Developing the nurse teacher's role: the use of multiple focus groups to ensure grassroots involvement

Strategies for teacher development must ultimately recognize that the only constant is likely to be change, and acknowledge the importance of social interaction as a component of organizational development. The process of development must therefore begin with the implementation of structures which enable an ongoing exploration of the role of the nurse teacher whilst at the same time creating an empowering, collectivist culture. This article describes a project undertaken by a number of nurse teachers to achieve this through the use of focus groups allied to the principles of action research. In total 10 groups were facilitated, involving 52 teachers. The data collected enabled the identification of dominant themes around which to cluster teacher activity and focus role development.