Abstract
Introduction: During intensive care nursing training, professional nurses are being prepared to become specialist clinical nurses. Nonetheless, leadership and management are the core components of their daily tasks. Leadership and management skills are not well established immediately after completing their training. Due to the significant shortage of qualified intensive care nurses, newly qualified intensive care nurses are expected to be shift leaders before they can consolidate the knowledge and skills they acquired during their training. Lack of leadership and management skills thus have a detrimental effect on the management of the shift, affecting the team’s cohesion in the shift and the quality of patient care. The purpose of this study: To explore and describe newly qualified intensive care nurses’ lived experiences of being a shift leader in a private health care institution in Gauteng. Design applied: A qualitative, descriptive, phenomenological design was used to explore and describe newly qualified intensive care nurses’ lived experiences of being a shift leader. The population for the study was newly qualified intensive care nurses working as shift leaders in a private health care institution in Gauteng for less than 12 months after completing their post-basic intensive care training. Purposive sampling was utilised to select the sample for this study. The sample size was determined by data saturation, which was reached with interview four. An additional interview was conducted, bringing the sample total to five participants. Methods applied: Data were collected from the selected sample using individual phenomenological in-depth interviews. The participants’ responses were audiorecorded while the researcher wrote field notes. Data were analysed using a series of steps, as suggested by Giorgi. Trustworthiness principles were also ensured by using the criteria of Lincoln and Guba. Ultimately, the ethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice were maintained throughout the research process to protect the participants’ rights...
M.Cur. (Nursing Management)