Community Service Learning modules and other forms of Community - Based Education (CBE)
The four-year undergraduate curriculum of the School of Nursing is embedded in CBE, where students learn professional competencies in a community setting. Within this CBE context, five service-learning modules are offered. In the postgraduate programme, we also offer three service-learning modules.
For more information contact Ms I Seale.
Undergraduate programme:
First-year programme
Both theory modules are presented as service-learning modules. Students participated in personality profiling early in the year and learned how to work more effectively in groups.
Second-year programme
A buddy system was piloted for the first- and second-year students. This initiative consisted of second-year students assisting first-year students to gather community health-based information for a health data base on the Springfontein area.
Third-year programme
The wound care project started early in the second semester and lasted over a period of six weeks. During this time, the third-year nursing students worked in groups of six to eight students with patients suffering from chronic wounds, whom they identified in the community (National Hospital Dermatology Clinic).
Fourth-year programme: Midwifery
Supervised by a midwife, the fourth-year midwifery students visited mothers who gave birth during the ten-day period preceding the visit. The home-based care visits focused on mother and baby care, such as the management of engorged breasts and the care of the baby’s umbilicus.
Fourth-year programme: Mental Health
This module is a continuation of the previous year where the students were involved in two community projects. Firstly the students made low-cost toys for persons with intellectual disabilities. The challenge was to use the principles of stimulation to develop a toy that is tailor-made for an individual. The purpose of this project was to empower parents and/or caregivers to make inexpensive toys to stimulate children with intellectual disabilities. The community partners included families of children at the Beudene care facility and caregivers at the Free State Psychiatric Complex (FSPC). The service sector providers were Beudene and FSPC Care & Rehabilitation wards.
Post-basic Nursing Education programme
This module involves registered nurses who specialise in Nursing Education within the higher education field where the transformation dispensation is enhanced by using service learning as an educational approach. This approach facilitates the implementation of service activities related to educational practice; that is, the application of theory to practice.
Post-basic programme: Child Health Nursing
The service learning component of this module focused on children with special needs (orphans and vulnerable children) and the implementation of primary health care principles.
Post-basic programme: Child Psychiatry
The Child Psychiatric Nursing module is characterised by the passion and enthusiasm with which the Free State Psychiatric Complex staff and students contribute to the mental health of children and families. The implementation of this module took place in QwaQwa, Bethlehem and Kroonstad in collaboration with the child unit of the Free State Psychiatric Complex.