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Background: This research addressed the need to have a deeper understanding of nursing students’ experiences of clinical placement and support in primary healthcare (PHC) settings. Aim: To explore and describe the experiences of nursing students’ clinical placement in PHC settings. Setting: The study was conducted at PHC clinics in a specific province in South Africa. Method: A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual research design was used. The population comprised fourth-year nursing students selected using purposive sampling. Five semi-structured focus group interviews were conducted. Data saturation determined the sample size which comprised 25 nursing students. Thematic data analysis produced four main themes. Results: The main themes were (1) the meaning of placement, (2) experiences of clinical placement, (3) needs for support, and (4) resilience of nursing students. Conclusions: Nursing students encountered negative and positive experiences. Both experiences confirmed that PHC settings can be valuable learning opportunities for nursing students. Nursing students appreciated the supervision of professional nurses who created an atmosphere conducive for teaching and learning by welcoming and encouraging nursing students’ independence. Recommendations include: appointing a professional nurse specifically for supervision of nursing students, tutor support before summative examinations, improvement of services, including the availability of resources. Contribution: This article contributes to awareness of how nursing students manage to stay resilient irrespective of negative experiences during clinical placement and how tutors and professional nurses can support them. The study’s recommendations can guide professional nurses, nurse educators, nurse managers and other healthcare PHC workers to support nursing students.

Higher cognitive skills are essential competencies for nurses joining the technologically and increasingly complex health care environment to provide safe and effective nursing care. Educators and clinical facilitators have recognised that newly qualified nurses do not meet the expectations for entry level clinical judgement and are held accountable for finding adequate learning experiences as preparation for such practice demands. An explorative and descriptive qualitative design was followed in this study to reach an understanding of clinical judgement in the clinical nursing environment from the perspective of professional nurses. Eleven professional nurses (n = 11) working at primary health care clinics, public and private hospitals participated voluntarily. Data was collected by means of the “World Cafe” method, incorporating a combination of techniques such as interviewing, discussions, drawings, narratives and reflection. The focus was on professional nurses' knowledge of the meaning of clinical judgement and factors influencing the development of clinical judgement in the clinical environment. Qualitative thematic content analysis principles were applied during data analysis. The findings were integrated with the relevant literature to culminate in conclusions that should add to the knowledge base of clinical judgement as an essential skill for improving autonomous and accountable nursing care.Keywords: Clinical nursing environment, Cognitive reasoning skills, Quality nursing care, Nursing student

Background: Professional nurses employed in trauma units encounter numerous stressors in their practice environment. They use different strategies to cope with this stress, including venting traumatic information to their partners and other family members. Aims: To describe how partners of professional nurses cope with traumatic information being vented to them. Methods: A qualitative research method with an interpretive descriptive inquiry design was used to explore, interpret and describe the coping experiences of the nurses’ partners. Purposive sampling was used to select a total of 14 partners, but only ten participated in semi-structured interviews. Tesch’s eight steps of open coding were used for data analysis. Results: Four main themes were identified indicating adaptive and maladaptive coping skills, namely partners’ experiences of traumatic information vented to them; partners’ coping activities; reciprocal communication and relationship support between partners and nurses; and resilience of partners to deal with the nursing profession. Conclusion: Partners employed different ways to cope with traumatic information. It was essential for partners and nurses to be supported by nurses’ practice environments and to develop resilience to fulfil reciprocal supportive roles in their relationships.

Background A shortage of nurses caring for older persons is experienced due to adverse working conditions. Resilience might empower nurses to persevere while caring for older persons. Research regarding the resilience of nurses caring for older persons is scarce. Objectives The objectives were to explore and describe the strengths and coping abilities of nurses caring for older persons and to formulate recommendations to strengthen their resilience. Methodology An explorative, descriptive qualitative research design was used. An all-inclusive sample of nurses caring for older persons in an urban setting in the North West Province, South Africa, participated in the study. During phase one, demographic information was obtained, and narratives were written (n = 43). Four focus group interviews were conducted in phase two (n = 17) and recommendations were formulated in phase three. Content analysis was used. Principal results Participants experienced adverse working circumstances while caring for older persons and they needed resilience to balance the emotional nature of the work, work ethics, staff shortages, physical demands of the work and the dependency of the older persons. These nurses used personal, professional, contextual and spiritual strengths to handle adverse working conditions. Conclusions By applying their personal, professional, contextual and spiritual strengths, nurses could further enhance these strengths and possibly their resilience. The participants' identified strengths were used to formulate recommendations to strengthen resilience of nurses caring for older persons.