>Magister Scientiae - MSc / In South Africa, the Occupational Specific Dispensation (OSD) for professional nurses provides
a structure for training and career progression in the Public Health Sector. It necessitates the
urgency for professional nurses who are working in specialty units at hospitals, to study further
in advanced post-graduate nursing sciences programmes, e.g. advanced psychiatric nursing.
Professional nurses were not informed about the implications of the OSD for practice, prior to
implementation. It was unclear how advanced psychiatric nurses were experiencing their practice
in an OSD hospital setting. In this study, the experiences of advanced psychiatric nurses who
were practising at an OSD psychiatric public hospital led to the description of guidelines for
supporting these nurses during their practice in an OSD ward.
A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual design was followed. The study population
consisted of advanced psychiatric nurses (N = 50). Purposive sampling was conducted until data
saturation was reached. Eight participants were included in the sample. In-depth unstructured
individual interviews were conducted with each of these participants. Field notes were kept and
voice recordings of all interview sessions were captured. The researcher conducted a pilot study
with one participant in order to detect possible flaws that could occur during the data collection
process.
The data analysis where themes were identified was based on Tesch‟s method of qualitative
analysis. A literature control supported the findings of this study. Subsequently, guidelines were
described from the findings according to the method of Muller (2001:204-205). Trustworthiness
was maintained by using the criteria of Guba‟s model; that is credibility, transferability,
confirmability, and dependability.
The ethical principles of the right to self-determination, withdrawal from the research study,
privacy, autonomy and confidentiality, fair treatment, protection from discomfort and harm, and
obtaining informed written consent was adhered to.
Four themes emerged from the data that indicated: the under-utilisation of the full scope of
advanced nursing skills, role conflict and overload, organisational structural barriers that delayed the implementation and practice of advanced nursing skills, and failure to conceptualise / clarify
advanced nursing role that resulted in unrealistic and / or unmet expectations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uwc/oai:etd.uwc.ac.za:11394/4075 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Doodhnath, Manesh M. |
| Contributors | Jooste, K. |
| Publisher | University of the Western Cape |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | University of the Western Cape |
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