Nurse education in English universities in a period of change : Expectations of nurse academics for the year 2008
- Authors: Deans, Cecil , Congdon, Graham , Sellers, Eileen
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Nurse Education Today Vol. 23, no. 2 (2003), p. 146-154
- Full Text: false
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- Description: In England, the education of nurses in the academic arena has a relatively short history arguably representing recent advancement of the nursing discipline. Until we undertook this study, however, expectations for the next decade were unknown. The current investigation replicates a similar study of Australian nurse academics (Sellers & Deans 1996) which found discrepancies between how nurse academics perceived the future development of the profession, compared to how they actually expected it to develop. In order to provide information concerning the future of nursing education in England and related professional and social factors, a random sample of nurse academics was surveyed. Findings indicate that although advances have been made, there are a number of concerns regarding the development of nursing as a discipline. These include parity of status with other academic areas, resource issues, the workload of nurse academics and the perception that there is lack of cohesiveness amongst nurses as a professional group. Findings in this study closely mirror results in the Australian study indicating similarities in how the nursing profession copes with the transition from a predominantly hospital based education program to a program grounded in academic institutions. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000385
Quality of life in the workplace : Spirituality, meaning and purpose
- Authors: Fisher, John , Sellers, Eileen
- Date: 2000
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Conference on Spirituality, Leadership and Management, Mt Helen : Victoria 1st - 4th December 2000
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- Description: This paper reports on research which aimed to investigate relationships between meaning and purpose in life and workplace expectations. It provides an overview of the methodology and outcomes of a survey conducted at a regional university. Survey methods included the distribution of two valid and reliable instruments to all employees of that university with data analysed using SPSS procedures. Analysis of the Spiritual Health and Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM), developed by the principal researcher, and a purpose-designed questionnaire pertaining to meaning and purpose in the workplace, provided interesting findings. Overall, participants classified as administrators, professionals, service workers or labourers reported that they feel good about themselves and their relationships with others and the environment. The relationship with a god-type figure was of lesser importance for the spiritual well-being of the majority of participants. The participants do not expect the workplace to provide a major role in their spiritual well-being. They also reported significantly high levels of feelings of turbulence at work, and trends toward high anxiety and discomfort with autocratic managerial practices characterised by a focus on profits over people. The female staff described the workplace as more friendly, warm and caring than the males. The females also reported greater work satisfaction and were less depressed in doing their job than the males. Interpretation of these results indicates that a somewhat anxious and turbulent work place environment prevails. The personal impact of this unrest appears to be mediated by the support of families and friends of employees. The notion that workplace feelings which are negative (eg., anxiety) emanate from administrative practices, while those which are positive are a function of collegial behaviours, merits further exploration.
Images of a new sub-culture in the Australian university : Perceptions of non-nurse academics of the discipline of nursing
- Authors: Sellers, Eileen
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Higher Education Vol. 43, no. 2 (2002), p. 157-172
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- Description: It is crucial to the development and credibility of the nursing profession that its knowledge base be recognised as legitimate scholarly endeavour by established members of academia. For that reason, this report concerns examination of the attitudes and values of a group of non-nurse academics employed in universities in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and the degree to which they view nursing as an epistemic entity. Perceptions are considered within the dual contexts of recent major changes in nursing education and in academia. Naturalistic Inquiry, informed by a hermeneutic attitude, is employed as a heuristic to examine the sub-culture of nursing within the broad culture of academia. Analysis of extensive interview data provided by the contemplation of study participants provides emergent themes. Several metaphors are chosen to explicate the findings that nursing is largely perceived to be nebulous, atheoretical, and subservient to the medical profession, Implications are discussed and recommendations are made with the view to encourage modernisation of the university through improving internal communication and challenging traditional models of operations within the tertiary sector.