Nurse Educator Scholarship & Qualitative Research

Abstract

Nurse educators have many roles and responsibilities in addition to teaching including service, clinical practice, and scholarship. One way a nurse educator can achieve scholarship is through qualitative research that can enrich the nursing curriculum and education, empower the nurse educator, and improve patients' lives. To perform qualitative research, the nurse educator must understand the ethical considerations to reduce harm to participants, the importance of informed consent, and the necessity of confidentiality and anonymity. This internship aimed to understand the importance of scholarship for the nurse educator and how qualitative research can address the role through first-hand experiences of scholarship. The Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) student learned the role of focus group facilitator and conducted focus groups for data collection and transcription. The setting of this internship took place on campus at a public university. The preceptor and advisor were both university faculty. Graded course activities included a project proposal reflection, literature review, final paper, and presentation. Other experiences used for evaluation were completing the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) courses and obtaining certification, conducting focus groups as a facilitator, collecting audio data, and transcribing data. Other activities that were experienced included attending a virtual nurse educator conference and the opportunity to explore the use of thematic analysis procedures for qualitative data. Nurse educators have an obligation to perform scholarship in their careers in the form of grant funding, dissemination, clinical practice, or research. Even though qualitative research can be a very time-consuming, intensive endeavor, it is still necessary to be performed to make advances and inform academia and the nursing community.