| Summary: | The nature of setting (context) as an influence of
clinical teaching in nursing education has not been explored.
As nursing educators in North America move to educate nursing
students in a variety of settings, including non-traditional
settings, there is a need to explore how context in
traditional settings (i.e., hospitals), influence how clinical
teachers teach. An ethnographic design was used to explore
the perceptions of six clinical teachers who clinically taught
in the specialty areas of pediatrics and maternity. The six
volunteer participants were selected from community colleges/
universities in British Columbia which offer a Bachelors
Degree in Nursing. Pratt's (1992) General Model of Teaching
was used as the conceptual framework to guide the research
design. The researcher in this study proposed a model of
clinical teaching which considers the complexity of teaching
in the context of the hospital setting.
Analysis of the data revealed components of context
(i.e., geography, culture, ideology and history) and
relationships with individuals/groups and entities
(professional organizations, institutions or hospital
agencies) which influenced clinical teaching in a variety of
ways. Factors which influenced clinical teachers in general
were the history of nursing education, the agency,
relationships between staff nurses, clinical teachers and
students, the nature of the specialty area (i.e., pediatrics
and maternity), and the unit. Cultural groups within the
context of clinical teaching that became evident were various
members of the health care team, students, and patient and
families. Specific factors which influenced pediatrics and
maternity differently were the nature of the patient, the
influence of family at the bedside, and the unit/units of
clinical learning. These findings have implications for
nursing education and nursing research. It is hoped that this
study will help nursing educators consider the factors and
aspects prior to the placement of teachers and students on a
particular clinical unit.
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