Aspects of the nurse tutor--student nurse relationship

This paper is focused on selected items from an exploratory study of nurse tutor--student nurse role-relationships. Aspects of the teacher-student and counselor-client dimensions of the relationship are reported. The research was conducted from a sociological perspective using role theory as the organizing theoretical framework. An 'ideal type' tutor--student relationship was proposed from the findings. There was concensus between tutors and students that tutors acted in a caring way towards students but many constraints were identified which inhibited students with problems from seeking help from tutors and prevented tutors from offering all the help which they wished to give to students.