Abstract
M.Cur.
The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) environment is fast paced and directed towards monitoring and treating life-threatening complex patient’s conditions. For this reason attention is often focused on technology and complicated treatment necessary for maintaining stability in the physiological functioning of the patient. Great emphasis is placed on technical skills and professional competence of professional nurse. Nurses in the intensive care units are continually challenged with monitoring patients, making astute clinical decisions and responding timely to changes in patient’s condition, however, shortage of ICU professional nurses put pressure on the existing staff compounded by added responsibility of supervising enrolled nurses
The purpose of this study is to explore and describe experiences of the ICU professional nurses working with enrolled nurses in an ICU setting at a private hospital in Gauteng in order to describe recommendations to support ICU professional nurses to deal with the situation. A purposive sampling method was used. A phenomenological, qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual research design was used. Data was collected using individual semi-structured interviews until saturation of data was reached at the 12th participant. The data was analysed using a qualitative open-coding method of data analysis. Credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability were used to ensure trustworthiness of the study. Ethical considerations were made.
Three themes and their related sub-themes emerged as follows: 1) Incompetency of enrolled nurses; 2) Work overload of ICU trained professional nurses; 3) Negative attitude from enrolled nurses. Conceptualisations of findings were made within relevant literature. The researcher made interpretations and arrived at concluding statements which formed the basis for the description of the recommendations. Limitations and conclusion were made.