Development of a conceptual framework for teaching-learning of spiritual care in nursing education.

Background:  Conceptual frameworks are not only necessary for maintaining and preserving nursing knowledge through their unique contribution, but they also assist in the organisation and provision of complex nursing interventions. The lack of formal integration of spiritual care in health professions' education is blamed on the unavailability of guiding models among other challenges such as unavailability of relevant theories.

Objectives:  The objective of this article was to describe the process followed to develop a conceptual framework as the basis for a practice theory for teaching-learning of spiritual care in nursing.

Objective structured clinical examination: Do first-year nursing students perceive it to be stressful?

Background:  The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is widely accepted as an effective means of assessing clinical competence and nursing skills. There is, however, little existing knowledge on how first-year nursing students perceived stress during their first OSCE.

Objectives:  To determine the perception of stress; to identify the perceived factors causing stress; and to determine the perceived incidence of stress.

Students' voices on spiritual care at a Higher Education Institution in the Western Cape.

Background: Nurses have a moral obligation to ensure holistic care of patients, inclusive of the spiritual dimension. However, there seems to be a void in the teaching and learning of spiritual care in nursing curricula. Despite the South African Nursing Council being in favour of holistic nursing, there are no measures in place to ensure implementation of spiritual care, hence its practice is not standardised in nursing education in South Africa.

Nurse educators' experiences of case-based education in a South African nursing programme.

Background: A school of nursing at a university in the Western Cape experienced an increase in student enrolments from an intake of 150 students to 300 students in the space of one year. This required a review of the teaching and learning approach to ensure that it was appropriate for effective facilitation of large classes. The case-based education (CBE) approach was adopted for the delivery of the Bachelor of Nursing programme in 2005.

Lived experiences of a community regarding its involvement in a university community-based education programme.

Background: Community involvement is one of the crucial principles in the implementation of successful community-based education programmes. However, a gap continues to exist between the rhetoric of this principle and the reality of involving or engaging communities in the education of health professionals.

Objectives: This study investigated the experiences of a community regarding its involvement in a community-based education programme offered by a university nursing school in Durban, South Africa.