The aim of this study was to determine the quality of work-life (QWL) of nurse
educators at South African universities. The objectives of the research was to describe
the demography, home, and work factors of these nurse educators, and its effect on
their experience of QWL. It also entailed triangulation of these experiences with the
perceptions of the heads of nursing departments (HODs) for a thorough
understanding, and designing guidelines to address the situation.
A mixed methods methodology was followed, with a partly mixed sequential equal
status sampling design and equal weight to the first quantitative and second qualitative
phases. The population for the first phase was all the nurse educators teaching at
South African universities, who on invitation completed an electronic questionnaire.
The data obtained was analysed by utilising both descriptive and inferential statistics.
The population for the second phase was all the HODs of the nursing departments of
the 22 South African universities. The qualitative data obtained in the second phase
was analysed with the Atlas.ti 8 program.
The results of the study indicate that nurse educators’ QWL is influenced by meso,
macro and micro environmental factors, with work, home and individual situations that
are contextual to the African and specifically South African positioning on the globe. A
conceptual framework improving on Easton and Van Laar ‘s (2007) model are v
proposed for the African higher education edcuation (HEI) context, to better
understand these influences.
Recommendations to address the situation include:
• Mitigation of international, national and provinical influences through attention
to curriculisation and improved governance and funding
• Strengthening the structure across the HEIs by improved governance,
consideration of salaries and benefits of all staff to be fair and equal, investing
in good technology for better output, developing methods to distribute the
workload fairly, and support to staff for research
• Support of nursing departmental output by addressing the needs of HODs, line
managers, the nurse educators themselves, supportive staff and students, with
the focus on personal and individual factors that influence physical, mental and
social health, inclusive of the support of family life
The developed guidelines flows from application of industrial psychological principles
to propose improving both the QWL and symbiotically, the output for HEI nursing
departments. / Health Studies
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/27339 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Young, Cornelle |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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