Guidelines for effective student accompaniment during community health nursing science clinical practice

M.Cur.Innovative and revolutionary changes in Nursing Education in South Africa have resulted in significant changes in student accompaniment. To give effect to these changes, two important aspects emerged. Firstly a facilitative process in the form of accompaniment of students and secondly the presence of a significant person to aid development of the student. THE AIM OF STUDY The overall aim of the study was to describe guidelines for effective student accompaniment during Community Health Nursing Science Clinical Practice. OBJECTIVES: to explore and describe students' needs for accompaniment during Community Health Nursing Science Clinical Practice to explore and describe the Community Health Nurses' perceived role in the accompaniment of students during Community Health Nursing Science Clinical Practice to describe guidelines for effective student accompaniment during Community Health Nursing Science Clinical Practice The study was explorative, descriptive and contextual and it used qualitative methods. The study was conducted in two phases. During phase 1 students' accompaniment needs were identified through written narrative sketches by forty second year students. Data analysis was done according to the protocol by Tesch. An interview schedule was developed from the results of phase 1 and used to guide the focus-group interview in phase 2. In phase 2, a focus-group interview was conducted with twelve Community Health Nurses to identify their perceived role in student accompaniment. In the first part of the interview an open question was asked, followed by questions based on the interview schedule. Data analysis in phase 2 was done according to the protocol by Tesch. Guidelines for effective student accompaniment during Community Health Nursing Science Clinical Practice were described based on the results of phase 1 and phase 2 namely identified students needs for accompaniment and perceived accompaniment roles by the Community Health Nurses. Trustworthiness was ensured throughout the study by adhering to Lincoln and Guba's model of trustworthiness