Abstract
Background: The public health sector provides care to more than 40 million people in South
Africa and is the patient’s first contact with health care services. A total of 80% of all patient
treatments in primary health care (PHC) facilities are offered by PHC nurses, and this calls for
all newly qualified PHC nurses to be prepared to make sound clinical judgements in practice.
Aims & Objectives: This study aimed to determine newly qualified PHC nurses’ level of
preparedness to make sound clinical judgements in practice, in order to formulate
recommendations to incorporate and support clinical judgements in the existing teaching
strategies used by higher education institutions. The objectives were:
• To identify and describe newly qualified PHC nurses’ level of preparedness to make sound
clinical judgements in practice.
• To formulate recommendations to incorporate and support clinical judgements in the
existing teaching strategies used by higher education institutions to prepare newly qualified
PHC nurses to make sound clinical judgements in clinical practice.
Methods: The study used a quantitative non-experimental, descriptive design. The target
population was newly qualified PHC nurses in PHC facilities in Gauteng. A probability
sampling method was used, employing a census to select newly qualified PHC nurses in public
PHC facilities in Gauteng.
Results/Findings: The findings indicated that the newly qualified PHC nurses were able to
notice salient changes in the patient’s condition but failed to interpret and prioritise care, thus
resulting in poorly managed patients.
Recommendations and Conclusion: The formulated recommendations will be incorporated
in facilitating PHC students’ clinical judgement skills to ensure their preparedness to make
sound clinical judgements in practice.
Keywords: Clinical judgement, Newly qualified, Practice, Preparedness, Primary Health care
nurses.