Nurse educators’ experiences implementing work-integrated learning in the R171 nursing program at a college

Background: The global call for nursing education transformation is gaining momentum. South Africa’s R171 nursing programme, revised since 1984, aims to produce generalist nurse practitioners with required competencies. This research aims to explore nurse educators’ experiences in implementing the R171 nursing programme. Aim: To explore the experiences of nurse educators implementing R171 work-integrated learning (WIL). Setting: The interviews took place at a nursing college in a private room with no interruptions. Unstructured interviews were used. Methods: The study utilised a qualitative descriptive phenomenological design to investigate the experiences of nurse educators implementing the R171 nursing programme. The participants were selected through non-probability purposive sampling from the Gauteng College of Nursing (GCON) campuses. The sample size was determined by data saturation. Data were collected through unstructured interviews. Results: The study identifies five themes: WIL allocation in the R171 nursing programme, challenges faced by nurse educators, consequences of these challenges, identified strengths and recommendations made by these educators for implementing the R171 WIL programme. Conclusion: The study revealed challenges in student nurse placements, including access to clinical practice areas, discipline time, assessments, staff shortage and resource limitations. Contribution: The study recommends revising the R171 programme, phasing it out over a year, increasing WIL hours, starting the primary healthcare (PHC) module in the second year, improving infrastructure and re-establishing the Clinical Education and Training Unit (CETU).