Benefits of nurse teachers returning to clinical practice

An action research study developed to facilitate nurse teachers returning to clinical practice explores how the teachers established partnerships with clinicians through which they were able to share the experience of returning to an area of nursing that they had previously only visited.

Abstract

This article outlines an action research study developed to facilitate nurse teachers returning to clinical practice. The article explores how the teachers established partnerships with clinicians through which they were able to share the experience of returning to an area of nursing that they had previously only visited. It discusses four categories: expectations of self and others; entering someone else's world; more awareness of student needs; and teaching theory and practising nursing. These categories emerged following the analysis of journals, focus group interviews and individual interviews and led to a number of recommendations concerning the implications for other teachers wishing to return to clinical practice.