Matlhaba Kholofelo L, Pienaar Abel J, Sehularo Leepile A
School of Nursing Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, North-West University, Mahikeng, South Africa.
Department of Health Studies, College of Human Sciences, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa.
Health SA. 2021 Oct 28;26:1688. doi: 10.4102/hsag.v26i0.1688. eCollection 2021.
South African Nursing Council requires nurses who successfully complete their training to perform a year of community service before obtaining registration as professional nurses (Regulation 425). Community service for health professionals was introduced as a strategy to retain newly qualified professionals within the country. The premise is that community service for newly graduated nurses gives them the opportunity to develop skills and acquire knowledge critical in their professional development.
To explore and describe the perceptions of professional nurses as the supervisors of community service nurses (CSNs) during their 12 months of community service.
Selected hospitals of the North West province, South Africa.
A qualitative, exploratory and descriptive design was used. The study was conducted between September and November 2018 at three public hospitals in the North West province. Through purposive sampling, 15 professional nurses who supervise CSNs participated in the study. Data were collected in three focus group discussions using semi-structured questions. All focus group discussions were recorded and transcribed for analysis. Data were analysed using Pienaar's four steps of thematic analysis.
Three themes emerged: perceptions of clinical competence, challenges impacting clinical competence and suggestions to improve clinical competence.
It is suggested that even though the majority of CSNs were perceived to be competent and capable of working independently, they still required supervision and mentorship to refine their competency. Furthermore, the study reported similar challenges noted from previous studies that were perceived to be affecting CSNs' ability to deliver quality health care, and therefore recommendations for improvement were made.
The study contributed to the developed the clinical competence evaluation tool which will be of benefit to the future community service nurses in the province.
南非护理委员会要求成功完成培训的护士在获得专业护士注册之前进行为期一年的社区服务（第425条规定）。引入卫生专业人员社区服务是作为一种将新获得资格的专业人员留在国内的策略。前提是新毕业护士的社区服务使他们有机会培养技能并获取对其职业发展至关重要的知识。
探讨并描述专业护士在社区服务护士为期12个月的社区服务期间作为其监督者的看法。
南非西北省选定的医院。
采用定性、探索性和描述性设计。该研究于2018年9月至11月在西北省的三家公立医院进行。通过目的抽样，15名监督社区服务护士的专业护士参与了该研究。使用半结构化问题在三次焦点小组讨论中收集数据。所有焦点小组讨论均进行了录音和转录以供分析。使用皮纳尔的主题分析四个步骤对数据进行分析。
出现了三个主题：临床能力认知、影响临床能力的挑战以及提高临床能力的建议。
建议尽管大多数社区服务护士被认为有能力且能够独立工作，但他们仍需要监督和指导以提升其能力。此外，该研究报告了与先前研究中指出的类似挑战，这些挑战被认为影响了社区服务护士提供优质医疗服务的能力，因此提出了改进建议。
该研究有助于开发临床能力评估工具，这将对该省未来的社区服务护士有益。
