Abstract
M.Cur.
Community health nursing is the synthesis of nursing practice and public health practice.
The primary concern of nurses who take on the various roles of the community health
nurse is to improve the health of the community. Community health nurses use all of the
principles and skills of nursing practice as well as those of public health practice, to aid
the community.
Nursing is by its very nature a stressful job. In addition, low wages, inadequacy of
equipment and materials, too long working hours and excessive number of patients to
care for, have a negative effect on working conditions and the physical/psychological
health of nurses. Although emotional abuse is a widespread form of violence, it is rarely
recognized as such by its victims. Many are convinced that they are at fault and thus do
not perceive themselves as abused.
The explanation of the term “emotional abuse” includes aspects such as non-physical
abuse, indirect abuse, emotional abuse, psychological abuse, psychological aggression,
psychological maltreatment and mental or psychological torture. Lack of positive or
other constructive feedback from senior staff has been cited as a problem in a number of
studies and there is much anecdotal evidence in the nursing press on feedback, which is
either negative or absent.
The paradigmatic framework of reference of the Theory of Health Promotion in Nursing
in the Department of Nursing of the University of Johannesburg was used as a guideline
in conducting this research. The researcher followed a functional approach according to
the Botes model for nursing research (University of Johannesburg, 2006:8-13).
The design used in this research is qualitative, phenomenological, exploratory,
descriptive and contextual in nature (Burns & Grove, 2001:223-225). In-depth, semistructured,
phenomenological interviews were conducted with participants who met the
criteria for inclusion. Some of the nurses were asked to write naïve sketches. Purposive
sampling was used. A pilot study was conducted. To ensure trustworthiness the
researcher made use of Guba & Lincoln’s (in Holloway & Wheeler, 1996:163) four
alternatives. The researcher used Tesch’s approach (Poggenpoel in De Vos, 2003:343) to
transcribe the recorded interviews and essays and to analyse the data gathered from the
interviews. A literature control was conducted to re-contextualise the results within the
literature.
The researcher came to the conclusion that even though not much exists in literature with
regard to psychological abuse in nursing, this research found it to be a stark reality.
Three main categories came to the fore: (1) disempowering working conditions; (2)
disrespectful practices; and, (3) nurses’ negative response to psychological abuse.
Strategies were developed in order to address the problem of psychological abuse.
Conclusions were drawn, and recommendations were made for the field of nursing.