title: Social accountability and nursing education in South Africa.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is global emphasis on transforming health workforce education in support of universal health coverage.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This paper uses a social accountability framework, specifically the World Health Organization's six building blocks for transformative education, to explore key informants' perspectives on nursing education in South Africa.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using a snowballing sampling technique, 44 key informants were selected purposively on the basis of their expertise or knowledge of the research area. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the key informants after informed consent had been obtained. The interviews were analysed using template analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  South Africa has strategic plans on human resources for health and nursing education, training, and practice and has a well-established system of regulation and accreditation of nursing education through the South African Nursing Council (SANC). Key informants criticised the following: the lack of national staffing norms; sub-optimal governance by both the SANC and the Department of Health; outdated curricula that are unresponsive to population and health system needs; lack of preparedness of nurse educators; and the unsuitability of the majority of nursing students. These problems are exacerbated by a perceived lack of prioritisation of nursing, resource constraints in both the nursing education institutions and the health training facilities, and general implementation inertia.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Social accountability, which is an essential component of transformative education, necessitates that attention be paid to the issues of governance, responsive curricula, educator preparedness, and appropriate student recruitment and selection.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Health Policy & Medical Research Council Health Policy Research Group, School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.|Department of Nursing Education, School of Therapeutic Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.
authors.forename: Susan J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Armstrong
authors.affiliation: Centre for Health Policy & Medical Research Council Health Policy Research Group, School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; laetitia.rispel@wits.ac.za.
authors.forename: Laetitia C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Rispel
mesh_terms: D000068:Accreditation; D002321:Career Choice; D003479:Curriculum; D004506:Education, Nursing / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D005181:Faculty, Nursing / Q000592:standards; D006280:Health Workforce; D006801:Humans; D012570:School Admission Criteria; D012941:Social Responsibility; D013019:South Africa; D013192:Staff Development; D014944:World Health Organization
keywords: South Africa; nurses; nursing education; social accountability; transformative education