In South Africa professional nurses undergo training which gives them different levels of
skills. It is difficult for professional nurses to render comprehensive primary health care
services without specific knowledge and skills. Some lack skills in preventative and
promotive health care delivery; others are not trained to take care of a pregnant woman
or a baby after delivery, or of a mental health patient; while yet others are only curatively
oriented. It is possible that they do not recognise their own limitations and are not aware
of the skills needed to render comprehensive primary health care services. Their
perceptions could influence their practice and severely affect the quality of health
services.
The aim of this research was to explore and describe the perceptions that professional
nurses working in primary health care clinics have of the skills required to render quality
comprehensive primary health care services, and the perceptions they have of their own
level of skills to render quality comprehensive primary health care services, as well as to
formulate guidelines for the facilitation of trained professional nurses to truly render
quality comprehensive primary health care services.
A qualitative design was followed. Permission was obtained from the Potchefstroom
District Health Manager to conduct this research. Purposive voluntary sampling was
used to identify the three samples who complied with the set selection criteria. Data
collection was done by means of semi-structured interviews. Experts in qualitative
research evaluated the semi-structured interview schedule. A trial run was done and the
interview schedule was then finalised to conduct the interviews. The interviews were
recorded on audiotape and then transcribed. The interviewer made field notes to serve
as an analytical basis for the collected data. Data was collected until data saturation
was achieved. Data analysis was done by means of open coding. A co-coder was
appointed and two consensus meetings took place.
The findings indicated that professional nurses perceive the skills required to render
quality comprehensive primary health care services as the ability to assess, diagnose
and manage patients, as well as specific skills acquired during the various nurse training programmes. The more comprehensively trained, the more competent they feel.
The less comprehensively trained, the more negative they experience their work. They
view their own level of skills as ranging from adequate to lacking and inadequate,
depending on their training. They feel that it is impo~ant to develop skills ranging from
computer skills to the full range of skills.
The conclusions drawn are that the professional nurses with different training and levels
of skills are well aware of the skills required to re.nder comprehensive primary health
care services. They maintain that trained professional nurses need qualifications in
General Nursing, Midwifery, Community Nursing, Psychiatric Nursing and Clinical
Nursing Science, and Health Assessment, Treatment and Care. The professional
nurses with all five qualifications feel confident and enjoy their work, whereas those who
are not fully trained lack certain skills and experience negative feelings working in the
primary health care clinics.
Recommendations are made for nursing education, nursing research and nursing
practice with specific reference to the formulation of guidelines for the facilitation of
trained professional nurses to truly render comprehensive primary health care services,
with a focus on quality control, orientation, mentoring, planning of training, support systems, and consultancy. / Thesis (M.Cur.)--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nwu/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/14293 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Hlahane, Modiane Salamina |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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