M.Cur. (Nursing Education) / A National Family Planning Programme was launched during 1974 by die Government in the Republic of South Africa (R.S.A). The rendering of the clinical family planni~g services was assigned to medicalpractitioners and nurses. Special courses were instituted in the main centres of the R.S.A with the aim of supplementing knowledge which wasgained by nurses during their basic training. Since no curriculum can be considered as being perfect, it was intended withthis study to evaluate the present curriculumand to determine whether the methods of presentation are effective. A literature study was conducted and it was found that the family planning programme is directed towards the improvement of health and not population control. Curriculum building was studied in depth and a survey was conducted by means of a questionnaire. The curriculum, teaching methods and techniques implemented to prepare nurses to practice as clinical family planning nurses were researched. The findings indicated that the course content included subject matter that was already known to the nurse. The importance of having training officers to conduct the course who are proficient in adult teaching became evident. It is therefore recommended that only certain aspects of the present course be presented bypersonswho are skilled in adult teaching.

M.Cur. / Over the years the field and scope of the Registered Tutor in South Africa has become more comprehensive. The nurse tutor's activities have extended from just the preparation of school leavers who entered professional training to the formal education of nurses at all levels of basic, post-basic and post-graduate nursing programmes and informal education, to highly experienced professional nurses in in-service and informal continuing education programmes. The nurse tutor's educational duties cover both the classroom and the various fields of nursing practice. She is therefore concerned with the educative process at a variety of levels. In the clinical teaching situation she might have to participate in health education activities for patients, clients and relatives and educate future and newly qualified nurse practitioners to fulfil their role as health educators, as well as instructors of students, pupils and assistant nurses. To some extent she also participates in the education of other health service personnel either at formal or at clinical instruction level. Since 1986 the nurse tutor's scope has further extended with the institution of the comprehensive four-year course. Her administrative functions namely planning, organisation, accompaniment and evaluation contributes to her main function teaching. The new course provides for the opportunity to use a variety of teaching methods besides the traditional lecture method. Also, she participates in curriculum building as well as the planning of her own syllabus. She now also has a greater input in the clinical field by guiding the students.

M.Cur. / The effective application of learning opportunities for health care necessitates attention for practice. A conceptual guideline has been compiled according to a literature study in order to determine the practice of health education. In this research into learning opportunities for the presentation of the module, mother and child health services in community health nursing, the method adopted was the following: the student nurse was actively involved in the teaching process by way of group discussion, thereby acquiring greater cognitive skill s, through practical guidance the student nurse is given an opportunity to master interpersonal skills, The results have shown that student nurses ought to be exposed to various teaching methods as early in their trainfng as possible in order to exercise in practfce, the mastering of interpersonal skill s, In order to demonstrate the effect of group activity and role play to the student nurse, certain recommendations have been made. The most important include the following: It would appear that' traditional lecture methods .alone are not sufficient for the training of student nurses in the field of rendering health counselling. The student nurse should therefore be actively involved through teaching methods such as group discussions and role play. As early in the student nurse's training as possible the importance of establishing and maintaining sound interpersonal skills for effective health counselling should be emphasized.

M.Cur. (Professional Nursing) / The purpose of this study is to describe the guidelines for creating a cultural sensitive learning context. In present- day South Africa the learning accompanist is faced with the challenge to create a didactic situation which accommodates the cultural diversity of students. In the dynamic interactive relationship between the learning accompanist and the student, the student has the right to be treated with respect and human dignity. This right can only be respected if the learning accompaniment takes place from a cultural- sensitive perspective. The paradigmatic perspective that guides this research is described by means of metatheoretlcal, theoretical and methodological assumptions. The Nursing Theory for the Whole Person was used as meta- theoretical assumption. the theoretical assumptions were set from the Nursing Theory for the Whole Person. the U Model vir begeleide selfstudie .. (Klopper 1994) and Chrisman's (1991) .. Cultural Sensitive Nursing Care u. The methodological assumptions of the study are based on Botes" research model (1992) implying a functional approach to practice of science. The experience of the learning accompanists and students in a multicultural learning context was explored and supported by literature. From this data statements were generated indiVidually for phase I and phase II of the research. Eight statements were generated from each phase. In chapter four the conceptual framework is described from concepts of phases I and II and relevant national and international literature. With the description of the conceptual framework main concepts and related concepts were determined analytically. A total of nineteen statements were generated from the main and related concepts. A total of thirty five statements were generated from phases I and II and the conceptual framework. The guidelines for creating a cultural- sensitive didactic situation were inferred by means of deductive and inductive reasoning from these statements. The guidelines focus on the actions a learning accompanist should carry out within a multicultural didactic situation in order to carry create a cultural- sensitive didactic situation. The unique contribution of this research arises from the description of a multicultural didactic situation of nursing within the constructivist learning perspective.

M.Cur. / The purpose of nursing, as a human clinical health science, is to give a comprehensive, purposeful service to mankind in totality. This service must be supported by sound theoretical background. In ~he nurse's training, theoretical knowledge must be integrated with the practical situation to encourage the development of the student as a professional person, to an experienced practitioner. For the purpose of this study, a descriptive contextual research was done to determine to what extent the present block system training program facilitates the integration of theory and practice to the first year student. Through relevant literature search and by using the Nursing for the Whole Person theory, the model for accompaniment and the curriculum development model, a conceptual framework was compiled.

M.Cur. / College management is liable for quality management ofthe college to facilitate quality education. Nursing collegeshave the autonomous responsibility for planning, organising, implementing and controlling nursing education in order to ensure the achievement of programme objectives set by the South African Nursing Council. The college is further accountable to the community for the training of nurses to meet their health needs. Through the implementation of quality improvement strategies, which begin with the description of standards, the college manager accepts responsibility for facilitating quality nursing education through quality management. The purpose of the study was to describe standards for a nursing college, which can be used as a management instrument to facilitate quality education, as well as effective functioning of a nursing college. The aim of the study is justified by means of a descriptive, explorative, contextual research design. Standards for a nursing college were developed and validated by utilising a structured two-phase research method. For the development of standards, the Delphi method, round one, was used to identify subjects for standards, after which a preliminary conceptual framework was compiled. A comprehensive literature control was then undertaken to refine the preliminary conceptual framework. A final conceptual framework was formulated which served as a basis for the description of standards. The final validation of standards occurred in the quantifying phase by means of consensus discussions between experts during round two of the Delphi method. The main subjects for which standards were described, include philosophy, mission, strategic planning, personnel management, general management, research role of the tutor, community involvement, academy, students and quality improvement programme. Structural standards, which can be utilized as a management instrument, were described and represented in the form of an accreditation instrument. The purpose of this instrument is for management to use it for self-evaluation, while the standards are implemented and tested in the nursing colleges.

The transition period from student nurses to professional nurses has been acknowledged as being very stressful, particularly in the military health service due to the dual transition. The phase is marked as final year nursing students try to consolidate the experience and knowledge gained during their four year training period with clinical decision making and problem solving skills being applied in the work environment. The students require support and guidance to effect a successful transition from being a student to being a professional nurse. The transition of students in the military health setting might be experienced differently due to the context that is vastly different from the other health care settings (Moore, 2006:541). The aim of the research was to explore the experiences of role transition of final year nursing students, particularly their preparedness to take up the role of a professional nurse in the military health setting in order to assist managers and educators to support and facilitate this professional adjustment appropriately. A qualitative, descriptive, contextual design was employed for the study and followed a three-phase approach. Phase one comprised a qualitative approach, where semi-structured and focus group interviews were conducted to gather the data. Nurse managers, nurse educators, final year nursing students and novice professional nurses formed part of the population for the study. Creswell’s method of data analysis was employed in analysing the data. The second phase dealt with the integrative review of literature on the transition of final year nursing students into professional nurses. Data extracted from the guidelines formed themes that were triangulated to form phase three of the study. Lastly, a best practice guideline was developed to facilitate the transition period of final year nursing students to professional nurses. Principles of trustworthiness were adhered to, participants were treated in a fair manner and confidential information was not divulged without the consent of the participants. Participants were asked to take part voluntarily and without coercion. Ethical approval was requested to give consent for the study to be undertaken and ethical principles were adhered to throughout the study. Findings were then disseminated after the conclusion of the study.

M.Cur. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Cur. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Nurses, especially those who care for the critically ill, are required to perform high-level intensive clinical care. It is common for complicated procedures such as therapeutic hypothermia (TH) to be done infrequently at small community hospitals. According to the 2020 recommendations by the American Heart Association (AHA), “prompt initiation of targeted temperature management (formally known as TH) is necessary for all patients who do not follow commands after return of spontaneous circulation to ensure optimal functional and neurological outcome” (Panchal et al., 2020, p.S366). These high-risk, low-frequency protocols typically require nurses to be able to perform these procedures in a time-sensitive manner. If the procedures are not done correctly, they can have negative patient outcomes. Patients are put into medically induced comas, maintained on ventilators, cooled to very low body temperatures, and often medically paralyzed to inhibit shivering. Each of these conditions has the potential for adverse outcomes and together can lead to poor neurological outcomes and even death (Kim et al., 2015). Health educators have the opportunity to provide knowledge and support to these nurses as a way to improve patient outcomes. In this study, a patient care checklist and an online self-learning module were developed for nurses to learn how to perform this high-risk procedure quickly and effectively. A focus group was then conducted with a group of nurses to gain feedback on the checklist and module, and these data informed specific changes to these materials. Then, drawing on a sample of 60 nurses and using a post-study design, data were collected to determine the effectiveness of the checklist and online module as compared to a control group of nurses who read a scholarly article on the same subject. Data were collected at two time points for both the experimental and control groups. The results indicated that nurses who used the online learning tool scored higher in the post-assessment than those in the control group (t = 6.092, p < .001, BCondition = 3.865), with a remarkably high effect size, r2 = 0.379. Moreover, 77% of the nurses agreed that protocols and checklists helped nurses minimize disparities in patient health outcomes. Additionally, 95% of the nurses agreed that patient care checklists helped them care for patients when delivering high-risk, low-volume protocols such as TH. This study demonstrated that online learning tools provide an effective way to educate nurses, and checklists and protocols support the implementation of high-risk, low-volume procedures such as TH.