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Learning to Engage Children: Towards a model for Undergraduate Students in Nursing - a Grounded Theory study

In South Africa, paediatric nursing practice has traditionally been seen as a speciality. Yet in 1998, while a staggering 45% of the population were younger than 18 years, still only 2.4 % of all registered nurses held a Paediatric qualification1 and the reality of the size of the population of chil...

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Main Author: Coetzee, Minette
Other Authors: Thompson, Rosalie
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Nursing 2017
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access_status_str Open Access
author Coetzee, Minette
author2 Thompson, Rosalie
author_browse Coetzee, Minette
Thompson, Rosalie
author_facet Thompson, Rosalie
Coetzee, Minette
author_sort Coetzee, Minette
collection Thesis
description In South Africa, paediatric nursing practice has traditionally been seen as a speciality. Yet in 1998, while a staggering 45% of the population were younger than 18 years, still only 2.4 % of all registered nurses held a Paediatric qualification1 and the reality of the size of the population of children, continued to impact Health Service provision. The challenge of facilitating undergraduate students learning a traditionally post-basic nursing discipline led to this study in the Department of Nursing at the University of Cape Town. Here the philosophical approach is health based; whole-person orientated and family centred and the programme includes a distinct children's nursing component. The purpose of the study was to discover how student nurses learn to nurse children. Participants came from four consecutive student groups in their third year of undergraduate study. The use of grounded theory methodology allowed a rich understanding of the process to emerge. Data included participant observation and student descriptions, both private in reflective journals and narratives and corporate, in focus groups. In the wealth and variation of experience and learning, analysis of data confirmed the complex relational nature of students' learning. The relationships students establish with the children they encounter in the course of their learning emerged as central to their learning. Findings indicate that puzzling out connection is the students' basic social process in learning to nurse children. Students' experiences of childhood and parenting influence their expectations, interactions and application of learning. The various conditions that affect how students choose to engage children have been extensively explored and described. Students in this study engage children in four distinctive modes; which have been described as playful 1 connecting, dutiful safeguarding, in relay with the child's mother and distant doing. The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of how students learn to nurse, especially in the life stage of late adolescence. This is essential for structuring the learning environment and experiences of students learning to care for children.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:42:40.313Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2017
publishDateRange 2017
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publisher Nursing
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/24360 Learning to Engage Children: Towards a model for Undergraduate Students in Nursing - a Grounded Theory study Coetzee, Minette Thompson, Rosalie In South Africa, paediatric nursing practice has traditionally been seen as a speciality. Yet in 1998, while a staggering 45% of the population were younger than 18 years, still only 2.4 % of all registered nurses held a Paediatric qualification1 and the reality of the size of the population of children, continued to impact Health Service provision. The challenge of facilitating undergraduate students learning a traditionally post-basic nursing discipline led to this study in the Department of Nursing at the University of Cape Town. Here the philosophical approach is health based; whole-person orientated and family centred and the programme includes a distinct children's nursing component. The purpose of the study was to discover how student nurses learn to nurse children. Participants came from four consecutive student groups in their third year of undergraduate study. The use of grounded theory methodology allowed a rich understanding of the process to emerge. Data included participant observation and student descriptions, both private in reflective journals and narratives and corporate, in focus groups. In the wealth and variation of experience and learning, analysis of data confirmed the complex relational nature of students' learning. The relationships students establish with the children they encounter in the course of their learning emerged as central to their learning. Findings indicate that puzzling out connection is the students' basic social process in learning to nurse children. Students' experiences of childhood and parenting influence their expectations, interactions and application of learning. The various conditions that affect how students choose to engage children have been extensively explored and described. Students in this study engage children in four distinctive modes; which have been described as playful 1 connecting, dutiful safeguarding, in relay with the child's mother and distant doing. The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of how students learn to nurse, especially in the life stage of late adolescence. This is essential for structuring the learning environment and experiences of students learning to care for children. 2017-05-18T12:35:11Z 2017-05-18T12:35:11Z 2000 2017-03-27T07:19:10Z Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/11427/24360 eng application/pdf Nursing Faculty of Health Sciences University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Coetzee, Minette
Learning to Engage Children: Towards a model for Undergraduate Students in Nursing - a Grounded Theory study
title Learning to Engage Children: Towards a model for Undergraduate Students in Nursing - a Grounded Theory study
title_full Learning to Engage Children: Towards a model for Undergraduate Students in Nursing - a Grounded Theory study
title_fullStr Learning to Engage Children: Towards a model for Undergraduate Students in Nursing - a Grounded Theory study
title_full_unstemmed Learning to Engage Children: Towards a model for Undergraduate Students in Nursing - a Grounded Theory study
title_short Learning to Engage Children: Towards a model for Undergraduate Students in Nursing - a Grounded Theory study
title_sort learning to engage children towards a model for undergraduate students in nursing a grounded theory study
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/24360
work_keys_str_mv AT coetzeeminette learningtoengagechildrentowardsamodelforundergraduatestudentsinnursingagroundedtheorystudy