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Tuesday, 13 July 2010: 10:50 AM
Learning Objective 1: describe the demographic profile of critical care units in private hospitals.
Learning Objective 2: describe the current practice environment of critical care nurses in private hospitals using the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI).
Purpose: The current shortage of nurses is a concern shared by the healthcare industry globally. Whilst the reasons for these shortages are varied and complex, a key factor among them seem to involve an unhealthy work environment. Little evidence exists of research conducted to explore and describe the practice environment of the critical care nurse in South Africa. The purpose of this research study was to explore and describe the demographic profile of critical care units in the private hospital sector and to explore and describe critical care nurses’ perceptions of their current practice environment.
Methods: The data was collected by means of a checklist and the PES-NWI developed by Lake (2002). The data was analysed using Epidata 3.1 and SPSS 16.0.
Results: Results from the demographic checklist indicated that approximately 50% of the workforce in these units was in possession of a critical care qualification, resulting in a 25% shortfall when compared with international literature. A principal factor analysis produced five clear and meaningful subscales. The researcher was able to group the items into the original five subscales developed by Lake (2002). The results indicated that the prerequisites for the subscale Staffing and Resource Adequacy was not present in private critical care units in South Africa.
Conclusion: The use of the PES-NWI proved valuable to obtaining baseline measures on the status of the current practice environment of the critical care nurse. Staffing and resource adequacy is a major concern for critical care nurses working in the private hospital sector in South Africa and management should pay more attention to these factors to strengthen nurses’ practice environments.
Methods: The data was collected by means of a checklist and the PES-NWI developed by Lake (2002). The data was analysed using Epidata 3.1 and SPSS 16.0.
Results: Results from the demographic checklist indicated that approximately 50% of the workforce in these units was in possession of a critical care qualification, resulting in a 25% shortfall when compared with international literature. A principal factor analysis produced five clear and meaningful subscales. The researcher was able to group the items into the original five subscales developed by Lake (2002). The results indicated that the prerequisites for the subscale Staffing and Resource Adequacy was not present in private critical care units in South Africa.
Conclusion: The use of the PES-NWI proved valuable to obtaining baseline measures on the status of the current practice environment of the critical care nurse. Staffing and resource adequacy is a major concern for critical care nurses working in the private hospital sector in South Africa and management should pay more attention to these factors to strengthen nurses’ practice environments.