Abstract
M.Cur. (Nursing Science)
When a person enters a hospital environment and becomes a patient, he/she is
dependent on the nurses who have been educated and skilled to take care of him/her.
Nurses must consider the importance of the professional image that they present to the
patient. The nurse’s appearance and behaviour silently portrays their skill and signifies
the level of care the patient is to receive. The question can be asked, if patients and unit
managers from private hospital settings complain about the portrayed professionalism of
newly qualified enrolled nurses, then what are the perceptions of the newly qualified
enrolled nurses regarding professionalism?
The purpose of this study is to explore and describe the perceptions of newly qualified
enrolled nurses regarding professionalism in a specific nursing agency in Gauteng. This
research was conducted in two phases. Phase one explored and described the
perceptions of newly qualified enrolled nurses in a nursing agency in Gauteng regarding
professionalism; and in phase two, the data collected from phase one was used to
conduct a literature review to conceptualise the findings in order to enable the researcher
to formulate recommendations for newly qualified enrolled nurses to improve their
portrayal of professionalism.
A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive, and contextual research design was followed to
explore and describe the perceptions of newly qualified enrolled nurses in a nursing
agency in Gauteng regarding professionalism.
The target population consisted of newly qualified enrolled nurses who had registered
with a specific nursing agency in Gauteng, and who had not yet worked in a private
healthcare facility. A purposive sampling technique was utilised. A pilot focus group was...