(Re)Production of community nursing - The journey of professional socialisation: A grounded theory study of community nurse practice teachers

Abstract

This study explored how community nurse practice teachers understand their experiences with the aim of illuminating the concept of practice teaching in community nurse education and gaining an insight into what it is like to be a community nurse practice teacher. The study also explored the understandings community nurse practice teachers have of their own development as educators of community nursing students. This study is timely as no previous research has undertaken an in-depth qualitative study with community nurse practice teachers, thus narratives do not exist of what it feels like to be a practice teacher. No studies have explored how such practitioners develop their role and how this development impacts on community nurse students. The study took a constructivist grounded theory approach to explain the social processes involved in the professional development of community nurse students and practice teachers. Semi-structured interviews with thirty community nurse practice teachers resulted in interview data which was explored and interpreted for emerging categories. Analysis was informed by a theoretical framework developed within situated learning and community of practice literature (Brown et al. 1988, Lave and Wenger 199 1). Tension between a grounded theory approach and use of an existing theoretical framework was reconciled through the application of the concept of 'emergent fit' (Glaser 1978). The findings from this research were analysed to develop a substantive theory of practice teaching in community nursing settings, in doing so this study discovered the underlying social process involved in community nurse and practice teacher professional development, a discovery which has implications for practice and education related to community nursing education. This study identified that the primary focus is on identity transformation with the change seen to take the form of a journey. The ultimate aim is to create new members of the community nursing profession and develop existing members to become skilled in creating new members. The outcome of the process is the professional (re)production of community nurses and community nursing communities of practice.