From leadership research to district action: Work Experience of Sessional Teaching Staff in Pre‐Registration Nursing Programmes: A Cross‐Sectional Study

AI-assisted editorial implementation guide. Proposed district actions are separate from the original authors’ findings and recommendations. Independent peer review of this guide is not asserted.

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Evidence and transfer

Education-related source: verify which participants, institutions and outcomes were actually studied before district adoption. Source publication type: research-article. License and identity checks do not establish study quality or causality.

Original authors’ abstract, reproduced under the source license:

ABSTRACT Background Internationally, sessional nursing staff play an important role in meeting the teaching requirements for the increased demand in nursing student enrolment. In Australia, pre‐registration nursing programmes are university programmes that prepare students for initial registration as registered nurses. Little research has been undertaken to understand their experiences to ensure a sustainable nurse education workforce. Objective To explore the experiences of sessional staff working in pre‐registration nursing programmes in Australia. Design A cross‐sectional online survey. Setting and Participants Sessional nursing staff working in pre‐registration nursing programmes in Australia for at least 12 months. Methods Participants were invited to complete an online survey using the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire version III (COPSOQ–III) middle‐length version. Participants were recruited via email and online platforms. Data were analysed using descriptive and non‐parametric techniques including determining correlations between different subscales. Results A total of 84 participants were included. Most participants were female (83.3%) and over 50 years old (51.2%). The majority of the participants had less than 5 years of sessional experience (58.3%). Only 26.2% (n = 22) of the participants intended to become permanent academics. Participants generally reported favourable working experiences. ‘Job satisfaction’ was found to be positively correlated with several subscales including ‘social support from supervisor’ (r = 0.64, p < 0.001), ‘social support from colleagues’ (r = 0.54, p < 0.001) and ‘sense of community’ (r = 0.64, p < 0.001). Conclusion This study provides new insights into the sessional nursing workforce, including their demographics and work experiences. It identified factors related to positive work experience, such as opportunities for professional development, sense of community, quality leadership and support. Strengthening these factors may improve the work experience of sessional staff, contribute to reduced attrition and support workforce sustainability. Keywords: casual, experience, nursing education, psychosocial factors, sessional, sustainability, workforce

Study methods

A quantitative cross‐sectional study design was used for this study. The survey was administered via an online platform, Qualtrics (https://www.qualtrics.com). This study adhered to the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) reporting guideline for cross‐sectional studies from the Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research (EQUATOR) network (Vandenbroucke et al. 2007).

Limitations

Participants in this study were from Australian universities which may not be representative of the sessional nursing staff experience worldwide. Future studies may consider recruiting participants globally. Although participants represented 25 educational institutions and varied in their demographic and professional characteristics, no national sampling frame or reliable demographic profile of the Australian sessional nursing academic workforce was available. Therefore, it was not possible to determine whether the sample was representative of the broader Australian sessional nursing academic workforce. The use of convenience sampling and voluntary participation may also have introduced self‐selection bias, as sessional nursing academics who were more engaged with or interested in their working experiences may have been more likely to participate. Sessional nursing academics with more stable or positive employment experiences may have been overrepresented, which may partly explain the relatively low perceived job insecurity and favourable working‐condition findings. As this study used a cross‐sectional design, the reported correlations indicate associations and cannot establish causal relationships between workplace factors and participants' experiences. The use of self‐reported survey data may also have introduced response bias including differences in how participants interpreted and reported their working experiences.

A 90-day district inquiry

Days 1–15 · Appraise. Read the source methods, recruitment, comparator, outcomes and limitations. Record how the study setting differs from your district and which claim the design can support.
Days 16–30 · Design. Choose one recurring leadership practice described in the source. Map its participants, incentives and constraints to a district setting, then design a small reversible staff pilot with an accountable owner. Agree participation, privacy protections, baseline and stopping rules before starting.
Days 31–60 · Observe. Collect the pre-agreed measures, keep a log of implementation changes and invite confidential voluntary feedback. Preserve existing support for staff and learners.
Days 61–90 · Decide. Record implementation fidelity, staff review time, task quality and unintended burdens against a baseline. Use a comparison team where feasible and document alternative explanations before expanding. Make a dated decision to stop, revise or extend the inquiry.

Board decision brief

Present the local problem, source setting, evidence limits, intervention, responsible owner, total cost, measured changes and uncertainty. Separate staff perceptions, implementation measures and student learning outcomes.

Attribution and reuse

Thomas Aaron Ricks; Elisabeth Jacob; Louisa Lam. Work Experience of Sessional Teaching Staff in Pre‐Registration Nursing Programmes: A Cross‐Sectional Study. Nursing Open (2026-10-01). https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.70862

Prepared 2026-11-07. Source authorship and DOI are preserved. The abstract and source passages are attributed extracts; this editorial guide is offered under the same CC BY 4.0 license.