# Nurse lecturers’ perceptions of their professional dignity: A phenomenological study

## TL;DR

This study explores how nursing lecturers in South Africa feel about their professional dignity based on their treatment and work environment.

## Contribution

The study identifies specific factors influencing nursing lecturers' perceived professional dignity in a South African educational context.

## Key findings

- Lecturers feel dignified when respected and in empowering environments.
- Perceived dignity is influenced by treatment from students and managers.
- Supporting factors include collegiality and self-determination.

## Abstract

Lecturers who are working in empowering environments and are treated with respect by students and managers, feel dignified and capable of being positive role models to their students. The opposite happens when they are not treated with respect and experience challenging working environments.

The aim of the study was to explore and describe how nursing lecturers of a designated education institution in South Africa experienced factors that influenced their perceived professional dignity.

A descriptive phenomenological research design with a constructivist paradigm applied. Individual interviews were conducted with lecturers to obtain answers to the question ‘How do you experience factors at the institution that influence your dignity as a professional person?’ Probes were used encouraging the participants to comprehensively describe their experiences. The data were analysed according to the steps designed by Giorgi in which the natural dimension of the phenomenon as narrated by the participants was transformed into the phenomenological dimension of the phenomenon.

The study was undertaken in South Africa at a nursing education institution and 18 voluntary purposively selected lecturers were involved.

The Faculty of Health Sciences Research Ethics Committee at the University of Pretoria approved the proposal and the applicable authorities gave written permission for the research to be conducted. Informed voluntary consent was obtained from the participants before the research commenced.

The essence of the participants’ experiences refer to ‘longing for professional dignity.’ The supporting constituents are: ‘acknowledging lecturers as specialists’, ‘enhancing their self-determination’, ‘acknowledging their capabilities’, ‘promoting collegiality’, ‘creating conducive teaching environments’, ‘being respected by students’, and ‘perceiving lecturers as possessing integrity’.

The participants’ perceived dignity was influenced by the way they had been treated by students and managers at the designated institution. Their working environment also impacted on their perceived professional dignity.