schedules, scheduled meetings, and other information pertinent to teaching their students.
Communication was viewed by participants as a form of support. In general, all believed that this lack of communication was due to the fact they are part-time and/or work at distant sites. Stephanie, who works at a main campus, expressed that lack of communication impacts student learning, and there needs to be an improvement in the communication. Stephanie commented,
There is a lack of communication with me from the full-time course instructors on what I should be teaching in clinicals that will assist students in applying the theory content from their classes. Improvement in communication with me needs to occur…that is the foundation for all student learning. Communication is so important...faculty in the nursing department need to communicate with each other more. The process needs improvement. For example with email, it is easy to miss someone. Working part-time is part of the cause for me not receiving the needed communication….I would be in the verbal communication loop if I was full-time and on campus more…Then there is the issue of time, how much time should part-timers be expected to review email when most of us have other jobs....Miscommunication impacts student learning due to lack of
consistencies. I also miss important faculty meetings on important information on teaching methods and changes pertaining to teaching students due to not hearing about them until they have already happened.
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Because of her lack of communication with course instructors, Stephanie believed she lacks knowledge about the theory being taught in the classroom and this is detrimental to student learning. As a result, she is unable to teach students how to apply the theory to patient care in the clinical setting. She felt that being part-time is a main cause of this lack of communication since she is not as visible to other instructors, missed on emails;
and she lacked time to review any emails due to other job commitments.
Similar to Stephanie, Ashley commented, “Sometimes I feel all alone out here and do not see the other faculty and miss communication about changes I need to know for teaching my students because I am part-time. I teach in the same town as the campus.
Communication needs to improve.” Likewise, Sarah stated, “Since I am part-time I do not always receive the updates I need. So, I miss out on communication that is
important.” Overall, these participants expressed feelings of isolation even though they teach in close proximity to the main college campus. They believed that being part-time was one of the main reasons for not receiving important information from other faculty related to their roles and responsibilities as clinical instructors.
Elizabeth, Emily, and Cathy reported feeling isolated and perceived a lack of communication because they are part-time and located at distant sites, rather than on main campuses. They expressed the need for increased communication from other faculty on such items as curriculum changes, course schedules, clinical paperwork, and other changes related to teaching their students, and the lack of communication
negatively impacts student learning. For example, Elizabeth stated,
Communication is very poor from the main campus and nursing department.
….a lot of times I feel like I am working alone out here….sometimes I do not
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even know what to ask about and what communication I am missing….I am definitely out of the loop with communication from the main campus on important changes…Sometimes I find out about changes after they have occurred, such as when we recently changed a clinical documentation form
….I think the students sense this also and feel forgotten by the main campus.
I feel it does affect their learning.
Elizabeth expressed feelings of isolation due to her location at a distant site and lacked knowledge on questions to ask. Another concern she had was that students sensed this lack of communication, and as a result students’ learning may be negatively impacted.
Cathy, similar to Elizabeth, also felt isolated and that there lacked communication with her main college campus and nursing program. Cathy commented,
I don’t have a sense of belonging either. I think it is because I am part-time and work at a distant site. I miss a lot of communication on important changes….
The communication needs to be better. They forget to tell or email me about important changes. Then it is an “emergency” such as what happened recently with the spring book list. I received the list to share with my students at the beginning of the semester….I just need more communication in a timely manner.
All that needs to be done is just send me an email. Is that too hard to do?
Student learning can be impacted!
Cathy described her feelings as lacking a sense of belonging to the main college campus due to the lack of communication from the main campus. E-mail was mentioned by her as a valuable method to communicate changes with her and needs to be used. However,
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when there appears to be an “urgent change” to something involving students and the nursing program, then she is always notified.
Likewise, Emily also verbalized, “More communication is needed from our main campus and nursing program. I really do not feel a part of them. I feel like we are all alone out here. I am part-time and at a distant site and feel forgotten.” Similar to Cathy and Elizabeth, Emily also expressed feelings of isolation and not belonging to the main campus.
Summary of theme. In general, all participants described feelings of isolation and lacked a sense of belonging that resulted from a lack of communication with other nursing faculty on such items as curriculum changes, course schedules, clinical
paperwork, and other changes related to teaching their students. An added concern they had was that this lack of communication had a detrimental impact on student learning.
Participants believed that a contributing factor to this lack of communication was their part-time status. In addition, those participants located at distant sites verbalized that being located away from campus was an additional cause. In contrast, findings
presented in Theme 2 suggested that participants believed that communication with other full-time and part-time faculty provided an additional means for them to perceive
themselves as having a clinical instructor identity and that communication was not lacking. One explanation may be that communication between participants and other faculty involved different topics that either facilitated their identity development and/or informed them of information related to their teaching role. In addition, communication with students and nursing staff at clinical facilities also emerged in Theme 2 as further promoting the participants’ instructor identity developments.
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