Lived experiences of nursing students about their pregnancies

Abstract

Nursing students face challenges when they get pregnant as it often leads to either the termination of their studies or unnecessary long study periods. Our aim was to explore and describe the lived experiences of nursing students at a college in South Africa regarding their pregnancies. In a descriptive phenomenological research design nine participants were interviewed. Only one question was asked of them: “How did you experience your pregnancy being a nursing student?” The transcribed interviews and observational notes described the natural dimension of the phenomenon (experiences of pregnancy during training) that reflected the conscious awareness of the participants of the phenomenon. Through eidetic reduction and imaginative variation, the phenomenological dimension (essence and substantiating constituents) of the phenomenon was revealed. ‘Self-dependence’ was the essence of the experiences of the participants.