The experience of sessional teaching staff in pre-registration nurse education programs: A systematic review

Abstract

Objectives: To uncover current international evidence of the working experience of sessional teaching staff in pre-registration nurse education programs.

Design: Systematic review.

Data sources: In April 2023, electronic databases of Web of Science, Education Source, American Psychological Association (APA) PsycInfo®, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Scopus and Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) were searched with no time limit for publication. Hand search material from Google Scholar was included.

Review methods: The inclusion criteria were research focused on (1) the work experiences of sessional nursing teaching staff (2) pre-registration nurse education programs including diploma, associate degree, bachelor's degree, or accelerated bachelor's degree (3) the post-secondary education setting. The quality of the included studies was assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. After extraction, thematic synthesis was performed.

Results: A total of 514 studies were retrieved and five studies were included: three qualitative studies, one quantitative study, and one mixed method study. Three themes were developed from this review: (i) Lack of a sense of belonging; (ii) Working experience and support; and (iii) Clinical recency, however, most of the studies have a small sample size.

Conclusion: Sessional teaching staff enjoy teaching nursing students as they feel a sense of responsibility to pass on their knowledge to future generations of nurses. They appreciate a supportive working environment and culture including professional development, feedback, mentorship and growth opportunities to increase job satisfaction. This will reduce the turnover. There is a need to conduct further research on sessional teaching staff to understand their experience in pre-registration nursing programs.

Registration: The protocol of this systematic review is registered with Open Science Framework (registration link: doi:10.17605/OSF.IO/SUD4Y).

Keywords: Casual; Experience; Nursing; Pre-registration program; Sessional; Teaching; University.