"Sink or Swim": An Ethnographic Study of Nurse Educators in Academic Culture.

Aim: The aim of this study was to describe the cultural context of academic nurse educators through the use of ethnography.

Background: This cultural context has seldom been explored from the perspective of nursing faculty.

Method: Twelve interviews, followed by ethnographic data analysis, identified domains with related components describing this culture.

Results: Participants cited metaphors of water (e.g., sink or swim, keeping head above water) in describing the culture. Challenges included demanding workloads, challenging interchanges, negotiating a complex bureaucracy, and finding trusted individuals willing to provide a network of support. Faculty reported interactions to be guarded, uncivil, and conflict avoidant within a bureaucracy of slow pace of work, resistance to change, heavy workloads, and requirements for scholarship that are not clear or consistently enforced.

Conclusion: Clinical nurses who enter the academic culture must learn patterned ways of thinking and earn credibility. A key to adaptation is finding colleagues who will provide a support network.