Nurse teacherhood: Systematic descriptive review and content analysis

Background The concept of ‘nurse teacherhood’ is multidimensional. In this article, ‘nurse teacherhood’ includes nurse teachers’ tasks and different multidimensional roles as well as their personal experiences of being a nurse teacher. Objectives The article examines the topics of nursing research concerning nurse teacherhood, the changes in these topics and the results reported from January 1990 to April 2004. Design and method The material was obtained by conducting a systematic review, and it included nursing research papers and Finnish academic dissertations (N=207). The material was analysed by using content analysis. Results The topics of the studies were divided into three thematic categories: the expansion of nurse teacherhood, the skills of nurse teacherhood and their development, nurse teacherhood and membership in working community. The number of studies on the first two themes had increased (1990–1994:43; 1995–1999:57; 2000–4/2004:65), while those on the third theme had decreased (1990–1994:18; 1995–1999:19; 2000–4/2004:5). Conclusions Nurse teacherhood has been studied actively during the past 15 years and approached from several perspectives. Most of the topics of the studies discussed the expansion of nurse teacherhood. The focus of the studies in different years varied depending on the kind of challenges posed to nurse teachers’ work in each period of time.