MAXQDA 2010.Findings: From the transcripts, a remarkable number of primary themes, main themes and sub-themes emerged. The main themes consisted of elements related to ‘society and culture’, ‘promotion of theoretical knowledge and clinical skills’, ‘student-related factors’, ‘instructor-related factors’, ‘staff-related factors’, ‘clinical situations’ and ‘learning styles’.Conclusion: In order to reduce the theory–practice gap, various methods are proposed: priority of theoretical over practical courses, curriculum revision, applicability to cases according to theoretical materials already learned, and searching for an innovative curriculum to reconcile students’ theoretical and practical educational content. In addition, nursing education administrators should cooperate with the faculty and staff by adopting interactive and participatory solutions.

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

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.

Faculty workload calculation

Faculty members and nursing education administrators have long examined faculty workloads and documentation thereof but have had difficulty quantifying the work faculty members accomplish in academia. Workloads become even more complicated as faculty members incorporate many activities into their roles of teaching, research, clinical practice, and community service. A form that was simple yet fairly complete was developed at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Nursing. The purpose of this article is to describe our workload documentation and issues surrounding its use. This form has been a useful beginning for discussions about accomplishing the work of the mission areas of the school. Our experience and documents may be useful to others.

Faculty practice and roles of staff nurses and clinical faculty in nursing student learning.

The perceptions of staff nurses and clinical nurse faculty on the roles they play in nursing student learning were examined. The study also sought to explore how faculty practice status affected these perceived roles. Nursing schools with generic baccalaureate nursing programs in the middle Atlantic region composed the study population. A convenience sample of two schools that expected their undergraduate clinical faculty to engage in faculty practice and two schools that did not expect faculty practice participated in the study. Clinical faculty members (15) and nursing education administrators (4) from each school participated, as well as staff nurses (22) and nursing service administrators (4) from each school's related hospital. Focus groups and individual interviews were conducted. Manifest and latent content analyses were used to examine the issues. Staff nurses who worked with practicing faculty reported fewer instances of role overload, conflict, and ambiguity than when they worked with nonpracticing faculty. Lack of clear communication and delineation of expectations among administrators, staff, faculty, and students were cited as major factors in perceived role problems. Administrators, faculty, and staff nurses viewed high student/faculty ratios as a causative factor in the faculty's inability to meet all teaching objectives with students.

The Nurse Educator and the Nursing Student: A Review of the Issue of Clinical Evaluation Procedures

Research in the area of grievance and appeal mechanisms is very limited. Although writers have addressed aspects of their use, only one study (Orchard, 1991) was carried out to determine what administrative structures and procedures are used to protect both the rights of the instructors and their students in the clinical evaluation process. Further research to both replicate Orchard's study and to analyze specific aspects of nursing programs' existing evaluation and review systems is urgently needed. In the interim, nursing education administrators must rely on this seminal research and/or their personal experiences in the management of failing students. These experiences are augmented by overall institutional policies and reviewed through nursing program accreditation reviews. Although these parameters assist nursing education administrators in determining processes to use when dealing with failing students, they do not guarantee that nursing students or their clinical instructors' rights are protected. Nurse educators need to gain increased knowledge about the legal side of their instructor role (Woodside, 1981). Perhaps once they gain such knowledge, some of the fear frequently experienced by instructors when they are faced with a student threatening to grieve their clinical evaluation will decrease.

Organizational effectiveness: the key to accountability for collegiate schools of nursing.

This study describes the organizational effectiveness of collegiate nursing programs in terms of their ability to interact with their external environment. Nursing education administrators from 401 institutions were surveyed concerning their ability to secure resources and the degree of their system's openness and community interaction. Overall, with a response rate of 76.8 per cent, the administrators considered the availability of resources to be adequate and perceived their programs to be moderately successful in procuring resources. A categorical comparison of responses indicated that administrators in specialized/professional institutions identified a greater degree of richness in the availability of resources and perceived their programs to be more successful in procuring resources. However, a second categorical comparison found no statistically significant differences among administrators in their perception of system openness and community interaction. All administrators considered their environments cooperative, accepting, predictable, and stable.

Role-taking abilities of nursing education administrators and their perceived leadership effectiveness.

This article examines the relationship between role-taking abilities of nursing education administrators and their perceived leadership effectiveness as rated by their faculty. Thirty nursing education administrators and their respective faculty members (n = 176) participated in this cross-sectional survey study. All participants filled out a demographic questionnaire, nursing education administrators also filled out the Davis Interpersonal Reactivity Index, which measured their role-taking abilities, and faculty also filled out selected subscales of the Leadership Behavior Description Questionnaire-XII (LBDQ-XII), which measured their perception of their nursing education administrators' leadership effectiveness. Correlation coefficients were calculated for these data, and they were also subjected to multiple regression analysis. Initial analysis of the data indicated that 26 of the 30 administrators were perceived to be effective leaders. Statistical analysis determined that there was a significant positive relationship between the role-taking abilities of the nursing education administrators and the consideration subscale of the LBDQ-XII. Multiple regression analysis found that certain organizational variables--formalization, centralization, and job satisfaction--affected the perception of leadership effectiveness. Further analysis of these three organizational characteristics according to large and small organizations found inverse relationships between job satisfaction and the faculty's perception of formalization and centralization. The results of this study support role-taking abilities among nursing education administrators as a way of enhancing their leadership effectiveness.

A Study of the Functions of Continuing Nursing Education Administrators

A Study of the Functions of Continuing Nursing Education Administrators

Nursing education administrators: level of career development and mentoring.

The focus of this study was to analyze the influence of mentoring on the level of career development of nursing education administrators. Other variables that may influence the level of career development of nursing education administrators also were examined. These included early life influences, academic preparation, supporting factors, constraining factors, and career stage. Relationships among these variables are depicted in the conceptual Model of Career Development in Academic Administration. Survey research methods were used in this correlational, retrospective study. A questionnaire developed by the investigators was mailed to a randomly selected national sample of 600 nursing education administrators in National League for Nursing-accredited baccalaureate and higher degree programs. A response rate of 71 per cent yielded 427 completed questionnaires. Multiple regression techniques were used to examine the relationships between dependent variables and independent variables in the conceptual model. Nine variables explained 59 per cent of the variance in level of career development scores. This variance was explained by highest degree earned, number of years since completion of the highest degree, number of years as an academic administrator, the scholarly difficulty index, the work commitment index, mentoring relationships, number of months of nonemployment, number of children, and type of institution where highest degree was earned. Mentoring contributed significantly to the prediction of level of career development of nursing education administrators and therefore should be encouraged and fostered.

A Study of the Functions of Continuing Nursing Education Administrators

Research Abstracts

Nursing Education Administrators: Blocked Women

In spite of affirmative action legislation, career barriers still exist for women and minorities in higher education. Women deans of nursing are thwarted because they have fewer opportunities to develop appropriate experiences and talents necessary for promotion to university-wide positions of leadership. This article discusses some of the factors which contribute to the blocked career paths of nursing education administrators.

A Delphi application health care, practice, education and education administration; circa 1992.

AbstractExploration of the future is an essential component of effective long‐range planning. Navigating the change process is the anticipated object. The author used the Delphi technique to identify the probable future events in health care and in nursing practice, education, and education administration. Concomitant strategies required by nursing education administrators to manage future programs are identified.

Priorities for Nurse Training Act legislation: a national survey of nursing deans.

Abstract1984 represents a pivotal year for nursing and nursing education in part as a result of future legislation of the Nurse Training Act (NTA). In the face of lost federal funds secondary to the recession, and/or the current administration's attitude toward funding for higher education as well as a decreasing number of college‐age students, nursing must be prepared to launch a united effort to recapture lost funds and/or prevent future losses. This must be a deliberate, pragmatic, and well‐organized effort. It must be goal‐oriented, not merely reactive. To assess how nursing deans and/or chairpersons are planning to confront the financial and demographic realities of the1980s and 1990s a national survey was conducted among 227 nursing education administrators. These administrators responded to a four‐page questionnaire providing quantitative and qualitative data. Areas covered in the questionnaire included previous use of NTA funds, priorities for future nurse training legislation and funding, enrollment trends of undergraduate and graduate nursing students and lastly, master plans and future goals designed to cope with reduced federal funding. Categories that were most important in the establishment, maintenance, or expansion of their programs were capitation, graduate and undergraduate student assistance, and special projects. The respondents indicated that future priorities for nurse training funding would include direct student assistance, piogram and institutional support, and individual needs of specific schools and/or regions. The respondents claimed that over the last five years 30% of schools had experienced a decline in enrollment of undergraduates, and 27% had experienced a decline in graduate enrollment. Lost federal funds contributed to 74 % of the undergraduate decline and 74% of the graduate decline. Future goals and master plans designed to cope with reduced federal funding have been characterized as developmental programatic approaches and/or a combined developmental/programatic approach. However, a startling 16% of the total respondents did not indicate future plans or goals. This survey further indicated that the priorities of those surveyed have changed from program concerns to student concerns and that their assessed needs are dramatically different from those of the Reagan administration. Of the deans and/ or chairpersons surveyed, 74% indicated that they were generating creative plans to cope with lost federal funds.

Social Behavior and the Administrative Process

Perhaps the most vigorous movement in administration in recent years has been directed toward the development of a comprehensive theory capable of generating both hypotheses for guiding research and principles for guiding practice. Despite many specific advances in special areas, such as hospital administration, public administration, business administraton, and educational administration, there still is no general conceptual framework for systematizing and interrelating our knowledge within and among these areas. It is still impossible to speak of administration in terms that would be acceptable to, or for that matter even readily understandable by, students and practitioners in the several special fields. This failure to conceptualize administration on a general theoretical level has been a major obstacle to the development of administration as a rigorous discipline, and the elaboration of theory is accordingly receiving increased attention both in "research" and "applied" administrative settings. The purpose of the present paper is twofold: (a) to describe a socio-psychological theory of social behavior having broad application to the area of administration and (b) to illustrate the application of the theory to major issues in administration. The four major issues considered here are: the problem of institutional and individual conflict; the problem of staff effectiveness, efficiency, and satis-