DEVELOPING THE NURSE TEACHERS ROLE - THE USE OF MULTIPLE FOCUS GROUPSTO ENSURE GRASS-ROOTS INVOLVEMENT

Strategies for teacher development must ultimately recognize that the only constant is likely to be change, and acknowledge the importance o f social interaction as a component of organizational development, The process of development must therefore begin with the implementation o f structures which enable an ongoing exploration of the role of the nu rse teacher whilst at the same time creating an empowering, collectivi st 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 facilit ated, involving 52 teachers. The data collected enabled the identifica tion of dominant themes around which to cluster teacher activity and f ocus role development.