Introduction:
Globally, there is an increasing interest in education and training for nurse entrepreneurship. However, despite this global trend, South Africa places little or no emphasis on entrepreneurship within the nursing education and training curricula. The absence of entrepreneurial content in nursing education limits nurses’ ability to acquire the skills and knowledge required to establish and manage private practices. This review was conducted to determine what is already known about nursing entrepreneurship, in order to synthesize and appraise existing evidence to support the integration of entrepreneurship content into postgraduate nursing education in the South African context.
Objectives:
To identify the entrepreneurial training needs relevant for integration into postgraduate nursing education in South Africa.
Methods:
A realist literature review (RLR) approach was used, which focuses on the relationships between Context (C), Mechanisms (M), and Outcomes (O). A comprehensive search was conducted across databases including Scopus, EBSCOhost, Web of Science, PubMed, and ProQuest, covering English-language publications from 2019 to 2024. Both qualitative and quantitative studies were considered. The Rayyan online software was used to browse and filter relevant records to be included in the review, thus facilitating article screening. Content analysis was used to synthesize findings.
Results:
From an initial pool of 942 articles, 5 studies (3 peer-reviewed articles and 2 reports) met the inclusion criteria. These studies provided insight into the enabling contexts and mechanisms that support the development of entrepreneurial competencies among nurses. Key mechanisms identified included mentorship, curriculum flexibility, and institutional support structures. When activated in the appropriate contexts, these mechanisms may lead to improved entrepreneurial awareness that embraces innovation, readiness, and professional development. Outcomes included enhanced entrepreneurial competencies, reflective practice, and alignment with broader healthcare goals.
Conclusion:
The findings from this review will inform the next phase of the project, which involves the development of an educational training program to integrate entrepreneurship into the postgraduate nursing curriculum in South Africa.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, L.E.M., R.S.M. and M.M.R.; methodology, L.E.M., R.S.M. and M.M.R.; software, W.M.S. and L.E.M.; validation, L.E.M., M.M.R., H.B.A. and W.M.S., formal analysis, L.E.M., M.M.R., H.B.A. and W.M.S.; investigation, L.E.M., W.M.S., M.M.R. and H.B.A.; resources, W.M.S. and L.E.M.; data curation, L.E.M.; writing—original draft preparation, L.E.M.; writing—review and editing, L.E.M., M.M.R. and H.B.A.; visualization, L.E.M.; supervision, R.S.M. and M.M.R.; project administration, L.E.M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This research received no external funding.
Institutional Review Board Statement
The main study was approved by The Faculty of Health Sciences Research Ethics Committee. University of Pretoria. Ethics Reference No.: 358/2022, on the 27 August 2025. However, ethics approval was not applicable for this review since it does not involving humans or animals.
Informed Consent Statement
Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement
The datasets presented in this article are not readily available because the data are part of an ongoing study. Requests to access the datasets should be directed to the corresponding author, L.E.M.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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