CLINICAL NURSE EDUCATORS AND THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF THE GRADE APPEAL PROCESS.
Contributors: Georgia State University.
Published: 1993
Number of pages: 162
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The live experience of the grade appeal process is frequently a profoundly negative one for clinical nurse educators. The purpose of this study was to generate a detailed description and phenomenologic analysis of the clinical nurse educator's lived experience of the grade appeal process. My goal in this research endeavor was the understanding of the uniquely personal meaning that this experience holds for the clinical nurse educator.

The participants in this study were 13 female clinical nurse educators who taught in both associate and baccalaureate degree programs in six schools of nursing located in the metropolitan area of a large southeastern city. The research methodology was qualitative and phenomenologic in nature utilizing an indepth unstructured formal interview as the method of data collection. The participants were asked to respond to the following questions: (1) Could you tell me what it was like for you during the grade appeal process? (2) Has this experience affected you as an educator; and if so, how? (3) Has this experience influenced the way in which you interact with students; and if so, how? (4) Could you tell me anything that you believe could have made this experience easier for you?.

Responses to the questions were analyzed utilizing a synthesis of the phenomenologic methodologies described by Colaizzi (1978), van Manen (1990) and the constant comparative technique described by Glaser and Strauss (1967). The analysis revealed that the lived experience of the grade appeal process was comprised of three interwoven stages of nursing education including the clinical failure of students, the grade appeal procedure itself, and the resolution of the experience by the clinical nurse educator. Within each of these stages and the overall grade appeal process itself there existed 10 interconnected experiential themes and one pattern. These themes included teaching versus evaluation, support, feelings evoked, self-blame/self-doubt, protecting the public, intuition, feeling consumed, communication, documentation, and relationships. The pattern that emerged was change. Several recommendations concerning the grade appeal process and for related future research are discussed.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-05, Section: B, page: 2438.

Thesis (PH.D.)--GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY, 1993.

School code: 0079.