Date of Conferral

2023

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Nursing

Advisor

Deborah A. Lewis

Abstract

A well-documented shortage of nursing faculty is a key contributor to the ongoing shortage of nurses in the United States. Part-time clinical nursing faculty play a key role in preparing prelicensure nursing students for clinical practice. These part-time faculty have reported a perceived lack of peer support in the academic workplace. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the perceptions of novice part-time prelicensure clinical nursing faculty as they sought peer support to transition into the educator role. Husserl’s transcendental phenomenology, as applied by Moustakas, and Illeris’s three dimensions of learning model informed this study. A sample of six novice, prelicensure nursing faculty participants was obtained through social media recruitment. Data from individual, in-depth, semistructured interviews were analyzed using the transcendental phenomenological method. Seven textual themes emerged: solo, harmony, learning the part, discord, listening, ensemble, and writing a new song. Participants expressed the need for support to succeed in their work. Faculty peers were the most accessible and preferred sources of support and were perceived as role models by the participants. This study adds to the current knowledge of workplace relationships by reinforcing that peers in the workplace have a powerful impact on one’s identity, psychological stability, job performance, job satisfaction, and retention. The study results may contribute to positive social change in the working lives and teaching longevity of nursing faculty. Future researchers should focus on perceptions of senior nursing faculty and program administrators regarding barriers to, and facilitators of, peer support provision for novice nursing faculty in the academic workplace.

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