Abstract:
Nursing education forms the basis of professional existence, development and
sustainable future. The purpose of this study was to establish how nurse educators
adapted to increased instructional workload, how they were self-sufficient in
performing, and how they would sustain instructional roles in diploma nursing
training in colleges within Meru. The target population was fifty two nurse educators
who were all invited to participate. Forty six nurse educators participated in the study
by availability, willingness to participate and giving a signed consent. A descriptive
cross-sectional study design was carried out using a self-administered questionnaire
for data collection after a pilot study showed validity and reliability of the tool. Data
was collected after consent appointments with the principals and respondents of the
participating colleges and was analysed using descriptive statistics performed at 95%
confidence interval. The findings are presented in tables, bar graphs, pie charts and a
discussion. The study found out that nurse educator to student nurse ratio was 1:20
which indicated instructional role overload. It was evident that there was role
overload, teamwork challenges, lack of a mentoring program for novice faculty, and
limited role orientation before role assignment. Educators had adequate adaptation
mechanisms in planning, adjustment of instructional plans and taking in arising
additional instructional roles. Adequate commitment to instructional roles and long
service in the same diploma nursing training institution were indicators of selfsufficiency. Adequate adaptation mechanisms and self-sufficiency were indicators of
sustainable instructional role performance. The recommendations made were;
diploma nursing training institutions to recruit more nurse educators, ensure an
orientation program for inducing novice faculty to institutional culture of performing
the instructional roles, encourage and ensure planning and execution of plans for
instruction and solve instructional challenges as a team for continuity/sustainability
of diploma nurse training and education.
