title: Practice teaching: professional identity and recognition.
abstract: Practice teachers have a significant role in leading education in clinical practice and in the preparation, assessment and 'signing off' of post-registration specialist practice students at the end of their programme. This paper reports on the preliminary findings of a grounded theory study which examined the perceived role of the practice teacher from the perspectives of relevant stakeholders. One-to-one interviews were carried out with a purposively selected sample of 21 participants. Data analysis took place concurrently, codes and categories being derived from the data. A focus group interview was conducted further into the study with six specialist practice nurse educators. Early findings suggest that the role of a practice teacher is operationalised differently both within and across organisations and disciplines. This confounds the professional identity of the practice teacher and affects the recognition that practice teachers are afforded for their role. Role recognition appears to be key to building professional identity. The development of a clearer professional identity is essential if educational preparation is to be tailored more specifically to the needs of those undertaking a practice teacher role.
authors.affiliation: University of Huddersfield. K.L.Adams@hud.ac.uk
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Adams
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D006801:Humans; D009720:Nurse Clinicians / Q000193:education*; D024802:Nurse's Role / Q000523:psychology*; D009734:Nursing Faculty Practice / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012649:Self Concept; D012933:Social Identification; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D006113:United Kingdom