MCur / Department of Advanced Nursing Science / See the attached abstract below

Workplace violence directed at student nurses in training in psychiatric institutions is a significant concern as it negatively affects the quality of learning and causes the students to have a negative perception of nursing as a profession. The absence of scientific data describing the perceptions of student nurses about workplace violence and their clinical learning outcome motivated the researcher to conduct the study. Quantitative, descriptive research was conducted to explore the influence that workplace violence will have on clinical learning outcomes of student nurses who are studying psychiatric nursing at psychiatric institutions in KwaZulu-Natal, in South Africa. Data was gathered using a 71 question questionnaire, which was adapted from the one used by Hewett (2010). With the necessary permission from the health authorities, the campus principals and the nursing students, a group of 4th year student nurses (n=163) from 6 campuses of the KwaZulu-Natal College of Nursing (KZNCN) who have worked in psychiatric units for at least 3 months and longer participated in the study. The study highlighted the types of workplace violence encountered by student nurses, the effects of workplace violence on students’ academic performance and the barriers to the reporting of workplace violence encountered by the student nurses. The study revealed that there is a large amount of non-physical, some physical and a few incidents of sexual violence directed towards the student nurses at the psychiatric institutions, and that it has a negative impact on student learning. The recommendations emanating from the study support the idea of a shared responsibility between healthcare and education institutions and the focus is on preparing and equipping the student psychiatric nurses to confront, withstand and break the cycle of workplace violence. / Health Studies / M.A. (Nursing Science)

Text in English / The current changes in health care systems challenges knowledgeable, mature and independent practitioners to be able to integrate theoretical content with practice. The study aims to investigate the problems of integrating theory with practice in selected clinical nursing situations. The study focused on the rendering of family planning services to clients which is a component of Community Nursing Science. The findings of the study reveal that there is a need for an integrated holistic curriculum which will address the needs of the community. It was concluded that a problem-based and community-based curriculum, safe and patient-friendly clinical environments, intersectoral collaboration between college and hospital management and student involvement in all processes of teaching and learning will improve the integration of theory and practice. There also appears to be a need for tutors to be more involved in clinical teaching, accompaniment and the continuous evaluation of students. / Health Studies / M.A. (Nursing Science)

Text in English / The current changes in health care systems challenges knowledgeable, mature and independent practitioners to be able to integrate theoretical content with practice. The study aims to investigate the problems of integrating theory with practice in selected clinical nursing situations. The study focused on the rendering of family planning services to clients which is a component of Community Nursing Science. The findings of the study reveal that there is a need for an integrated holistic curriculum which will address the needs of the community. It was concluded that a problem-based and community-based curriculum, safe and patient-friendly clinical environments, intersectoral collaboration between college and hospital management and student involvement in all processes of teaching and learning will improve the integration of theory and practice. There also appears to be a need for tutors to be more involved in clinical teaching, accompaniment and the continuous evaluation of students. / Health Studies / M.A. (Nursing Science)