A mental health approach to assist nurse educators in coping with change

D.Cur.Nurse educators have a multifaceted and ambiguous professional as well as personal role. They teach nursing theory, accompany student nurses in the clinical area and are expected to carry out research. Very few — in the nursing colleges — are actually involved in scientific study and relate this to unavailability of resources like sponsorship and time, to support such efforts. Added to this is their personal role as spouse or partner, as parent, as significant other and as friend. Faced with the challenges of the change from curative to the primary health care approach to health services delivery, and according to provincial legislation, the restructuring and rationalisation of health services, induding rationalisation of nursing colleges, the nurse educator is negatively affected by these changes and gets stressed. As a result of the complex and changing social, economic and political dimate, these challenges pose a threat to the nurse educator, who perceived herself as being unable to cope. Change occurs continuously in nursing, and therefore in nursing education, because of the dynamic health care system. Change, for better or for worse, can be stressful. It puts big demands on a person's ability to cope. The nurse educator in this changed climate, being unable to cope, gets stressed, and if any stressful situation is allowed to progress to distress, the health — mental, physical and spiritual — of the nurse educator might be adversely affected. Supporting the nurse educator to cope with this change may help her to accept the dynamic changes taking place around her. Learning to cope will not only give nurse educators control over their lives and well-being, but would leave them free to concentrate on helping themselves and others and teaching student nurses. The purpose of this research was to generate and describe a support approach and to describe guidelines to operationalise the support approach, for the psychiatric nursing clinical specialist to utilise for the nurse educator who is working in a nursing college that is earmarked for rationalisation, in order to promote, maintain and restore mental health as an integral part of health. Based on the above discussion, the following questions were addressed in this research: How do nurse educators experience life in all its dimensions? What support do they think they should receive? What approach can be described to support the nurse educator? What guidelines can be described to operationalise the support approach? A qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual research design was followed. The research was conducted in four phases with a pilot study preceding the first phase of the research. In phase one, phenomenological interviews were conducted with seven nurse educators to explore their experience of life in all its dimensions. Data was analysed according to Tesch's method. Based on the results of analysed data, fear and uncertainty, anger and hope/hopefulness were the identified themes. In phase two, focus group discussions were held with the same group of nurse educators to explore their views on what could be done to support them. Selfmanagement, justice and fairness and enrichment were the identified themes. In phase three themes from phase one and phase two were utilised to form a bridge, leading to the description of an approach to support nurse educators. Phase four dealt with the description of guidelines to operationalise the support approach. Recommendations and limitations of the research were also discussed