The nursing students in the undergraduate programme are faced with challenges of feeling of fear for failure, lack of confidence and lack of support and financial constraints in their route to academic and professional development to cope with their learning. The aim of this study was to explore and describe the supportive needs of the undergraduate nursing students in the undergraduate programme in the Eastern Cape Universities, South Africa. The overarching objective was to develop a model for retention to graduation of nursing students in universities in the Eastern Cape South Africa. A quantitative, descriptive research design was applied to identify the supportive needs of the undergraduate nursing students in order to make recommendation for intervention. The population included all nursing students in the universities in the Eastern Cape Province. Sampling was a random sampling method. An adapted closed-ended and open ended questionnaire was used to collect data from undergraduate nursing students in selected universities. The findings of the study revealed that retention of undergraduate nursing students is complex due to unmet needs for academic support, psycho-social support and socioeconomic needs in order to realize their goals for retention to graduation. The profile characteristics of students also emerged as impacting on the nursing students’ retention to graduation. Nursing students need to be mentored in planning their academic activities within the classroom and clinical settings. Stakeholders have a role to play in supporting the students’ need for retention to graduation. Meeting these needs have implications for practice, research and nursing education. The significance of this study is that retention of undergraduate nursing students to graduation has an impact on the outcomes of the government in meeting the government’s strategy of “A long and healthy lifestyles for all”
and meeting the Human Resource strategy 2030 through the increased nursing workforce.
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