Background: Work-integrated learning is crucial in nursing education because it enables learner nurses to connect theoretical knowledge with practical experience. The South African Nursing Council requires learner nurses in the R174 programme to spend a designated number of hours in the clinical setting as directed by the curriculum and Government Notice No. R174 dated 8 March 2013. Learner nurses, particularly in the third and fourth years, spent a significant amount of time on work-integrated learning, which involves weekend shifts, night duties, and long working hours. Learner students reported that they faced various kinds of stressors throughout their professional training. Stressors emerge from academic and clinical tasks as well as external activities. Objectives: The study explored the extent to which work-integrated learning contributes to dating-related stress among university learner nurses. Method: A qualitative, descriptive, and exploratory research design was used. The study was conducted at the University of Limpopo, Nursing Science Department. A total of 22 learner nurses were selected from levels 3 and 4 using purposive sampling. Data was collected using a reflective diary in which participants digitally recorded their experiences, thoughts, and journeys around the subject. Participants were asked to reflect on the following questions: (i) Kindly elaborate on the positive and negative impacts of Work Integrated Learning on dating. (ii) Can you please explain how you manage the balance between Work Integrated Learning and dating? (iii) How does work-integrated learning impact your relationship? (iv) Please explain the main challenges in work-integrated learning and dating. (v) How do the WIL and dating challenges affect your mental health? (vi) What do you believe should be implemented to address the challenges? Data was analysed using Tech’s open coding method. Results: Five themes emerged from this study: “relationship maintenance challenges, social interaction challenges, work-integrated learning challenges, mental health challenges and the balancing strategies”. Conclusions: The study draws attention to the gaps, including a narrow focus on the variety of factors influencing the stress that comes with dating for learner nurses at the university. Consequently, additional investigation may be required to evaluate the enduring consequences and durability of the noted reductions in stress levels among university learner nurses.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, G.O.S.; methodology, G.O.S.; software, G.O.S.; validation, G.O.S. and L.E.M.; formal analysis, G.O.S.; investigation, G.O.S.; resources, G.O.S.; data curation, G.O.S.; writing—original draft preparation, G.O.S., L.E.M. and L.W.M.; writing—review and editing, G.O.S., L.E.M. and L.W.M.; visualization, G.O.S.; supervision, L.E.M.; project administration, G.O.S. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This research received no funding.
Institutional Review Board Statement
This study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Turfloop Research Ethics Committee (TREC) (TREC/163/2021: UG) 17 August 2021.
Informed Consent Statement
Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study. Written informed consent has been obtained from the participants to publish this paper.
Data Availability Statement
The datasets that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, G.O.S. Because the data contains information that could jeopardize the privacy of research participants, it is not publicly available.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest. The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.
| Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content. |
© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
