The old age homes: Inclusive clinical sites for nursing students in Gauteng, South Africa

Abstract

Background: The alignment of the clinical placements of students to a range of clinical sites that responds to the primary health care agenda is part of the prescripts of the nursing program. The relevancy of old age homes that are serving the aged community has been a concerning omission by nursing education institutions.

Aim: This paper aims to establish if old age homes have learning opportunities and the infrastructure for basic nursing care linked to the primary health care agenda for nursing students.

Setting: The study was conducted at a private nursing education institution in Tshwane, South Africa.
Methodsv/*-: A quantitative descriptive research design was employed in this study. Descriptive statistics was used by a senior statistician to analyse6+3Sxc vb the themes and sub-categories. An intensive literature review was integrated into the analysis of data.

Results: A total of thirty-one second-year nursing students participated voluntarily in the study; they completed the closed-ended and open-ended questionnaires. Eighty-one percent agreed that old age homes have clinical learning opportunities in line with their first-level outcomes; however, they do not have the support and the infrastructure.

Conclusions: Analysing the findings, the conclusions can be drawn that nurse educators have not identified old age homes as clinical sites and that there are limitations that impact on the competency of students and the provision of basic nursing care to respond to the primary health care agenda.

Contribution: The results of this study contribute to the body of knowledge for nurse educators, old age homes, and policymakers