ABSTRACT
Background: A theory-practice gap in nursing education often occurs, and the staff from the nursing education institution and the associated healthcare services should find ways to improve their collaboration to reduce the gap during the training of nursing students. Aim: This study aimed to develop context-specific collaboration guidelines for a nursing education institution and associated healthcare services. Setting: Private hospital in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Methods: Guidelines were developed from the findings of an integrative literature review. Thereafter, it was contextualised in a qualitative study with focus group discussions (FGDs) involving 9 theoretical lecturers and 10 clinical facilitators. Results: In the partnership between the nursing education institution and the associated healthcare services, bilateral communication, cooperation between the theoretical lecturers and the clinical facilitators in delivering evidence-based patient care, intensified innovation in teaching and learning practices and an environment conducive to theory-practice integration should be emphasised. Conclusion: A set of context-specific guidelines was developed to enable the theoretical lecturers and the clinical facilitators to collaborate in supporting nursing students to apply their theoretical knowledge in the development of clinical competencies. Contribution: The guidelines can be adjusted to suit the context of other nursing education institutions and their associated healthcare services to improve collaboration between theoretical lecturers and clinical facilitators to the benefit students' skills development in theory-practice integration.
