Strategies to Improve Nurse Educator-Student Nurse Neophyte Interaction in the Classroom Setting

The transition from secondary school to nursing school, college or university can be dramatic experience for student-nurse neophytes. Literature supports the premise that student nurses experience the most difficult adaptation problems during their first year of study, and require much support from teachers in the classroom setting. The first initial encounter in nursing education that occurs during nurse-educator – student-nurse interaction in the classroom setting has a long and lasting impact on the student’s life. This classroom interaction should be positive enough to enable nurse-educators to impart knowledge and skills to students and for students to achieve the learning outcomes.

The purpose of the study was to describe strategies that contribute to nurse–educator - student-nurse neophyte interaction in the classroom setting. This study was designed as a qualitative descriptive research project. The population used consisted of student-nurses and nurse-educators at the University of Venda. A representative sample of 25 student-nurse neophytes was randomly selected and interviewed using focus group interviews. Three nurse-educators responsible for teaching these students were purposively selected and interviewed using in-depth interviews.

 Transcriptions were made in the form of written notes from the audiotape. Data were coded and categorised to assist in the recognition of collected data.

The findings of the study revealed that nurse-educator - student-nurse neophyte interaction in the classroom results from good ethical and emotional behaviour displayed by both nurse-educators and students during interaction. The study further identified examples of inappropriate behaviour that affect interaction negatively and results in students failing and dropping out from their studies. The views of participants and the literature consulted assisted the researcher to outline strategies that can improve interaction in the classroom setting with regard to environment, attitude, behaviour and also teaching strategies.