Objective: Clinical educators in nursing perform a crucial role in facilitating effective learning for students of nursing. They have the potential to act as a catalysing agent for learning--motivating students to make links between theory and practice, moving students safely from the known to the unknown, developing clinical skills and reflective practice. Whilst their role is extremely important, clinical educators in Australia are undervalued and under-supported. They are isolated and fragmented, and lack a unifying professional body and infrastructure to assist them in education, research and practice development. This paper reports on a study to explore what educational solutions could help to resolve the problem.
Design: A qualitative design utilising snowball sampling and semi-structured interviews was conducted.
Setting: The study took place in Queensland and thus results are limited to the needs identified in this region of Australia.
Subjects: Ten participants provided their views about educational innovations.
Conclusions: There is strong support for a curriculum focused on clinical education and centred on the concept of a learning community in order to provide community and build capacity in the specialty group so that they become self-reliant and their achievements and contributions are sustainable.