Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education
Open Access

Abstract

Existing literature reports that many countries have introduced different retaining and recruitment strategies and programs with the intention of improving clinical competence, recouping shortage of healthcare professionals and to retain those who are trained by these countries. However, it is also noted that there are several factors that might influence the effectiveness of these programs. The purpose of this article was to explore and describe legislations, policies and regulations governing the clinical competence of community service program for nurses. A number of relevant documents, articles and theses from the national and international journals were obtained using the following search engines, namely- science direct, pub med, Google scholar and Medline. Articles on community service studies published between 2005 and 2017 and written and English were used. Five themes derived from the research studies conducted on community service program. 16 sub-themes emerged during the analysis of existing data based on the findings of cited studies. Each theme and sub-theme is discussed separately and is supported by literature. It is recommended that objectives of the community service program for nurses can be achieved by having all stakeholders on board as well as introducing clear policies and regulations especially at the provincial and institutional level.

Biography

Kholofelo Matlhaba is currently working as a Lecturer in the Health Studies Department at the College of Human Sciences, Muckleneuk Campus for the University of South Africa.

E-mail: matlhkl@unisa.ac.za