Determining institutional support needed for embedding service-learning in nursing at a Higher Education Institution in the Western Cape

Abstract

Service-learning (SL) is regarded as a teaching and learning method combining community participation with content-based class discussion and reflection. It involves a teaching and learning assessment process with community members. It therefore combines theory-based knowledge learnt at a Higher Education Institution (HEI) and the learning experiences produced through community engagement. National guidelines developed by the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) are available for higher education to institutionalise service-learning (SL) in South African HEIs, but widespread inconsistencies with the implementation of these guidelines have been reported. This thesis is informed by a previous study conducted at an HEI in Western Cape that identified constraining factors required to institutionalisation SL within an academic programme. The aim of this study was to determine the institutional support needed for embedding service-learning in nursing at a Higher Education Institution in the Western Cape. A quantitative, descriptive, cross sectional survey design was used. The study population consisted of 60 nurse educators (lecturers and clinical supervisors). All-inclusive sampling was used because of the small number in the population. All questions were statistically analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS 24) to provide descriptive statistics. The data was summarized, and the descriptive statistics were presented as frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviation.