RESEARCH ARTICLE


Nurses’ Practices During Implementation of the Nursing Process at a Selected Public Hospital of Limpopo Province, South Africa: A Qualitative Pilot Study Analysis



Takalani E. Mutshatshi1, *
iD
, Tebogo M. Mothiba2
iD

1 Department of Nursing Science,School of Health Care Sciences, University of Limpopo, Limpopo, South Africa
2 Faculty of Health Sciences, Executive Dean’s Office, University of Limpopo, Limpopo, South Africa


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Creative Commons License
© 2020 Mutshatshi and Mothiba.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Nursing Science,School of Health Care Sciences, University of Limpopo, Limpopo, South Africa; Tel: 0836890587; E-mail: takalani.mutshatshi@ul.ac.za


Abstract

Background:

The nursing process is a systemic approach to patient care and enables nurses in health care institutions to render comprehensive care aimed at achieving quality. During the implementation of the nursing process, nurses are faced with multiple traits that hinder effective implementation. The nursing process has been widely recommended as an approach that guides nurses towards quality nursing care, thus, non-adherence is associated with substandard patient care.

Objective:

The objective was to explore and describe the practices of nurses when implementing the nursing process at a selected public hospital in Limpopo province, South Africa.

Methods:

A qualitative, explorative-descriptive approach research method was used to collect data. A non-probability purposive sampling method was used to initially select 5 professional nurses to participate in the study and later on, more data was collected from 3 unit managers. Data was collected using a semi-structured interview until data saturation, and data was analyzed using the Tesch’s open coding method of data analysis, where themes and sub-themes were developed. Measures to ensure trustworthiness were all adhered to the study.

Results:

The results explained the practices of nurses when implementing the nursing process and the challenges encountered during the implementation of the nursing process.

Conclusion:

The study findings indicated a need for continuous in-service training, provision of adequate resources and development of a formal training program.

Keywords: Nursing process, Nurse, Implementation, Practices, Training needs, Public hospital.