Purpose:One current and long-term strategy utilized by schools of nursing to combat the faculty shortage is to hire Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) to fill clinical instructor roles. Considering the continuing faculty shortage, utilizing GTAs as clinical instructors is a viable and cost effective approach to meeting the clinical learning needs of students and supporting the current and future healthcare demand for professional nurses. Clinical instructors face complex situations requiring evidenced based educational and evaluation strategies. Without foundational nurse educator knowledge, skills, and collegial support, clinical instructors experience increased stress, isolation, and role dissatisfaction (Evans, 2013) Without ongoing mentoring that accentuates timely communication, coaching, and collaboration, GTAs face a risk of exacerbated stress, frustration, and isolation that impacts their success in the clinical instructor role and has a direct impact on student learning outcomes (Helms-Lorenz & Maulana, 2016).
Method:Recognizing the need to increase the use of GTAs to meet its strategic initiatives and enrollment benchmarks, a Midwestern school of nursing developed and implemented a formal Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) Mentoring program. The project goals focused on increasing the GTAs’ teaching self-efficacy, knowledge, and skills, as well as student satisfaction with the GTAs’ teaching abilities.
Participants/Sample: Six GTAs with no prior clinical teaching experience, and one with one year of experience participated in the project. They provided clinical instruction to 77 students representing 17% of the undergraduate student population; these 77 students included sophomore, junior, and senior levels. Project implementation was efficient, effective, and time sensitive to the confounding work demands of GTAs. Mentor support to GTAs was provided by the project director, who is also serves as the Director of the Undergraduate Program.
The GTA Mentoring Program components were:
Online Clinical Teaching Educational Modules: To assist the GTA participants in developing their clinical teaching knowledge and skills an online educational program was designed by the mentor/program director, and reviewed by three clinical faculty colleagues within the school of nursing. The online education modules were developed based on nurse educator best practices, and guided by the National League of Nursing (NLN) nurse educator core competencies (NLN, 2014).
Module One: Foundations of Effective Clinical Teaching: Preparation and Strategies
Module Two: Teaching Strategies to Foster Student Clinical Reasoning and Critical
Thinking
Module Three: Effective Student Assessment and Evaluation: Maximizing Student Success.
The Institutional Review Board reviewed this protocol and deemed it an exempted study. GTA participants were required to review learning modules materials, participate in self reflection discussions, and complete a post-test and program evaluation to receive continuing nursing education (CNE) credit hours. As an incentive for participating in the project, all seven participating GTAs completing the online modules and discussion participation earned a CNE certificate of completion.
Face-to-Face Coaching:Face to face discussions were conducted on a regular basis and when immediate clinical teaching support was required “Just in Time” coaching was achieved through digital texting
Scheduled Email Communication:To support ongoing collaboration and communication bi-monthly touch point emails were sent to GTAs in which clinical teaching tips and school of nursing updates were imbedded. This method of communication provided regular and planned opportunities for collaboration, discussion, and coaching and was delivered by the project director who serves as the Director of Undergraduate Programs at the School of Nursing.
Data Collection/Analysis:To determine project outcomes and impact, a mixed methods, pre- and post-intervention study design was used to determine if there was an increase in GTAs’ teaching self-efficacy, clinical teaching knowledge, skills, and student satisfaction of their clinical teaching experience. Self Efficacy Towards Teaching Inventory surveys were modified and adapted with permission from original authors and disturbed online to GTAs and students pre- and post-program implementation (Nugent, Bradshaw, & Kito, 1999).
For this quantitative analysis traditional statistical methods (e.g., paired t-tests) are being used to identify student and GTA perspectives and compare differences pre- and post-program implementation. Qualitative data was derived from in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted with GTAs before and after all planned mentoring program components were completed. Thematic content analysis by two independent coders is being conducted on the qualitative responses (Elo, et al., 2014; DeSantis & Ugarriza, 2000;). Quantitative findings and identified themes will guide future development, modification, standardization, and expansion of the mentoring project to meet the current and future GTA mentoring needs. Data collection is complete and data analysis is underway.