NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: North Slave Region

Tags: social sciences, employment, nursing, workplace environment

Objective(s): To establish what nurse educators consider to be important elements in their work environment and to determine if these are experienced.

Project Description: Quality workplace environments are known to be a positive determinant in the recruitment and retention of nurse educators. This project is designed to establish what nurse educators consider to be important elements in their work environment and to determine if these are experienced. Initially, a pilot project was conducted whereby an instrument to measure a quality workplace environment was developed and then piloted. This proposal seeks to use this instrument in a study involving nurse educators in public post-secondary institutions in BC and NWT. A list of public post-secondary schools of nursing in BC and NWT will be obtained from the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing (CASN) website. A list of email addresses from each school of nursing will be developed from the school’s public website. Using individual email addresses, an invitation to participate in the survey will be sent to nurse educators by the Principal Investigator. The invitation will contain a description of the project and the URL link to the survey. Concurrent with the invitation to the nurse educators, an email will be sent to Deans/Directors to inform them about the project and request their support by encouraging nurse educators to respond to the survey. Fourteen days after the invitation to participate, a reminder will be sent and it will include the URL link to the survey. The survey will remain open for four weeks. Potential participants will include all nurse educators currently employed in public post-secondary schools of nursing in BC and NWT. This will include nurse educators teaching in programs ranging from Health Care Assistant certificate to Doctoral programs. This proposal is Phase 1 of a Canada-wide survey of Quality Workplace Environments for Nurse Educators, beginning with those in BC and NWT. There are no plans for feedback to individual participants but it is intended that the research results be disseminated through presentations and publications. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from March 16, 2011 to December 31, 2011.