The development of an implementation framework for service-learning during the undergraduate nursing programme in the Western Cape Province.

Background: Service-learning (SL) is a contested field of knowledge and issues of sustainability and scholarship have been raised about it. The South African Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) has provided policy documents to guide higher education institutions (HEIs) in the facilitation of SL institutionalisation in their academic programmes. An implementation framework was therefore needed to institutionalise the necessary epistemological shifts advocated in the national SL policy guidelines.

Cracking the nut of service-learning in nursing at a higher educational institution.

Background: The readiness of academics to engage in the service-learning (SL) institutionalisation process is not accentuated in research on SL institutionalisation in South Africa. The argument has been advanced that SL scholarship and willingness of key stakeholders are crucial for SL institutionalisation at the academic programme level.

Aim: The research focus of the study being reported here was on readiness of respondents to embed SL in the curricula of the nursing programme.