Strategies used by experienced versus novice practice teachers to enact their role with community nurse students

SummaryThis study offers an original analysis of how community nurse practice teachers learn to enact their role. A constructivist grounded theory approach was applied to a study of thirty community nurse practice teachers. Practice teachers were interviewed using a lightly structured interview approach following ethical approval. The study found that practice teachers considered relationships and nurturance to be of central importance. This led to emphasis being placed on providing experience for students and formative assessment. A number of key differences between the way novice and experienced practice teachers saw themselves functioning were discovered. These differences were theorised to explain the finding that novice practice teachers were much more likely to identify students as experiencing major difficulties than experienced practice teachers. It was discovered that practice teachers learn to enact their role within a socio-cultural context drawing upon a transformation approach to learning. This approach becomes firmly established over a period of approximately three years and is at odds with the current emphasis on competency based transmission models of learning.