Chapter 7 Findings Context Role Identity Change Nursing Teaching Clinical Practice Communities of Practice Small Stories Summary 72 72 79 85 89 92 94 96 99 102 105 Chapter 8 Discussion Identity within a Constructionist Paradigm Identity Theory and Social Identity Theory Concepts of Professional/Academic Identity Formation Communities of Practice Summary 107 107 110 117 121 123 Chapter 9 Conclusion Limitations Recommendations 126 127 128 References 129 Appendices Appendix 1: Interview schedule Appendix 2: Email correspondence with Heads of School/Department and Participants Appendix 3: Participant information leaflet, consent form and survey Appendix 4: Ethical review and approval Appendix 5: List of themes and sub-themes 142 145 146 153 154
Chapter 1 Introduction There have been significant changes in nursing, nurse education and higher education in Ireland in recent years. The Commission on Nursing (Government of Ireland 1998) heralded the introduction of new clinical practice roles for nurses in clinical practice, including the creation of clinical nurse specialist and advanced nurse practitioner roles. In addition, the Commission recommended that pre-registration nurse education move to a four year honours degree programme in the higher education setting from 2002. More recently the National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030 (Department of Education and Skills 2011) was published which articulates a clear vision for higher education in Ireland. Prior to 2002 all undergraduate nurse education in Ireland was located in hospital-based Schools of Nursing. Nurse tutors facilitated student learning both in the classroom setting and clinical area. In 2002, nurse tutors had the opportunity to transfer from Schools of Nursing to the higher education setting. Thirteen Schools/Departments of Nursing were created throughout Ireland in both universities and institutes of technology. In 2002 I transferred as a nurse tutor to a School of Nursing in a large university. Up to that point I had identified myself as a competent critical care practitioner and educationalist. Whilst I was involved in critical care nurse education in the university I began to question my professional identity as I felt that the focus was on teaching and research rather than clinical practice. Many of my colleagues embraced their new roles and did not appear to question their professional identity in the higher education setting. As a result of my experience I developed an interest in professional identity formation, particularly in relation to nurse lecturers in the higher education setting. More detail is provided on research positionality in Chapter 5. The aim of this research study is to explore, using an experienced-centred narrative research approach, the professional identity of nurse lecturers in the Irish higher based
technology describe their department’s culture as ‘strong’ and ‘highly respected’ in the organisation. IOTFG1P1: ‘Well I think our department and culture is very different and I think we set our own culture here and I think we are a very strong culture. I know that as a department we are actually quite highly respected within the college…’ In contrast, despite having a ‘strong’ culture one participant describes how their school of nursing in a university is not perceived to be as culturally strong as other disciplines in the organisation. UIND5: ‘…we would be perceived to be culturally very strong ourselves, even in the wider university, I still feel the culture and probably because we’re still, as I say, quite new, we still have relatively, in the research arena, we’re not bringing in the big money so actually perceived again, I don’t mean second class citizens but that we’re not perceived as strong…’ Collegiality is identified by participants as a very important element in maintaining a positive culture within schools/departments. UFG2P4: ‘…you have to have a culture behind the scenes of what I eluded to before this kind of collegiality and we need to be very, very careful to hold on to that…talk to one another, respect one another, encourage one another…’ IOTND2: ‘Well, to be fair, the lecturers here are very supportive of each other in the main’. However in some instances conflict and stress may arise when some staff members do not engage in any additional work or activities outside their scheduled teaching hours. IOTIND1: ‘…you will have staff who point blank refuse to be involved in any group of any nature and you will have people then and groups who are very happy to get involved in extra, you know, because its additional, it is extra and it’s a source of conflict and it’s a source of, I suppose, stress and would I say unhappiness?’ A common theme for both universities and institutes of technology is the positive light in which participants feel their schools/departments are perceived within their institutions.
Participants find it difficult to articulate a single professional identity as evidenced by the descriptions of themselves as nurses, teachers, lecturers, educators and motivators. They describe how nurse educators and third level nurse education are perceived by their clinical colleagues and the general public. In addition, they also describe the factors which may influence participant’s professional identities. The concept of ‘more than a nurse’ is also explored. The majority of participants in this study identify themselves as educators or lecturers. UIND7: ‘Primarily I’d be an educator…’ UIND4: ‘I see myself as an educator…’ IOTFG1P5: ‘I’m a lecturer and I am a lecturer in the nursing department’. UFG2P2: ‘I would actually say I am a lecturer…’ UIND8: ‘Like I say, I’m a lecturer’. One participant is quite specific about her identity. IOTIND6: ‘I say nurse lecturer’. Others definitively identify themselves as nurses. UFG2P1: ‘Yeah, I would say I am a nurse…’ UIND3: ‘I would consider myself first and foremost a nurse’. Some participants identify themselves as teachers. IOTFG1P4: ‘I would say that I teach first of all…’ UIND7: ‘Yeah, I say I teach nursing…’ IOTFG1P3: ‘I tell them that I teach nursing in the college…’ Another participant identifies herself as a ‘motivator’. IOTIND2: ‘I suppose I’ll use a word that many people say to me about myself, it’s that I’d be, you know, I’d be a motivator for them, for the student’.
nurses sometimes in quite negative terms. This will be explored further in the theme which focuses on clinical practice. Participants also describe how they are perceived by their colleagues in clinical practice. UIND5: ‘…it matters to our identity to other people, but how I articulate or portray myself and I often look at medical colleagues, you know, and in particular medical colleagues will not have a clue…they don’t know what we do…’ UIND7: ‘I think they think that we work in this really protected environment with very little pressure…’ It appears from the participant’s narratives that some of the general public are not aware that nurse education has moved into higher education. UIND5: ‘…but then it’s like almost you have to explain how could you be teaching nurses in a university because people still perceive it, a lot of people perceive it to be very ward-based, hospital-based…’ UIND7: “And they say, ‘isn’t that something that should be done in the hospital?’ And I say, ‘yeah, but you know it’s changed to a degree?’ and a lot of people don’t know that”. In addition, some participant’s suggest that the public perception and indeed some nurse’s perceptions are that nurse education should not be in higher education. UFG2P3: ‘…why on earth would nurses need to go to university never mind why would you need to lecture in nursing…’ UFG2P1: ‘I think there is the belief that the old system was better and I think a lot of that belief comes from ourselves as a profession for nurses’. This perception of nurse education in higher education may provide a rationale why some participants feel that they have to defend their role, as previously discussed in the ‘role’ theme. An interesting sub-theme ‘more than a nurse’ emerged from the narratives during discussions on identity. It appears that some participants are considered ‘more than a nurse’, by their colleagues and family and friends, due to their academic achievements and role in higher education.
Change Change is a constant theme in the narratives from the focus group and individual interviews. The change relates not only to the higher education setting but also to the participants roles and personal lives. Participants also describe how changes in society and health care affect their role as nurse lecturers. Participants describe the constant change within their schools/departments. UFG2P4: ‘…when I think of the school I mean the thing that I feel that runs through it is constant change…no such thing as a steady stage and we are not going to get there. So I think it is characterised by this theme of constant change’. UFG2P3: ‘We are changing, changing, changing for the sake of change…’ IOTIND6: ‘Yes, it would be impossible to remain the same’. The constant change is a source of stress for some participants. UIND7: ‘We’re constantly changing. Nothing stays the same from year to year and it’s really stressful’. UFG2P3: ‘I don’t know whether those people are exhausted after ten years of constant, constant renegotiation and constant change…’ In addition to change in their schools/departments participants are also very aware of the changes facing their organisations. Participants from the institutes of technology sector focus on their institutions bids for Technological University (TU) status IOTFG1P3: ‘…we are on the path to and our goal is to become a university…’ IOTIND1: ‘…there’s that research pressure and that’s going to be more and more now as we’re going for that TU bid…’ Participants from the university sector describe the change in structures within their organisations. UIND4: ‘For example, over the last five or six years, even less, the university structures have changed so much that it’s hard to know what meeting to attend…’
theory, Solveig Fagermoen’s (1997) concept of professional identity formation within symbolic interactionism, moral philosophy and work-sociology, Henkel’s (2000) and Bernstein’s (1971) concepts of professional/academic identity formation influenced by community and culture and Wengers’ (1998) Communities of Practice.
in that they provide an opportunity to meet with other academic staff and discuss issues common to all academic schools/departments. Participants describe difficulties in accessing communities of practice relating to research and those within the wider organisation. There is sense of exclusivity among some participants in relation to research communities of practice within their schools/departments. They describe how difficult it is to access these communities. UIND3: ‘Like one of those areas that causes me grief is that how do you get involved in doctoral supervision…to me is one of those communities of practice what is very difficult to crack because the goalposts keep changing and keeps changing to suit a particular conglomerate that you’re trying to constantly infiltrate’. In addition, participants describe how access to communities of practice in the wider organisation is controlled by the Head of School. Wenger (1998:149) identifies clear parallels between practice and identity. He describes them as identity as negotiated experience, community membership, learning trajectory, nexus of multi-membership and relation between the local and the global. As identity is formed through participation and reification it involves various competencies including how to engage with others (mutual engagement), understanding the enterprise to which participants are accountable (joint enterprise) and sharing resources (shared repertoire) (Wenger 1998:152). The multiple roles which participants describe and the constant change within their schools/departments appears to make it difficult for participants to engage in a meaningful way with others. This is very evident in the university sector where participants describe the existence of ‘plenty of committees’ and cultures of constant change. Despite the existence of committees participants are clear that they do not constitute communities of practice as they lack a ‘unified focus or unified purpose’. In addition, one participant warns: UFG2P4: ‘…you have to have a culture behind the scenes of what I alluded to before this kind of collegiality and we need to be very, very careful to hold on to that…talk to one another, respect one another, encourage one another…’
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