AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF CLINICAL INSTRUCTION IN ASSOCIATE DEGREE PSYCHIATRIC NURSING EDUCATION.
Contributors: Virginia Commonwealth University.
Published: 1987
Number of pages: 197
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purpose of this ethnographic study was to describe and analyze how three instructors from two southeastern associate degree nursing programs instructed in seven psychiatric clinical locations.

Data were collected for 19 weeks using field notes, clinical documents, and informal and formal interviews. Summary observations, which were the first step in organizing and reducing the massive flow of data, were written at the conclusion of each observation day in the field. Constant comparison, an inductive data analysis method, was used to analyze data. Triangulation was used to ensure validity and reliability.

Three simultaneous, interrelated processes of clinical instruction were identified. These processes were instructional strategies, interpersonal relationships, and instructional group management. Each process had three phases which were called orientation, working, and termination. Influences on the three processes were student fears, student variety, the curriculum, and the nature of clinical locations. Essentially, clinical instruction in associate degree psychiatric nursing education was seen as a complex event that merits additional study. A major recommendation is for researchers to conduct more ethnographic studies of all three processes.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-02, Section: B, page: 0363.

Thesis (PH.D.)--VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY, 1987.

School code: 2383.