Navigating the real world: the value of supervising Honours student nurses during home-based visits: an ethnographic case study of Honours nursing students’ semantic distributions

Introduction This study explores Honours students’ enactment of home-based nursing during their internships. The emphasis is on examining how the structure of these internships impacts the students’ chances for knowledge building and, consequently, enhances the quality of their learning experience. Method The study employs a case-based approach, concentrating on four Honours nursing students who were meticulously observed over a period of two days each, using shadowing ethnography, as they provided home-based care. Furthermore, interviews were conducted with the students, one supervisor, and individuals overseeing the internships. We utilized analytical tools from the Semantics dimension of Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) to analyse the students’ enactment of practice based on their reflections and actions. Findings Notable differences were identified between how the students drew on knowledge and principles when they were with a supervisor who were actively mediating the home-based visit versus when home-based visits were completed by themselves, without supervision. This was recognized, in LCT terms, as differences in the codes the students’ enacted and the semantic range of their knowledge-building. Conclusion This study emphasizes the importance of the organization of the students’ internships, so that the individual – through supervision – is given the opportunity to deepen the quality of their learning with intentional practice through insights, according to the learning components of the education specifically and the subject field of nursing in general. Keywords: nursing education, supervision, home-based nursing, semantics, Legitimation Code Theory