Abstract
A shortage of nurses in South African hospitals has affected the nurse-patient ratio,
thus making nurses more focused on completing nursing-related duties with less or
no caring for the patient. Caring involves having a therapeutic relationship with the
patient where nurses interact with the patients when performing a nursing task.
Patients appreciate a caring nurse, and they feel the essence of caring from nurses.
When there is a caring environment in the unit, patients feel welcomed, respected and
their compliance with treatment improves, thus reducing the number of re-admissions.
Caring for patients can be challenging and demanding for final-year student nurses
who are still novices in the nursing profession. They are expected to care for the
patient as part of training in order to become qualified registered nurses who are safe
practitioners and beneficial to society. In order to render quality nursing care, caring is
an attribute which final-year student nurses need to learn and acquire while they are
still in training.
The research aim was to explore and describe the final-year student nurses’
experiences of caring for patients in order to develop and provide recommendations
to facilitate caring. A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual design was
used. Data collection was done through in-depth individual phenomenological
interviews that focused on the central question “How is caring in your nursing
practice?”. Eight participants who were final-year student nurses were interviewed.
From the study findings four themes emerged from the data, identified as: Final year
student nurses experienced a therapeutic relationship with patients as an integral part
of caring, in addition with teamwork – team spirit makes caring easy. They also
experienced continuous caring which promotes quality and safe nursing, as well as
satisfaction among staff and patients. Various barriers that contributed to a lack of
caring were also experienced by final year student nurses.
Giorgi’s five-step method of data analysis was used, along with an independant coder.
Measures to ensure trustworthiness and ethical principles were applied throughout the
research. The results showed that caring was a challenge among final-year student
nurses; however, they developed awareness of caring for patients...
M.Cur.