Author: Lesley Siegloff
Siegloff, Lesley, 2018 Separation, the experience of nursing education and practice in Australia 1964-1994: an autoethnographic study, Flinders University, College of Nursing and Health Sciences
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Tension exists today about how nurses are educated in Australia. Many people believe that nurses should be trained in the hospital system while others have argued consistently for pre-registration nursing education to remain in the tertiary education sector. This thesis is focused on understanding how nursing education as we know it today unfolded and was shaped.
The thesis covers the first thirty years, 1964 to 1994, of my nursing career and draws on my experience as researcher and subject, to identify new perspectives on the separation of pre-registration nurse education from the health care sector over the period studied, specifically where it interconnected at the time of a significant and extended period of change. The way in which the thesis is presented through an autoethnographic lens has resulted in new insight into the evolution of nursing education in Australia.
The outcomes add a unique and complementary perspective to the current predominantly descriptive historical documents and literature about the development of nursing education in Australia.
The principal outcome of the study revealed that an unintentional separation occurred between the nursing education sector and the health care sector, which resulted in a siloed understanding by each of the sectors about the responsibility for the development of nurses and the profession This divided understanding ultimately impacted on the sense of belonging to a vocation that once characterised and underpinned professional nursing.
Keywords: Autoethnography,Nursing Profession, Nursing Education, Nursing Practice, Australian Nursing History
Subject: Nursing thesis
Thesis type: Doctor of Philosophy
Completed: 2018
School: College of Nursing and Health Sciences
Supervisor: Professor Paul Arbon AM