Closing the gap or transforming the crisis? A qualitative study on the mentoring model as a sustainable solution to instructor shortage in surgical nursing education.

BACKGROUND

Pressures on the global nursing education workforce and a growing shortage of clinical educators in surgical settings have placed preceptorship models at the heart of education. Viewing nursing education as a "revenue-generating commodity" raises concerns regarding the erosion of academic identity and the risk of disciplinary expertise being reduced to a technical craft.

AIM: This study aimed to describe the effects of the mentorship model in surgical nursing education on academic identity, pedagogical processes, and workforce sustainability, based on the perceptions of academicians and clinical mentor nurses.

DESIGN

A study using a qualitative descriptive design was conducted to gather in-depth perspectives from stakeholders in academic and clinical fields.

METHOD: Data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews; audio recordings were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using a self-reflective thematic analysis framework. The study involved 10 academics from the Department of Surgical Nursing and 10 preceptor nurses who supervise students in surgical clinics (Total N = 20).

FINDINGS: The analysis revealed four main themes: a shift in academic identity, highlighting the transition of academics from clinical expertise to administrative coordination; pedagogical tension, pointing to the risk of surgical nursing education devolving into the mere transfer of technical skills-or a "watch-and-do" model; a sustainability paradox, describing the invisible labor undertaken by clinical preceptors and the accompanying sense of burnout; and institutional disconnect, revealing-through the participants' own words-the gap between theory and clinical reality.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings indicate that participants perceive a significant risk regarding the sustainability of the current preceptorship model. Key implications arising from these findings include the development of defined collaboration protocols between the university and the hospital, the recognition of the educational contributions made by clinical preceptor nurses, and the piloting of clinical-academic hybrid staffing models.