Registered nurse tutors perception of their role

The aim of this study was to determine how the registered nurse tutor in the Republic of South Africa perceives her role and how her role perception compares with the role expectations laid down by nurse leaders. A further question was whether a discrepancy existed between the tutors ideal role perceptions and her perceptions of whether the roles are actually performed. A survey by questionnaire was the method of investigation used. A random sample stratified by population group and gender was selected from all nurses who had the additional qualification of nurse tutor entered against their name in the register of the S.A. Nursing Council. The responding sample comprised 233 registered nurse tutors. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for the analysis of the responses. The findings suggested that the majority of registered nurse tutors perceived most of the role activities advocated by nurse leaders as ideal role activities. However, a considerable number of respondents still consider the traditional teacher-centered role as ideal. Only one-half of the respondents considered the scholarly role to be a distinct role component of the nurse tutor. Statistically significant differences between ideal and actually practised role perception scores were found on almost all role activities.