Influence of workplace culture on Student Nursing Associates learning.

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    An ethnographic study into workplace culture within community hospital settings and how this influences the workbased learning of Student Nursing Associates.

  • IRAS ID

    340539

  • Contact name

    Kirsty Mason

  • Contact email

    kirsty.mason@dmu.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    De Montfort University

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    3 years, 2 months, 30 days

  • Research summary

    This study focuses on how workplace culture and multidisciplinary relationships and interactions within community hospital settings influence the knowledge, skills and professional behaviours which Student Nursing Associates (SNAs) learn in the workplace, and in turn how this shapes their clinical performance and role.

    This study is a qualitative study adopting a focused ethnographic design. The study population will consist of approximately 24 participants, broken down into; 6 SNAs and 12 healthcare professionals, such as Registered Nurses, Health Care Assistants, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Doctors, Clinical Managers and 6 patients, the population will be recruited from community hospital settings within two Patient Identification Centre (PICs), which are Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT) and Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Trust (NHFT).

    The methods to be used to collect data are non participant observation and semi structured interviews, whilst a pre determined interview schedule has been constructed, there is some flexibility in this, as the data collected in the observations will if it identifies an interesting phenomena, be used to inform the development of an interview question, the interviews will be conducted as soon after the observations as possible, so participants are able to remember what occurred during the observation of their clinical practice or episode of care. Data collection will occur over a four month time period for participants. As there are two cohorts of SNAs per year, one commencing in spring and the other commencing in Autumn and the programme lasts for 2 years, there will be 4 cohorts which I will be recruiting participants from. However, some of these cohorts are very small in size and there may only be a couple of SNAs from each NHS Trust supported to undertake the Nursing Associate Apprenticeship in each cohort from within the community hospital settings.

  • REC name

    North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 1 Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    25/NE/0081

  • Date of REC Opinion

    28 May 2025

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion