A Department of Nursing in a Faculty of Health Sciences at a university in the Western Cape had requests from matriculates not meeting the required university grade to enter the nursing 4-year degree programme. The university has a focus on disadvantaged students and was aware of the post-apartheid South Africa’s education system that has perpetuated the racial and class inequalities of the previous regime. The majority of working class black students come from poorly resourced schools and are ill-equipped to make the university grade (Hutchings 2017). To address this issue, the Department of Education (DoE) has previously developed policies that encourage transformation within the new educational system (The Education White Paper 3: A Program for the Transformation of Higher Education, DoE 1997). The basic programme was offered over 4 years, and in 2005, it was decided in the Faculty of Health to offer an extended 5-year programme for nursing, for students to complete the first year over 2 years. These students could then enter with a standard point score (Admission Point Score of 26 instead of 28 with similar subjects as required for the 4-year programme).

In primary and secondary education, South African students underperform even relative to the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the five major emerging national economies) peer countries such as East Asia and Russia. Students, because of a dysfunctional educational system, often arrive at university with massive academic deficits. Although this dilemma is not easy to address, bridging programmes such as a foundation programme can provide an answer (Govender 2013).

According to research, from the late 1950s to date, the white and Asian populations have seen a proportional rise in the number of students who successfully passed matric, entered a tertiary education system (university) and completed their bachelor’s degrees (Destiny Man Reporter 2017). However, not enough black and Coloured¹ children are successfully completing their higher education, compared to their white and Asian counterparts (Destiny Man Reporter 2017). The University of Cape Town therefore implemented a new admissions policy model, addressing the incorporation of race as one of several factors to consider in assessing an applicant’s historic disadvantage (Newsroom 2014). This came along with universities starting to look at foundation programmes to support disadvantaged students.

Seeth (2017) indicates that there has been an increase in enrolments of black students at tertiary institutions over the last few years. Although the universities have increased their intake of students of colour, the universities are poorly prepared to deal with the large intake of students (Seeth 2017). Although this is happening, support to students becomes more and more important. Therefore, one key to overcome these factors, which contributes to inhibiting student learning, is not only a matter of increasing access (CHE 2013:9).

The challenge of foundation programmes is to provide a foundation pathway between matric and university entry requirements for undergraduate nursing studies (Monash South Africa 2018). The aim of these programmes is to support students to allow an extra year for bridging the ‘educational gap’ (Kloot, Case & Marshall 2008:799).

A Bachelor Nursing Foundation Programme (hereafter called foundation programme) has been offered by a Department of Nursing at a university in the Western Cape since 2007, in order to meet the needs of under-prepared students for the 4-year degree programme, as well as to address transformation of the programme. Students who applied to the university were mainly from under-served communities, and all students who are a first entrance student at a higher education institution may not be prepared for the style of instruction in a higher education institution. The Department of Nursing therefore started to offer a foundation nursing programme with an intake of 50 students per year with the ratio of lecturers to students being 1:25. The lecturers also partook in clinical supervision, and clinical supervisors were appointed for clinical accompaniment giving a ratio of one supervisor to 10 students.

In addition to the aim of widening access, particularly to disadvantaged students, the purpose of this foundation programme also essentially included providing supplementary foundation support in order to improve the throughput rate of students. It was unclear how these students experience the support of their lecturers offering the foundation programme offered at the Department of Nursing at a university in the Western Cape.

The Bachelor Nursing Foundation Programme, since its commencement, had not undergone any formal reflective process with the aim of evaluating the supporting nature in the programme. Students in the foundation programme reflected in their year-end subject evaluation forms that they needed more support from their lecturers during their classes. The importance of engaging in reflection is described as giving deep thought to your teaching or learning; thinking about what you do in the classroom, why you do it and why it works; and enabling you to identify any changes and improvements you could make (Neill 2018). In 2015, a School of Nursing at a university of the Western Cape was formally unaware of how students experience the support from lecturers in the foundation programme. From the problem statement, the following question was posed:

What were the experiences of students of the support from lecturers in the foundation programme?

The aim of this study was to investigate the support that academics gave to students in the foundation programme at a university of the Western Cape.

The study aimed to explore and describe the experiences of students about the support from lecturers in the nursing foundation programme.

Foundation or extended curriculum programme is a programme that ‘provides for students to have an extended period of their first year studies over a period of two years’ (De Klerk et al. 2005:1). In this study, the foundation programme referred to a first year offered over 2 years in a 4-year degree nursing programme, thus an extended programme of 5 years.

Academic is a lecturer and nurse educator registered at the South African Nursing Council that offers courses over a period of 2 years in the foundation programme.

Support is an action in which nursing academics give assistance to students undertaking the foundation programme.

The findings of this descriptive study add insight to experiences of students in the foundation programme, to provide recommendations for lecturers to support students in a nursing foundation programme.

A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual design was followed in this study as a means of exploring and understanding the experiences of individuals in the foundation programme ascribed to a social or human phenomenon (Creswell 2014), such as support in the foundation programme. An exploratory research design was followed as the researcher wanted to gain insights into the phenomenon of support of lecturers to foundation students of which little was known (Creswell 2014). The descriptive design was interested in the process and understanding that were gained by means of words (Creswell 2014). The researcher conducted the study of the experiences of students on the support of lecturers in terms of the immediate context and it involved far more than the physical environment. The method of individual interviews was followed to collect data.

Trustworthiness referred to the findings that were a true reflection of the personal or lived experience of the phenomenon under investigation (Van der Walt et al. 2016). For credibility, the contextual determinants were described in detail and field notes provided additional contextual information. The researcher made use of member checks to verify data that had been analysed adequately. The researcher went back while analysing the data to one student to ensure that she heard correctly on the recorder. The research process was documented, logical and traceable for purposes of dependability. An independent coder confirmed the coding with the researcher during a consensus meeting. For transferability, the researcher ensured that a thick description of the data was given and that all findings were well explained.

Ethical clearance was obtained from the Senate Research Committee of the University of the Western Cape, reference number: 12/6/32. Access to the participants was negotiated by submitting the ethical clearance letter to the Head of the Department of Nursing of a university in the Western Cape for permission to conduct the study, and the aims and objectives of the study were explained to them. Information sheets were given to all participants, explaining the purpose of the study and what would be expected of them in order to participate. Written informed consent was obtained from the participants. All participants had a choice whether to participate in the study or not. They were informed of their rights to withdraw from the study at any time and were assured that the withdrawal would in no way affect their studies. There were no known risks in participating in this study; however, interviews were held in a private office and did take the time period into consideration. No risks were foreseen, although a psychologist was on the university premises during the time of the interviews if an emotional need arose to refer a student for counselling.

Participants were assured of the confidentiality of what they would share. In this study, confidentiality was ensured by the use of codes to represent the participants on transcripts and not their names. The researcher ensured that access to the data was restricted to the researcher, the independent coder and the supervisor. The identity and privacy of students were protected and respected during the course of the research.

The study was qualitative in nature, and the findings cannot be generalised to the broader population in other settings.

Students appreciate the support of lecturers in different ways. Lecturers should focus on being open and approachable to individual counselling or group discussions that can identify and reduce potential worries and stresses that the students may have. Building self-confidence of students during the foundation programme in a bachelor’s degree could be enhanced by, for example, lecturers praising students for work well done. Praise could be used to motivate someone to perform at a continuously higher level of learning. In this way, it could be applied by lecturers to strengthen an individual’s self-image. Through the years, lecturers have traditionally praised students when their work is considered to be praiseworthy, and the rationale for this is that the students will then be motivated to continue in the same positive direction.

A caring and nurturing environment should be essential. Lecturers should have an informative session on how the foundation year fits into the overall programme. As first-year nursing students, their sense of belonging can be enhanced by receiving the help and guidance needed to find their way in the new environment.

Academics are advisors and should assist students by providing computer literacy and basic sciences classes, and encouraging students to attend all tutorials and the campus orientation, as it will be of great benefit to them. According to Nathan (2015:162), academic support is vital in higher education, and tutorials are a form of such academic support. Although adult-centred learning can be considered as self-directed, guidance is required to meet the academic achievement of higher education students. Academics should have patience and are in a position to stay persistent and provide opportunities to encourage student development, and they need to consider the best means to ensure efficient and effective student support. Peer support is crucial and lecturers could incorporate tutorials in all subjects for group work, as this could form the basis of academic support. This process can also be enhanced by having smaller group activities within the class, to practise participative teaching and make use of student presentations. Every foundation-year student could be appointed to a first-year student mentor, thus forming a buddy system which will be of benefit to both students, in which the lecturer will promote an environment of camaraderie.

Future research can be conducted to re-evaluate the programme as a whole and measure how effective it is in preparing students for the mainstream programme, possibly by looking at throughput and attrition rates of foundation programme students, and perhaps comparing these data with students that entered the mainstream nursing programme. Research can be conducted on this topic at other universities in South Africa offering the foundation programme, which then could be compared with the findings of this research.

The findings and discussions brought to the fore that the foundation programme offers a generally supportive learning environment, in which lecturers and colleagues or peers play an important supportive role.

The results of this study indicate that the support of the lecturer could result in multiple levels of growth, both personally and academically – this was more among the students who were generally older and more mature. Students viewed the lecturer in the foundation year as helpful that created an environment of positive teaching and learning. Overall, the experiences were viewed as having a generally supportive environment of lecturers and students interaction.