FACULTY DEVELOPMENT FOR AUSTRALIAN TERTIARY NURSING: PERCEPTIONS OF HEADS OF NURSING PROGRAMS.
Contributors: University of Rochester.
Published: 1987
Number of pages: 238
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Education, Higher.
Description: This study considered the perceptions that heads of tertiary education nursing programs in Australia had of their faculty's development needs. The recent, rapid movement of nursing education programs from hospitals into Colleges of Advanced Education, Institutes of Technology and, to a lesser degree, Universities in the tertiary education sector in Australia, raises a serious problem concerning the availability of adequately prepared faculty. Faculty development must become a priority if nursing education is to be effective in the tertiary setting.

The study focused attention on issues considered to be of importance for tertiary nursing faculty development in Australia for the late 1980's and the 1990's. These were: the role of socialization, both pre- and post-academic appointment; role delineation and development; and career development. As tertiary nursing faculty are predominantly women, the effects of gender on nursing faculty development were also considered. These issues, together with the Bergquist and Phillips (1977, 1981) faculty development model, with its personal, organizational, instructional and community development dimensions, provided the conceptual framework for the study.

Subjects of the study were 26 (83.4%) heads of currently existing tertiary nursing programs throughout Australia. A survey questionnaire was developed seeking demographic information and general attitudes towards faculty development in addition to the specific issues related to nursing faculty development.

The questionnaire also required heads of nursing programs to rank order their priorities for their own faculty, of faculty development goals, and faculty development activities in the personal, organizational, instructional and community development dimensions.

The results of this study indicate that heads of nursing programs confirmed the importance of socialization and faculty role delineation and development, but accorded much less importance to career planning and development, and gender. The study also provided important perspectives on issues and priorities in nursing faculty development in Australia. These perspectives, and some from the literature, were used in the formulation of proposals and recommendations for nursing faculty development in the tertiary education setting.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-06, Section: B, page: 1643.

Thesis (ED.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER, 1987.

School code: 0188.