6.5.3 Learning and working: The conflict continues (69)

Debbie Roberts, Lecturer in Adult Nursing, School of Nursing, University of Salford, Manchester, United Kingdom d.roberts@salford.ac.uk

Abstract:

Background:

It has long been known that student nurses are caught in a sometimes conflicting bi-cultural world of learning and working (Melia 1984, 1987); this paper reports on one of the findings from a recent ethnographic study and demonstrates how the conflict continues to exist for the respondents in the study. The students contributed to the work of the ward but as they progressed throughout their education they became concerned about the nature of nursing as they were practising it.

Aims:

To describe the student experience of learning and working in clinical practice
To outline the conflict of being engaged in health care assistant work
To discuss the possible implications for nurse education

Method:

An ethnographic study of fifteen pre-registration nurses who were known to the investigator was conducted. Students consented to being observed in both clinical practice and the classroom and to tape recording of ethnographic conversations. Data were collected using non participant direct observation together with ethnographic interviewing throughout the three years of the programme (between 2003 and 2006).

Findings:

The students in the study struggled to find the nursing role because they tended to work alongside fellow students and unqualified staff (Health Care Assistants). The students observed the qualified nurses undertaking different work; work which as students they did not tend to engage in and this created conflict for them. The findings suggest the students perceived differences between qualified nurse work and health care assistant work, with student work tending to focus more heavily on the latter. As a result the students converged together to find the nursing role and saw each other as valuable learning resources. The implications for this in terms of nurse education are discussed.

Biography:

Debbie has been a lecturer in adult nursing since April 2000, and has recently submitted her PhD. Her research interests focus on nurse education and in particular on peer learning: the process of how students learn from each other.