Assessment of new nurse educators

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Adult Education
• Healthcare Professional Development

Background:

• Limited number of master's-prepared nurse educators.
• Clinical experts often transition to educator roles without formal adult education training.
• Need for structured support for new nursing educators.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design a performance-based orientation for new nursing educators.
• To identify individual learning needs of novice nurse educators.
• To facilitate personalized professional development.

Main Methods:

• Articulated role expectations for nurse educators in acute care.
• Categorized nine performance expectations into critical thinking, interpersonal relationships (IPR), and technical skills.
• Developed assessment tools to evaluate performance in these three skill areas.

Main Results:

• A framework for assessing new nurse educator performance was established.
• The assessment tools aim to elicit specific performances in critical thinking, IPR, and technical skills.
• Development of a structured orientation process based on identified needs.

Conclusions:

• A performance-based approach can effectively identify learning needs for new nursing educators.
• Tailored orientation and development are crucial for successful transition into the educator role.
• Further validity testing of assessment tools is planned.