- Email: [email protected]
Supporting nurses study: lay supporters and their work
Nurse Education Today (2004) 24, 14–19
Nurse Education Today intl.elsevierhealth.com/journals/nedt
Supporting nurses study: lay supporters and their work Bob Price1 Royal College of Nursing, 20 Cavendish Square, London W1G ORN, UK Accepted 26 August 2003
Summary Nurse teachers are familiar with the study support arrangements made through the university, but what sorts of support do nurse learners obtain from lay sources? Within part time modes of study and particularly where students have multiple other commitments as professionals, partners and parents, the support obtained from friends and family may be critical to student success. This paper describes the work of lay supporters who assisted post registration, undergraduate nurses completing a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing studies by distance learning. Research was designed using grounded theory methodology and provided a substantive account of the ways in which students and lay supporters negotiated help. Data gathering centred upon 41 interviews with students, including 11 joint interviews with the student and a chosen lay supporter. Additionally 59 field observations and 24 tutorial observations were made where further student reported data was gathered about lay support. This study concluded that lay support contributed a significant amount to student progress but that academic staff remained largely unaware of the types and variety of help received there. Lay support in part determined the nature of requests for help that was then made to tutors. c 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
KEYWORDS
Student support; Lay support; Managing study; Help seeking
Introduction Part time nurse education makes sense at a time when there are significant pressures upon the health care services and where circumstances make it difficult for nurses to study full time. Part time study does however involve student attrition. Students either withdraw from their programme or else extend their study schedule over additional years. Planning for such adjustments becomes a E-mail address: [email protected] (B. Price). Present address: Programme Director, MSc in Nursing, RCN Institute, ‘Altan’, 24 Minehurst Road, Mytchett, Surrey GU16 6JP. Tel.: +44-20-7-647-3645. 1
necessary part of education provision. Up until now, measures designed to assist students to complete their studies have usually focused upon academic support measures (see for example Granger 1994). Universities provide personal tutors, flexible patterns of study, accessible library facilities and counselling services. There is a slowly growing appreciation of what tutors can do to help students to cope with the demands of study, work and personal life. What is less well understood is the ways in which lay support contributes to the study equation (Dowswell et al. 1998, 2000). This paper stems from a 5-year grounded theory study of the ways in which nurse distance learners dealt with support on an undergraduate, post
0260-6917/$ - see front matter c 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2003.08.001
Supporting nurses study: lay supporters and their work
registration nursing studies programme (1996– 2001). The process of support was conceived of as a dynamic social process involving access to a range of resources and sources of guidance. Lay support provided by spouses, partners, family and friends, was considered an important but as yet inadequately mapped dimension of student support. What follows below is an account of an important theme emerging from within this study, focusing upon the sorts of help that lay supporters provide and the ways in which this support is negotiated by students.
Background There is a paucity of literature regarding lay support of students in general and nurse learners in particular. This is surprising given that most nurse learners are female and there is a widespread appreciation of the diverse roles that women fulfill both at work and within the home (Bray 1988). Given that nurses often study part time, sometimes at a distance and at a time when they are often involved in full time work, parenting and the care of older relatives, it is timely that we explore how they use lay support to manage competing demands. Much of the literature highlights the challenges of study in terms of role strain (Home 1997; Dowswell et al. 2000). Given that there is comparatively little leisure time available to meet the additional demands of study, it is argued that roles within the family come under tension. Female students are faced with finding ways to displace their other duties, attenuating their contributions to family care or community projects and negotiating precious study time for their own professional development. Home (1997) observed that female students were usually poorly supported by male partners and that men made only limited adjustments in their roles in support of a partners learning. Nevertheless, despite this, students often embark upon study, hopeful that lay support will militate against the stress of juggling study and other commitments (Dyk 1987). The notion that families have spare capacity through which to accommodate significant volumes of study is misguided. In practice, part time study involves displacement of other family work, especially contributions of care to family or friends. Mikolaj and Boggs (1991) have highlighted that this sort of displacement is particularly difficult where child care is involved. Mothers have little study capacity and children are often intolerant of changes in family life associated with reading, note taking and assignment preparation. In some in-
15
stances this is then complicated when husbands respond negatively to women’s efforts to achieve career advancement through higher education. Faith (1988) debates what women’s study represents to men. She concludes that it is seen as not just an incursion upon the services that women traditionally provide within the family, but that it portends changing status as well. An better-educated female partner will make greater demands in the future and critically re evaluate the contributions of the male within the relationship. Part time study therefore represents a potential change within family relations. Whilst the role strain and feminist literature acknowledges the potential tensions associated with part time study amongst women, it fails to provide an account of the processes that students use to secure study. One significant factor in such negotiations is however anticipated in the observations of Greenberger and O’Neil (1993). Greenberger and O’Neil (1993) highlight the ways in which women understand the notion of work within the home and beyond. Study, home maintenance and professional duties can be conceived of as different forms of work and amongst women the key issue is that work well done contributes to a sense of well being. If students are to accommodate new forms of work within their daily lives and to distribute other forms of work to others, it is critical that all such work is competently handled. Incomplete work or chores poorly done are likely to irritate women.
Research methods Access and research ethics clearance was negotiated with a prominent distance learning, nurse education provider in 1996. It was agreed that I would conduct open interviews with students and their lay supporters in locations of their own choice, after written informed consent had been secured. Forty-one interviews were conducted with students at all stages within their degree programme. Eleven of these interviews were conducted jointly, with a student and chosen lay supporter present. The rationale for this approach was that rich data might be obtained and that students and lay supporters might be encouraged to thoughtfully discuss the issues involved in supporting study. In practice, only a limited number of lay supporters (partners, parent or teenage child) were available for joint interview. Where this was possible however, I was privileged to witness open debates and made appropriate checks to ensure that both stakeholders were content with their
16
contribution, before committing data to the study. Audio taped, transcribed data formed the bulk of material for this part of the grounded theory study, but supplemental data reported by students was also secured through a series of tutorial observations (n24) and through field observations carried out within the distance learning centre (n69). The data reported within this paper relates to female students aged in their thirties or forties, who were in committed relationships and who often had support roles with children or elderly relatives, as well as a full or part time nursing role. Collected data was analyzed using the constant comparative methods described first by Glaser and Strauss (1967) and later by Glaser (1978,1992). Memos were made to facilitate the auditing of research ideas and the formulation of a theory made up of categories and their properties. Coding of data proceeded through three stages, open (when categories were first identified), selective (where the relationships between categories were established) and theoretical (where the core category and basic social process were established). Participants were offered regular opportunities to receive update on the research, whilst critical readers from Iceland, Canada, Ireland and the UK read incremental work and challenged the arguments and hypotheses associated with the developing theory. This study demonstrated that these nurse learners saw lay support contributions in two terms, dependent upon whether the helper was seen as ‘academically competent’. Lay helpers who were not accomplished at study and the analysis of papers were invited to assist the student using ‘compensation work.’ Students valued their help in terms of managing resources of time and space and sustaining commitment to study. Compensation work could be sub divided into relief and protection duties, which are described below. Lay supporters who had a history of academic achievement and in particular the preparation of written papers were asked to assist with reading duties. Whilst such individuals were rarely qualified nurses they were considered highly competent at written expression and the construction of arguments. Moreover, they had the advantage that they might comment upon presentation of work as a committed friend, rather than as a tutor who would be later required to mark the coursework.
Relief duties Students’ negotiated with family and friends the sort of relief duties that they would ask them to
B. Price
fulfill during the course of studies. Relief duties consisted of taking over chores or responsibilities that the student previously managed and which were perceived to free the student to study. Most students negotiated relief work in terms of tasks, for instance cooking meals, entertaining children, shopping or visiting elderly relatives. Other students conceived of relief work in terms of role responsibilities (for example, buying, planning and preparing weekday meals). This second group of students conceived of their partner as taking over the responsibility for the duration of the module. Unlike students who thought of relief work in task terms, they invested time and effort in instructing a partner on how the responsibilities should be carried out, what planning was necessary and how adjustments might be made should circumstances change. They trusted their partner, usually a spouse, but occasionally a parent or teenage child, to complete the duties on a regular basis and to have charge of all that was done. All of the students and their lay supporters reported starting such plans with good intentions. Three circumstances however quickly undermined the supporter’s ability to deliver relief work support. The first of these was the erratic nature of the student’s work. Work shifts could and did change or extend so those students’ were unable to sustain a pattern of study in the way so frequently recommended by study skill texts. Study was conducted in intensive bursts on days off rather than on a regular basis, week by week. Relief systems that were based on completing tasks quickly became undone, as the student’s erratic work-study pattern interfered with the other commitments of a lay supporter. As one husband reported, There is an assumption in education that families can soak up work for a student. Equally, there are assumptions on the part of employers, that men are not committed to family matters as much as their wives. The two sets of assumptions don’t work well together. Students and supporters encountered frustration as they tried to cope with sudden changes of work and study on an ad hoc basis. Such frustration was markedly less amongst families where the supporter had committed to undertake a new role. Here, some male partners warned their employer that they had less scope for over time or sudden additional duties, at least where this coincided with a partner’s preparation for an assignment. The second factor undermining relief work was associated with female students overestimating their tolerance of roles or tasks being managed
Supporting nurses study: lay supporters and their work
differently by a supporter. Whilst students reported that they knew they would have to be patient if a partner got the task wrong, or asked for guidance, they admitted too that they quickly judged the performance of a lay supporter. Tasks or responsibilities were either completed rightly or wrongly and there was only a limited tolerance of learning portrayed as ‘experimentation’. Under these circumstances supporters reported annoyance at being corrected on their practice and students admitted taking back the responsibility for work. One student observed that she took back the duties allocated elsewhere working to a familiar formula: First it’s work, then it’s family, and then finally it’s study. I guess you hope that you have enough energy at the end of the day to write good notes. The third factor undermining such relief work was the students’ tendency to develop short cut ways of completing study. Students became increasingly selective about what they read, observed and recorded. They learned to focus their study efforts on that which was likely to be assessed. Whilst such measures enabled them to reduce the hours that they needed to commit to study it also relieved supporters of the responsibility to persevere with tasks or responsibilities. Students might announce that they had finished reading quicker than expected and volunteer to take the responsibility back over. The net effect of this compromise was usually a reduction of stress levels within the home and expressions of student self regret that they now studied in a superficial way.
Protection duties Lay supporters also performed protection duties and in this regard were conspicuously more successful in sustaining support. Protection work consisted of fending off demands upon the student, especially those made in the weeks preceding assignment submission. Partners in particular recognized that students faced peaks of stress within a module and that these arose just before submission of formative and summative assignments. Such coursework represented ‘performances’ against which the student might be judged. It was therefore important to provide the student with sufficient time to read and write so that the best representation of knowledge and thought could be prepared. If relief work was about doing things for the student then protection work was about ensuring that the student did not do things for others. Pro-
17
tection work was typically undertaken by a spouse and consisted of reminding others that the student was heavily committed to study during the period preceding assignment submission. Children would be reminded to be tolerant and might have their most urgent demands met by the father. Other requests might be gently put off or appointments delayed until after the submission of coursework. In extreme circumstances a spouse might even intercept a request by a student’s employer and point out that sudden work demands were inconsiderate given their timing and the previous commitment made by the employer to the student’s course of learning. Where others complained about the student’s unavailability, lay supporters often referred to the investment of time, effort and money that had made in learning and that other demands could not be accommodated now.
Reading duties Student sought out lay supporters who had completed higher education and who had demonstrated competence in academic analysis or writing. They valued such individuals as critical readers of their draft coursework and as occasional reviewers of their course notes. In asking such individuals to act as readers of draft work students referred to a number of benefits and concerns: • Lay reviewers understood the nurse and her ability. They were therefore likely to offer sensitive criticism. • Such reviewers did not mark the coursework. Students could show such work without fear of having their competency prematurely questioned. • Lay reviewers were only competent to comment upon the written expression of ideas. They were not ‘subject experts’. • However students did believe that a significant percentage of assessment marks available were allocated to clear expression of ideas. If nursing had few self-evident truths then the accurate expression of thought was considered critical. The extent to which students sought this help from lay supporters depended in large part upon their perceptions of tutors and concerns about the privacy of learning. However, in practice the volume of lay support guidance sought increased in the weeks preceding coursework submission. Students reported a ‘pressure cooker’ point three to four weeks into a module when the volume of new learning seemed difficult to manage and after which they had to reorder their thoughts if academic papers were to be clearly presented.
18
B. Price
Between the pressure cooker point and assignment submission, students consulted lay supporters about the expression of their ideas on paper. Students employed ‘access gestures’ to prepare lay supporters for their role as critical readers of assignment work (see Table 1). It was important to establish the rationale for help seeking, the scope of guidance sought and how supporters’ contributions would later be valued. Students invested considerable effort in such negotiations and considered it time well spent away from study, especially where a supporter might remain a key advisor over time. Not only did it provide the student with thoughtful and accessible advice, but it also enabled them to manage their learning in a private way. Many students were circumspect about how much of their learning they wanted to show to tutors. Armed with the lay supporter’s critical feedback, students felt confident to either show their draft work to the tutor or to submit coursework direct to assessment. The lay supporter had provided a commentary not only upon the grammar
and syntax of the prepared work but frequently questions about arguments that did not seem to be sustained by the developing text. Whilst critical readers did not understand the content of the module, or important nursing concepts, they were considered good at spotting ‘undefended assumptions’ or ‘confused reasoning’ within a paper.
Conclusions As with an iceberg, the bulk of lay support lies hidden from view. Tutors in this study were unaware of the volume and nature of support offered to students and ignorant of how important this seemed in terms of sustaining study. Nurse learners drew upon a lay support network. Some of this was well organized and regularly consulted. Critical readers for instance were frequently asked to comment on draft ideas especially where in the past this seemed to help students clarify their arguments. Other support was less successful. Efforts to manage the demands of study alongside other
Table 1 Access gestures and the pursuit of critical reader support. Gesture
Student focus
Student concerns
Asking for help, e.g., ‘I was wondering whether you had time to look at some of my draft work for an assignment?’
Establishing that the helper has the time and interest to assist
Defining help sought, e.g., ‘What would really help would be if you could comment on the presentation – the way I explain my ideas’
Setting parameters upon the sort of feedback sought. Students may have particular concerns about a piece of work, but these were always presentational in nature. Critical readers were not ‘subject experts’ Students sought a moral form of help that did not contravene assessment regulations but which did allow them to try out their written expression in private Students were mindful that supporters might be anxious about the usefulness of advice
To ensure that this assistance is not seen as unduly onerous. The student might explain that ‘glancing over’ the work will probably be sufficient Assuring the helper about the volume and complexity of guidance sought. This is within your abilities. Students signaled respect for the supporter’s expertise
Establishing the ethics of requested help, e.g., ‘I don’t want you to tell me what to put – this isn’t coaching’
Acknowledging personal responsibilities, e.g., ‘Don’t worry, I will take responsibility for what I write. I have to decide what guidance to follow and I won’t blame you’ Sustaining trust, e.g., ‘Look, I got a B for that assignment. I wanted you to take a look at my answer and the tutor’s comments. It’s all my own material, but your suggestion about sorting out the focus in those paragraphs was really important’
Students wanted to reward supporters by sharing tutor feedback. They reinforced their personal responsibilities for what had been submitted, but celebrated the wisdom of the critical reader
Students were aware of the risks of plagiarism and cheating. They sought private help but were alert to how this might be misconstrued by examiners Because students hoped to repeat requests for critical readership in the future, they were at pains to reassure supporters that they would not be blamed for assessment outcomes Critical reading involves time and effort so it was necessary to acknowledge such contributions to supporters. Supporters might then own some of the pleasure in the student’s progress
Supporting nurses study: lay supporters and their work
personal commitments were, like the proverbial curate’s egg, good in parts. Where students negotiated new responsibilities for lay supporters, and then trusted such individuals to develop the necessary skills, significant amounts of study time became available. Where students negotiated that others would complete tasks on their behalf, support was likely to falter or even fail within the early modules of study. What was critical to compensation work was whether supporters committed to new responsibilities and whether the student was tolerant of the supporters’ mistakes en route. Where students and their supporters viewed study as requiring a significant adjustment in lifestyle, larger study gains were there to be made. In practice though, the majority of students requested help with tasks and subsequently took back responsibility for getting the work done. Whilst female students in this study received uneven support from lay supporters there was evidence to suggest that they were well served at assignment preparation times by protective spouses. Male partners did understand the stresses associated with coursework preparation and were prepared to assist the student to concentrate hard upon assignments. There was no evidence of male opposition to study, but significant evidence that families were working very hard and sometimes unsuccessfully to cope with the multiple demands of work and study. Nurse learners completed their studies despite the fact that both partners were working and that they were often caring for children or others. In the current climate, it seems unlikely that nurses will secure more access to full time education. The majority of us will continue to juggle our responsibilities. This study highlights the importance of lay support to part time learners. It also prompts questions about how we might work more effectively with lay supporters to help students succeed? Forewarning families about which support strategies work best seems a promising first step.
19
Briefing tutors about the concerns that students have regarding the exposure of their learning seems equally important. The more we understand about where students seek support and what sorts of help they get in different places, the better equipped we will be to devise education that limits student attrition and maximizes learning.
References Bray, C., 1988. Women’s studies at a distance: experience of students and tutor. Canadian Journal of University Continuing Education 14 (2), 37–49. Dowswell, T., Hewison, J., Hinds, M., 1998. Motivational forces affecting participation in post-registration degree courses and effects on home and work life: a qualitative study. Journal of Advanced Nursing 28 (6), 1326–1333. Dowswell, T., Bradshaw, G., Hewison, J., 2000. Childcare responsibilities and participation in continuing education and training, issues relating to motivation, family and domestic roles. Journal of Advanced Nursing 32 (2), 445–453. Dyk, P., 1987. Graduate student management of family and academic roles. Family Relations 36 (3), 329–332. Faith, K., 1988. Towards New Horizons for Women in Distance Education: International Perspectives. Routledge, London. Glaser, B., 1978. Theoretical Sensitivity. The Sociology Press, Mill Valley, CA. Glaser, B., 1992. Emergence Versus Forcing: Basics of Grounded Theory Analysis. The Sociology Press, Mill Valley, CA. Glaser, B., Strauss, A., 1967. The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Aldine, New York. Granger, D., 1994. Student support systems in distance education: a response to David Stewart. Open Learning 9 (February), 57–58. Greenberger, E., O’Neil, R., 1993. Spouse, parent, worker, role commitments and role-related experiences in the construction of adults’ well-being. Developmental Psychology 29 (2), 181–197. Home, A., 1997. Learning the hard way: role strain, stress, role demands and support in multiple role women students. Journal of Social Work Education 33 (2), 325–346. Mikolaj, E., Boggs, D., 1991. Intrapersonal role conflicts of adult women undergraduate students. Journal of Continuing Higher Education 39 (2), 13–19.
Nurse Education Today intl.elsevierhealth.com/journals/nedt
Supporting nurses study: lay supporters and their work Bob Price1 Royal College of Nursing, 20 Cavendish Square, London W1G ORN, UK Accepted 26 August 2003
Summary Nurse teachers are familiar with the study support arrangements made through the university, but what sorts of support do nurse learners obtain from lay sources? Within part time modes of study and particularly where students have multiple other commitments as professionals, partners and parents, the support obtained from friends and family may be critical to student success. This paper describes the work of lay supporters who assisted post registration, undergraduate nurses completing a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing studies by distance learning. Research was designed using grounded theory methodology and provided a substantive account of the ways in which students and lay supporters negotiated help. Data gathering centred upon 41 interviews with students, including 11 joint interviews with the student and a chosen lay supporter. Additionally 59 field observations and 24 tutorial observations were made where further student reported data was gathered about lay support. This study concluded that lay support contributed a significant amount to student progress but that academic staff remained largely unaware of the types and variety of help received there. Lay support in part determined the nature of requests for help that was then made to tutors. c 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
KEYWORDS
Student support; Lay support; Managing study; Help seeking
Introduction Part time nurse education makes sense at a time when there are significant pressures upon the health care services and where circumstances make it difficult for nurses to study full time. Part time study does however involve student attrition. Students either withdraw from their programme or else extend their study schedule over additional years. Planning for such adjustments becomes a E-mail address: [email protected] (B. Price). Present address: Programme Director, MSc in Nursing, RCN Institute, ‘Altan’, 24 Minehurst Road, Mytchett, Surrey GU16 6JP. Tel.: +44-20-7-647-3645. 1
necessary part of education provision. Up until now, measures designed to assist students to complete their studies have usually focused upon academic support measures (see for example Granger 1994). Universities provide personal tutors, flexible patterns of study, accessible library facilities and counselling services. There is a slowly growing appreciation of what tutors can do to help students to cope with the demands of study, work and personal life. What is less well understood is the ways in which lay support contributes to the study equation (Dowswell et al. 1998, 2000). This paper stems from a 5-year grounded theory study of the ways in which nurse distance learners dealt with support on an undergraduate, post
0260-6917/$ - see front matter c 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2003.08.001
Supporting nurses study: lay supporters and their work
registration nursing studies programme (1996– 2001). The process of support was conceived of as a dynamic social process involving access to a range of resources and sources of guidance. Lay support provided by spouses, partners, family and friends, was considered an important but as yet inadequately mapped dimension of student support. What follows below is an account of an important theme emerging from within this study, focusing upon the sorts of help that lay supporters provide and the ways in which this support is negotiated by students.
Background There is a paucity of literature regarding lay support of students in general and nurse learners in particular. This is surprising given that most nurse learners are female and there is a widespread appreciation of the diverse roles that women fulfill both at work and within the home (Bray 1988). Given that nurses often study part time, sometimes at a distance and at a time when they are often involved in full time work, parenting and the care of older relatives, it is timely that we explore how they use lay support to manage competing demands. Much of the literature highlights the challenges of study in terms of role strain (Home 1997; Dowswell et al. 2000). Given that there is comparatively little leisure time available to meet the additional demands of study, it is argued that roles within the family come under tension. Female students are faced with finding ways to displace their other duties, attenuating their contributions to family care or community projects and negotiating precious study time for their own professional development. Home (1997) observed that female students were usually poorly supported by male partners and that men made only limited adjustments in their roles in support of a partners learning. Nevertheless, despite this, students often embark upon study, hopeful that lay support will militate against the stress of juggling study and other commitments (Dyk 1987). The notion that families have spare capacity through which to accommodate significant volumes of study is misguided. In practice, part time study involves displacement of other family work, especially contributions of care to family or friends. Mikolaj and Boggs (1991) have highlighted that this sort of displacement is particularly difficult where child care is involved. Mothers have little study capacity and children are often intolerant of changes in family life associated with reading, note taking and assignment preparation. In some in-
15
stances this is then complicated when husbands respond negatively to women’s efforts to achieve career advancement through higher education. Faith (1988) debates what women’s study represents to men. She concludes that it is seen as not just an incursion upon the services that women traditionally provide within the family, but that it portends changing status as well. An better-educated female partner will make greater demands in the future and critically re evaluate the contributions of the male within the relationship. Part time study therefore represents a potential change within family relations. Whilst the role strain and feminist literature acknowledges the potential tensions associated with part time study amongst women, it fails to provide an account of the processes that students use to secure study. One significant factor in such negotiations is however anticipated in the observations of Greenberger and O’Neil (1993). Greenberger and O’Neil (1993) highlight the ways in which women understand the notion of work within the home and beyond. Study, home maintenance and professional duties can be conceived of as different forms of work and amongst women the key issue is that work well done contributes to a sense of well being. If students are to accommodate new forms of work within their daily lives and to distribute other forms of work to others, it is critical that all such work is competently handled. Incomplete work or chores poorly done are likely to irritate women.
Research methods Access and research ethics clearance was negotiated with a prominent distance learning, nurse education provider in 1996. It was agreed that I would conduct open interviews with students and their lay supporters in locations of their own choice, after written informed consent had been secured. Forty-one interviews were conducted with students at all stages within their degree programme. Eleven of these interviews were conducted jointly, with a student and chosen lay supporter present. The rationale for this approach was that rich data might be obtained and that students and lay supporters might be encouraged to thoughtfully discuss the issues involved in supporting study. In practice, only a limited number of lay supporters (partners, parent or teenage child) were available for joint interview. Where this was possible however, I was privileged to witness open debates and made appropriate checks to ensure that both stakeholders were content with their
16
contribution, before committing data to the study. Audio taped, transcribed data formed the bulk of material for this part of the grounded theory study, but supplemental data reported by students was also secured through a series of tutorial observations (n24) and through field observations carried out within the distance learning centre (n69). The data reported within this paper relates to female students aged in their thirties or forties, who were in committed relationships and who often had support roles with children or elderly relatives, as well as a full or part time nursing role. Collected data was analyzed using the constant comparative methods described first by Glaser and Strauss (1967) and later by Glaser (1978,1992). Memos were made to facilitate the auditing of research ideas and the formulation of a theory made up of categories and their properties. Coding of data proceeded through three stages, open (when categories were first identified), selective (where the relationships between categories were established) and theoretical (where the core category and basic social process were established). Participants were offered regular opportunities to receive update on the research, whilst critical readers from Iceland, Canada, Ireland and the UK read incremental work and challenged the arguments and hypotheses associated with the developing theory. This study demonstrated that these nurse learners saw lay support contributions in two terms, dependent upon whether the helper was seen as ‘academically competent’. Lay helpers who were not accomplished at study and the analysis of papers were invited to assist the student using ‘compensation work.’ Students valued their help in terms of managing resources of time and space and sustaining commitment to study. Compensation work could be sub divided into relief and protection duties, which are described below. Lay supporters who had a history of academic achievement and in particular the preparation of written papers were asked to assist with reading duties. Whilst such individuals were rarely qualified nurses they were considered highly competent at written expression and the construction of arguments. Moreover, they had the advantage that they might comment upon presentation of work as a committed friend, rather than as a tutor who would be later required to mark the coursework.
Relief duties Students’ negotiated with family and friends the sort of relief duties that they would ask them to
B. Price
fulfill during the course of studies. Relief duties consisted of taking over chores or responsibilities that the student previously managed and which were perceived to free the student to study. Most students negotiated relief work in terms of tasks, for instance cooking meals, entertaining children, shopping or visiting elderly relatives. Other students conceived of relief work in terms of role responsibilities (for example, buying, planning and preparing weekday meals). This second group of students conceived of their partner as taking over the responsibility for the duration of the module. Unlike students who thought of relief work in task terms, they invested time and effort in instructing a partner on how the responsibilities should be carried out, what planning was necessary and how adjustments might be made should circumstances change. They trusted their partner, usually a spouse, but occasionally a parent or teenage child, to complete the duties on a regular basis and to have charge of all that was done. All of the students and their lay supporters reported starting such plans with good intentions. Three circumstances however quickly undermined the supporter’s ability to deliver relief work support. The first of these was the erratic nature of the student’s work. Work shifts could and did change or extend so those students’ were unable to sustain a pattern of study in the way so frequently recommended by study skill texts. Study was conducted in intensive bursts on days off rather than on a regular basis, week by week. Relief systems that were based on completing tasks quickly became undone, as the student’s erratic work-study pattern interfered with the other commitments of a lay supporter. As one husband reported, There is an assumption in education that families can soak up work for a student. Equally, there are assumptions on the part of employers, that men are not committed to family matters as much as their wives. The two sets of assumptions don’t work well together. Students and supporters encountered frustration as they tried to cope with sudden changes of work and study on an ad hoc basis. Such frustration was markedly less amongst families where the supporter had committed to undertake a new role. Here, some male partners warned their employer that they had less scope for over time or sudden additional duties, at least where this coincided with a partner’s preparation for an assignment. The second factor undermining relief work was associated with female students overestimating their tolerance of roles or tasks being managed
Supporting nurses study: lay supporters and their work
differently by a supporter. Whilst students reported that they knew they would have to be patient if a partner got the task wrong, or asked for guidance, they admitted too that they quickly judged the performance of a lay supporter. Tasks or responsibilities were either completed rightly or wrongly and there was only a limited tolerance of learning portrayed as ‘experimentation’. Under these circumstances supporters reported annoyance at being corrected on their practice and students admitted taking back the responsibility for work. One student observed that she took back the duties allocated elsewhere working to a familiar formula: First it’s work, then it’s family, and then finally it’s study. I guess you hope that you have enough energy at the end of the day to write good notes. The third factor undermining such relief work was the students’ tendency to develop short cut ways of completing study. Students became increasingly selective about what they read, observed and recorded. They learned to focus their study efforts on that which was likely to be assessed. Whilst such measures enabled them to reduce the hours that they needed to commit to study it also relieved supporters of the responsibility to persevere with tasks or responsibilities. Students might announce that they had finished reading quicker than expected and volunteer to take the responsibility back over. The net effect of this compromise was usually a reduction of stress levels within the home and expressions of student self regret that they now studied in a superficial way.
Protection duties Lay supporters also performed protection duties and in this regard were conspicuously more successful in sustaining support. Protection work consisted of fending off demands upon the student, especially those made in the weeks preceding assignment submission. Partners in particular recognized that students faced peaks of stress within a module and that these arose just before submission of formative and summative assignments. Such coursework represented ‘performances’ against which the student might be judged. It was therefore important to provide the student with sufficient time to read and write so that the best representation of knowledge and thought could be prepared. If relief work was about doing things for the student then protection work was about ensuring that the student did not do things for others. Pro-
17
tection work was typically undertaken by a spouse and consisted of reminding others that the student was heavily committed to study during the period preceding assignment submission. Children would be reminded to be tolerant and might have their most urgent demands met by the father. Other requests might be gently put off or appointments delayed until after the submission of coursework. In extreme circumstances a spouse might even intercept a request by a student’s employer and point out that sudden work demands were inconsiderate given their timing and the previous commitment made by the employer to the student’s course of learning. Where others complained about the student’s unavailability, lay supporters often referred to the investment of time, effort and money that had made in learning and that other demands could not be accommodated now.
Reading duties Student sought out lay supporters who had completed higher education and who had demonstrated competence in academic analysis or writing. They valued such individuals as critical readers of their draft coursework and as occasional reviewers of their course notes. In asking such individuals to act as readers of draft work students referred to a number of benefits and concerns: • Lay reviewers understood the nurse and her ability. They were therefore likely to offer sensitive criticism. • Such reviewers did not mark the coursework. Students could show such work without fear of having their competency prematurely questioned. • Lay reviewers were only competent to comment upon the written expression of ideas. They were not ‘subject experts’. • However students did believe that a significant percentage of assessment marks available were allocated to clear expression of ideas. If nursing had few self-evident truths then the accurate expression of thought was considered critical. The extent to which students sought this help from lay supporters depended in large part upon their perceptions of tutors and concerns about the privacy of learning. However, in practice the volume of lay support guidance sought increased in the weeks preceding coursework submission. Students reported a ‘pressure cooker’ point three to four weeks into a module when the volume of new learning seemed difficult to manage and after which they had to reorder their thoughts if academic papers were to be clearly presented.
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B. Price
Between the pressure cooker point and assignment submission, students consulted lay supporters about the expression of their ideas on paper. Students employed ‘access gestures’ to prepare lay supporters for their role as critical readers of assignment work (see Table 1). It was important to establish the rationale for help seeking, the scope of guidance sought and how supporters’ contributions would later be valued. Students invested considerable effort in such negotiations and considered it time well spent away from study, especially where a supporter might remain a key advisor over time. Not only did it provide the student with thoughtful and accessible advice, but it also enabled them to manage their learning in a private way. Many students were circumspect about how much of their learning they wanted to show to tutors. Armed with the lay supporter’s critical feedback, students felt confident to either show their draft work to the tutor or to submit coursework direct to assessment. The lay supporter had provided a commentary not only upon the grammar
and syntax of the prepared work but frequently questions about arguments that did not seem to be sustained by the developing text. Whilst critical readers did not understand the content of the module, or important nursing concepts, they were considered good at spotting ‘undefended assumptions’ or ‘confused reasoning’ within a paper.
Conclusions As with an iceberg, the bulk of lay support lies hidden from view. Tutors in this study were unaware of the volume and nature of support offered to students and ignorant of how important this seemed in terms of sustaining study. Nurse learners drew upon a lay support network. Some of this was well organized and regularly consulted. Critical readers for instance were frequently asked to comment on draft ideas especially where in the past this seemed to help students clarify their arguments. Other support was less successful. Efforts to manage the demands of study alongside other
Table 1 Access gestures and the pursuit of critical reader support. Gesture
Student focus
Student concerns
Asking for help, e.g., ‘I was wondering whether you had time to look at some of my draft work for an assignment?’
Establishing that the helper has the time and interest to assist
Defining help sought, e.g., ‘What would really help would be if you could comment on the presentation – the way I explain my ideas’
Setting parameters upon the sort of feedback sought. Students may have particular concerns about a piece of work, but these were always presentational in nature. Critical readers were not ‘subject experts’ Students sought a moral form of help that did not contravene assessment regulations but which did allow them to try out their written expression in private Students were mindful that supporters might be anxious about the usefulness of advice
To ensure that this assistance is not seen as unduly onerous. The student might explain that ‘glancing over’ the work will probably be sufficient Assuring the helper about the volume and complexity of guidance sought. This is within your abilities. Students signaled respect for the supporter’s expertise
Establishing the ethics of requested help, e.g., ‘I don’t want you to tell me what to put – this isn’t coaching’
Acknowledging personal responsibilities, e.g., ‘Don’t worry, I will take responsibility for what I write. I have to decide what guidance to follow and I won’t blame you’ Sustaining trust, e.g., ‘Look, I got a B for that assignment. I wanted you to take a look at my answer and the tutor’s comments. It’s all my own material, but your suggestion about sorting out the focus in those paragraphs was really important’
Students wanted to reward supporters by sharing tutor feedback. They reinforced their personal responsibilities for what had been submitted, but celebrated the wisdom of the critical reader
Students were aware of the risks of plagiarism and cheating. They sought private help but were alert to how this might be misconstrued by examiners Because students hoped to repeat requests for critical readership in the future, they were at pains to reassure supporters that they would not be blamed for assessment outcomes Critical reading involves time and effort so it was necessary to acknowledge such contributions to supporters. Supporters might then own some of the pleasure in the student’s progress
Supporting nurses study: lay supporters and their work
personal commitments were, like the proverbial curate’s egg, good in parts. Where students negotiated new responsibilities for lay supporters, and then trusted such individuals to develop the necessary skills, significant amounts of study time became available. Where students negotiated that others would complete tasks on their behalf, support was likely to falter or even fail within the early modules of study. What was critical to compensation work was whether supporters committed to new responsibilities and whether the student was tolerant of the supporters’ mistakes en route. Where students and their supporters viewed study as requiring a significant adjustment in lifestyle, larger study gains were there to be made. In practice though, the majority of students requested help with tasks and subsequently took back responsibility for getting the work done. Whilst female students in this study received uneven support from lay supporters there was evidence to suggest that they were well served at assignment preparation times by protective spouses. Male partners did understand the stresses associated with coursework preparation and were prepared to assist the student to concentrate hard upon assignments. There was no evidence of male opposition to study, but significant evidence that families were working very hard and sometimes unsuccessfully to cope with the multiple demands of work and study. Nurse learners completed their studies despite the fact that both partners were working and that they were often caring for children or others. In the current climate, it seems unlikely that nurses will secure more access to full time education. The majority of us will continue to juggle our responsibilities. This study highlights the importance of lay support to part time learners. It also prompts questions about how we might work more effectively with lay supporters to help students succeed? Forewarning families about which support strategies work best seems a promising first step.
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Briefing tutors about the concerns that students have regarding the exposure of their learning seems equally important. The more we understand about where students seek support and what sorts of help they get in different places, the better equipped we will be to devise education that limits student attrition and maximizes learning.
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