In light of its relative economic prosperity and subsequent attainment of upper middle-income country status Botswana has attracted nurse educators and students from other African countries. Within this cross-cultural environment anti-immigrant sentiments have catalysed incidences of incivility and xenophobia among nurse educators with adverse effects on both the quality of learning outcomes and the integrity of the profession.
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to highlight the intervention strategies used to mitigate the causes and consequences of incivility and xenophobia among nurse educators with a view to promote greater professionalism.
Method
The study employs a mixed method cross-sectional analytical framework. Nurse educators in the four institutes of health sciences were surveyed for acts of incivility and xenophobia. SPSS 25.0 was used to analyse the data. Bunard (2001) approach of contact analysis was used for transcribed audio-taped interviews.
Results
A total of 108 nurse educators responded to the survey and 10 nurse educators were interviewed. Incivility and xenophobic traits among nurse educators are shown to be associated with lower job satisfaction and educator performance which adversely bears on learning outcomes and potentially impedes the quality of both teaching and overall academic standards and peer-to-peer interactions.
Conclusions
Guidelines to mitigate incivility and xenophobia are key to promoting greater understanding and collaboration among nurse educators and promote an environment of professional excellence. This in turn enhances cohesiveness in the workplace. To this end, stringent processes and procedures to curb intolerance are seen as important to creating a conducive environment and consequently uphold the nursing code and related values.
Recommendations
The following recommendations were made from the study findings: (1) it is recommended that the guidelines developed should be shared with relevant stakeholders. (2)The developed guidelines should form part of the orientation program for new employees. This would allow employees to understand that incivility and xenophobia do not have a place among nurse educators and this would in turn promote a civil atmosphere in the workplace. (3) Lastly, the study recommends that similar workshops be conducted yearly.