Challenges associated with supervision of undergraduate research projects by nurse educators in South Africa

Abstract

Successful nursing research is determined by the quality of research supervision by nurse educators. This study aimed to explore challenges encountered by educators when implementing research supervision for undergraduate nursing students. A qualitative, exploratory-descriptive research design was employed through semi-structured interviews. Data were collected from twenty-seven participants who were selected purposefully from four nursing campuses located in two provinces. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data in the study. The study found that inadequate nurse educators’ research supervision skills, lack of students’ commitment to research activities, inadequate infrastructure, staff shortage and time constraints were identified as challenges. It is recommended that novice nursing research supervisors should be guided on how to supervise research students and be taught the importance of research.