Student nurses' perceptions of the nurse manager as a 'servant leader'

Abstract

South Africa focuses on service delivery at primary health care (PHC) clinics. A ‘servant leader’ could guide student nurses towards service delivery at PHC clinics. The purpose of this study was to describe the role of nurse managers acting as servant leaders of student nurses at some PHC clinics in the Johannesburg, South Africa, area. A quantitative, exploratory and descriptive design was followed. The accessible population comprised 302 third- and fourth-year diploma and degree student nurses enrolled at a university in Johannesburg and its affiliated nursing college who were allocated to PHC clinics for learning experience. A survey was conducted by means of a structured questionnaire which was returned by 288 (95%) respondents. The findings indicated that student nurses perceived shortcomings in the nurse managers as ‘servant leaders’ regarding empowerment, compassion and role modelling. Nurse managers should be briefed with regard to empowering student nurses, showing compassion and role modelling during interaction with them as well as building relationships of trust between them and the student nurses.