Abstract:
Nursing students are expected to support women after a stillbirth, while they themselves
experience difficulties to deal with the emotional impact of a stillbirth. The objective of this
article is to explore and describe nursing students’ experiences of caring for women with
stillbirths at public hospitals in South Africa. A qualitative approach was used to conduct a
descriptive, explorative and contextual study. The population consisted of all nursing students
registered for the Diploma in Nursing allocated to the obstetric sections of five public hospitals in
Gauteng Province, South Africa. Purposive sampling was used to select 30 nursing students who
had taken care of women who experienced stillbirths. Five focus groups and reflective journals
were used to collect data. Data was analysed according to Tesch’s method by the researcher and
an independent coder. Psychologically nursing students experienced emotional trauma and
overwhelming feelings of guilt, helplessness, and anxiety. They struggled with emotional conflict
related to the expression of compassion and were faced with certain dilemmas in caring for
women after stillbirths. Recommendations were formulated to make provision for availability of
bereavement and emotional support of nursing students when exposed to stillbirths.
