Nurse-Educators’ Self-Perceptions in a Bsn Programme in Malawi: A Mixed-Methods Study

Abstract

Introduction. Nurse educators’ self-perceptions efficacy of their teaching is key to promoting learning experiences among students. Thus, nurse educators must be mindful of how their teaching tasks bring about change or transformation to their students’ pre-existing knowledge base.Objectives:  Examine nurse educators’ perspectives of the processes, tools, strategies and approaches of the learning experiences among   graduate nurses.Methods.  Sequential mixed method design was instrumental in guiding the formulation of interview questions from the quantitative data thus, the data with significance to the nurse educators’ perceptions guided the conduct of in-depth interviews. A sample of ten nurse educators utilizing purposive sampling participated interviews.   Content analysis was used for analysing data to generate themes. Narratives generated a rich source of information about the nurse educators’ perceptions of and attitudes towards teaching and learning experiences. Results. The educators’ self- perceptions comprised five constitutive themes of ‘educators’ teaching styles,’ ‘teaching them to think,’ ‘resources for teaching,’ ‘student learning environment,’ and ‘strategies for improving learning to practice.Discussion.  The results report the teacher-centred approach was advanced where educators’ preferred teaching   methods that depended on students’ numbers in class, teaching content, and the scheduled time for teaching. This is because educators believed that student learning during classroom teaching was an educator’s responsibility, and thus chose teacher-centred approaches. Teacher-centred approaches are less effective in creating opportunities for learners to reflect and become self-directed in practice.Conclusion. Teacher-centred approaches were dominant in the teaching approaches of the nurses’ educators this could have impacted on learning outcomes.

Keywords: Nurse-Educators, Self-Perceptions, Learning experiences, undergraduate nursing Programme, Self-directed learning