The provision of professional nurses for South Africa: 1997 An analysis of student nurses in the comprehensive four-year professional programme during 1997

The need for this survey was also underpinned by the fact that this, the largest group of health professionals, are to play a significant part in nurse-reliant health plans, whilst being subjected to rapid changes in both the health and education sectors. Improvements in nursing education have been linked to the delivery of more cost effective care (Shamian, 1996), but the baseline for improvements must be better understood and documented. Hence the need for this enquiry.

The information in this report is based on 1997 data covering nursing education for the four-year comprehensive programme. The data were obtained by means of a questionnaire sent to all nursing colleges and university nursing departments. Two of the six non-responding institutions were large previously disadvantaged colleges in the Eastern Cape province, so that data should be treated with caution.