Lessons from the changing regulatory boardroom on ‘onboarding’: An Irish perspective

Regulation of nursing and midwifery in Ireland experienced an ideological shift with the enactment of the Nurses and Midwives Act 2011. This Act migrated board membership from traditional registrant-led self-regulation, to a non-registrant majority, colloquially ‘the lay-majority’. This paper reviews the experiences of board members on being part of this lay-majority, the concept of board member identity, and members’ experiences of onboarding. Interpretativist in nature, an insider, action research, mixed methods frame was deployed. Findings demonstrate the lay-majority concept was initially contentious for registrants. Data also highlights a disparity between members’ expectations and experienced boardroom realities. Finally, board members’ experiences of onboarding were of a process in need of improvement. The paper concludes by proposing a ‘lifecycle model of regulatory board member onboarding’. This model stresses the importance of board members’ understanding of the regulatory governance frame, and application of sociocultural approaches to learning as key enablers to becoming an effective board member.