A nurse tutor's experience of personal and professional growth through action research

Action research is growing in popularity as an approach to research in the nursing profession. Action research seeks to engage practitioners collaboratively into taking action to improve their situation; therefore, one could argue it is ideally suited to nursing since it is a practice-based profession. This paper examines how the action research process, which is underpinned by self-reflection, has the potential to develop practitioners both professionally and personally. A nurse tutor's experience of engaging in action research for the first time is outlined. The paper includes extracts from the tutor's diary to provide an insight into how she experienced, in particular, self-reflection as part of her learning about action research. Her experience was initially painful, but over a few months it became pleasurable as she discovered the joy in initiating positive changes in her work as well as in herself.