A critical care unit is a dynamic and highly technological environment. Professional nurses who have been working in the critical care unit for a period of time are passionate about the environment in which they work. They find their on duty time challenging and stimulating. The critical care environment is slowly changing. Due to the fact that there are fewer professional nurses with an additional qualification in critical care available to work in the critical care units. The utilisation of an increasing number of agency nurses leads to an increase in sub-standard nursing care as well as dissatisfied doctors and patients. The shortage of critical care staff has resulted in the need to find an alternative human resources framework and still provide cost effective, safe quality patient care. This leads to the design and implementation of a team nursing care framework for critical care. The research objectives for this study were: - To explore and describe the experiences of professional nurses with regard to a team nursing care framework in private critical care units. - Develop guidelines to optimize the team nursing care framework in critical care units in a private hospital group. The research is based on a qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual research design. The study is based on a phenomenological approach to inquiry. Eleven in-depth semi structured face-to-face phenomenological interviews were utilized as the main means of collecting data. A purposive, criterion based, sampling method was used. Specific inclusion criteria were met and consent was obtained from the participants and from the management of the private clinic where the research was conducted. Two central themes were identified:- Theme One: The professional nurses experienced the team nursing care framework in the critical care unit as a burden. Six sub-themes were identified. - Theme Two: Professional nurses made recommendations for improvement of the team nursing care framework in the critical care unit. By describing the lived experiences of the professional nurses in the critical care units, based on research interviews, the researcher painted a clear picture of the team nursing care framework in the critical care unit. Guidelines were developed based on the identified themes. The broad guidelines are aimed at ensuring that the nurses are competent to care for critical care patients prior to them commencing work in the critical care unit. The researcher concludes this study by making recommendations for Nursing practice, education and research.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:10022 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Dunsdon, Jeananne |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Health Sciences |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MCur |
| Format | 238 pages, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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