Experiences of newly employed nurse educators at a Nursing College in Gauteng

M.Cur.Abstract: The newly employed nurse educator needs to be welcomed, supported, and acknowledged in the new workplace to gain a sense of belonging and to function effectively. New employees experience anxiety and frustration due to uncertainties that accompany being in a new environment where there are high expectations. Newly employed nurse educators experience role ambiguity and role complexities regarding the new work. Newly employed nurse educators fear asking senior nurse educators about work issues because they are afraid of being regarded as incompetent educators. Therefore, newly employed nurse educators need to be supported and guided regarding teaching, learning, and assessment of students. To ensure that new employees function effectively, more time needs to be spent with them to make them feel welcome in their new environment. The purpose of the study is to describe the experiences of newly employed nurse educators in order to describe recommendations to assist newly employed nurse educators to function effectively at a nursing college in Gauteng. The research design is qualitative, explorative, descriptive, and contextual in nature. A non-probability purposive sampling method was used to select a sample. Data saturation was reached at the 20th newly employed nurse educator, and data was collected through individual, semi-structured interviews. The design is appropriate for an in-depth exploration of the lived experiences of newly employed nurse educators at a nursing college in Gauteng. A qualitative, open-coding, data analysis method was used. To ensure trustworthiness of the study, the researcher used Lincoln and Guba’s four criteria and strategies of establishing the trustworthiness of qualitative data, namely credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability. Ethical considerations were adhered to in accordance with Burns and Grove (2009:188 &199). Two main themes and sub-themes emerged as follows: (1) Ineffective management practices demonstrated by poor orientation, poor mentoring, insufficient human resources and materials, poor communication skills, and a lack of team work; and (2) Inappropriate professional behaviour as seen by negative attitudes, values, and workplace bullying..