Experiences of newly qualified nurses at University of Limpopo, Turfloop Campus executing community services in Limpopo Province, South Africa

The purpose of the research was to explore and describe the experiences of newly qualified nurses who were trained in University of Limpopo, Turfloop Campus executing community services within public health establishments of Limpopo Province, South Africa. A qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual research design with a phenomenological approach was adopted. The study population included all newly qualified nurses of University of Limpopo: Turfloop Campus who completed their studies in 2009 and 2010, and were placed in Capricorn, Sekhukhune and Waterberg districts of Limpopo Province. Data were collected through semi-structured face to face interviews of newly qualified nurses who met the sampling criteria. purposive sampling was used for the study. Data were qualitatively analyzed according to Tesch’s descriptive approach. Two main themes emerged; first was the negative factors that challenged community service nurses. Sub-themes that were in line with the first theme were poor orientation, lack of supervision, lack of team-work, low remunerations, shortage of human resource (staff) and shortage of material resources. The second theme was the positive factors that community nurses encountered. Results revealed that community service nurses encountered positive and negative factors in their new placements. It was concluded that community service nurses encountered challenges based on their subjective data. There is a need for stakeholders to professionally support community service nurses. Recommendations were suggested for relevant stakeholders to enable community service nurses to provide better quality nursing and midwifery care by creating a more positive and resourceful environment for them.Keywords: Community service, experience, placement and newly qualified nurses