GUIDELINES FOR THE PREPARATION OF NURSE EDUCATORS OR HEALTH PROFESSIONAL EDUCATORS
Abstract
The move of nursing education to higher education is regarded as one of the most transformative achievements in nursing in South Africa. In South Africa, as in countries across the globe, nursing is faced with human resource challenges. Such challenges are not limited to nurse shortages but to a shortage of nurse educators which is anticipated to be further impacted by the high number of nurse educators who are close to retirement. The shortage of nurses in the country therefore necessitated an increase in the recruitment of potential nurses, and a concomitant increase in the number of nurse educators to prepare these nurses. A team elected by the Forum for University Nursing Deans in South Africa (FUNDISA) was tasked firstly to explore the relevance and quality of the preparation of nurse educators before attending to the up-scaling of production of nurse educators.The task team conducted a survey amongst newly-qualified educators, heads of Nursing Education Institutions (NEIs) employing newly-qualified educators, and heads of nursing schools in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) which prepare nurse educators. A workshop was also conducted at a FUNDISA business meeting to analyse current nursing education programmes within HEIs. Many gaps were identified across the nursing education programmes offered and recommendations for improvement were made by participants. The Task Team then met to develop guidelines for educators of health professionals based on the survey and workshop input.The guidelines developed by the task team include requirements for entry to the programme; the prescribed body of knowledge for health professional education including theoretical foundation of Health Professional Education, curriculum development, didactics, clinical teaching and learning, management of health professional education and the history and contemporary issues related to nursing education; practical requirements; level descriptors and a range competencies.References
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