Abstract
BackgroundSouth African Nursing Council requires nurses who successfully complete their training to perform a year of community service before obtaining registration as professional nurses (Regulation 425). Community service for health professionals was introduced as a strategy to retain newly qualified professionals within the country. The premise is that community service for newly graduated nurses gives them the opportunity to develop skills and acquire knowledge critical in their professional development.AimTo explore and describe the perceptions of professional nurses as the supervisors of community service nurses (CSNs) during their 12 months of community service.SettingSelected hospitals of the North West province, South Africa.MethodsA qualitative, exploratory and descriptive design was used. The study was conducted between September and November 2018 at three public hospitals in the North West province. Through purposive sampling, 15 professional nurses who supervise CSNs participated in the study. Data were collected in three focus group discussions using semi-structured questions. All focus group discussions were recorded and transcribed for analysis. Data were analysed using Pienaar’s four steps of thematic analysis.ResultsThree themes emerged: perceptions of clinical competence, challenges impacting clinical competence and suggestions to improve clinical competence.ConclusionIt is suggested that even though the majority of CSNs were perceived to be competent and capable of working independently, they still required supervision and mentorship to refine their competency. Furthermore, the study reported similar challenges noted from previous studies that were perceived to be affecting CSNs’ ability to deliver quality health care, and therefore recommendations for improvement were made.ContributionThe study contributed to the developed the clinical competence evaluation tool which will be of benefit to the future community service nurses in the province.
Highlights
The purpose of this study is to explore and describe the perceptions of registered professional nurses regarding the clinical competence of community service nurses (CSNs) that they supervised in selected hospitals of the North West province, South Africa
This included 2 men and 13 women who supervised CSNs working in different wards of the selected hospitals in North West province (NWP)
The focus of this study was on exploring and describing the perceptions of professional nurses regarding the clinical competence of CSNs in the NWP, South Africa (SA)
Summary
The principle of co-operative government and intergovernmental relations specifies that the government must secure the well-being of the people of the Republic (s 41 (1) (b)). These principles served as a basis for the introduction of community service in South Africa (SA) (RSA 1996), whereby all health professionals are expected to perform community service. Community service refers to the compulsory service that health professionals are expected to render at public health care facilities after successful completion of training before they can be registered as professional practitioners (Karamchand & Kistnasamy 2017). South African Nursing Council requires nurses who successfully complete their training to perform a year of community service before obtaining registration as professional nurses (Regulation 425). The premise is that community service for newly graduated nurses gives them the opportunity to develop skills and acquire knowledge critical in their professional development
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