Abstract
M.Cur. (Intensive Care Nursing)
The problem of intensive care nurses leaving the profession due to non-conducive
working environments and uncompetitive conditions of employment is becoming
more alarming and is therefore as relevant as ever. The researcher is concerned
about the quality of nurse-awareness nurses create in order to practice quality
nurse care. Confusion among nurses about their professional rights and
responsibilities adds fuel to the fire. The management of health care services is
at times not sensitive to the needs of nurses, and nurses are not always recognized
for their inherent professional worth.
In the adult intensive care unit at which the researcher practices as unit manager
she perceived her colleagues to be experiencing some sort of emotional and
spiritual discomfort in going about their daily activities. As the researcher felt
responsible for the well-being of the staff in the unit she decided to investigate the
phenomenon via a formal research study.
The objectives of the study were two-fold: Firstly to explore and describe the
registered nurse's experience of nursing in the intensive care unit and then to use
the information obtained to describe guidelines for the compilation of a support
programme for the nurses nursing in the unit
The research questions that were generated are: How do registered nurses in the
intensive care unit experience nursing there and how can the information be
utilized to describe guidelines to support these nurses?
The researcher used an exploratory, descriptive, contextual and
phenomenological qualitative design to answer these research questions.
Phenomenological interviews were conducted with five interviewees who had
been possessively selected.