Nursing students’ experiences of community-based learning in an undergraduate programme at a Namibian University

Abstract

Background: Community-based learning (CBL) is a strategy that gives students an opportunity to deal with real health problems in natural settings. Considerations to support such learning should be a priority for nursing education because a good CBL experience can improve students’ handling of community-based health problems in the future. Purpose: The study explored nursing students’ experiences of CBL in an undergraduate programme at a Namibian university. Method: A qualitative descriptive design was applied to collect data from a purposively selected sample of 20 students who participated in four focus group discussions. Thematic analysis of the focus group transcripts was conducted simultaneously with data collection. Findings: The findings revealed that CBL is experienced as a community engagement strategy and a beneficial learning strategy. However, some challenges were experienced by nursing students including financial and accessibility constraints and limited involvement of educators. Conclusions: The study demonstrates that exposing students to community engagement can help to intentionally integrate theory and practice. The findings of the current study are important for nurse educators in local, national, and international contexts.

Keywords

• Community-based
• Community engagement
• Learning
• Experience