Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg.
Curationis. 2024 Oct 3;47(1):e1-e12. doi: 10.4102/curationis.v47i1.2567.
The public health sector in South Africa provides care to more than 40 million people, with primary health care (PHC) clinics acting as most patients' first contact with healthcare services; 80% of patients are treated by primary care nurses. Primary care nurses' poor clinical judgment can result in poor patient care, complications and death. However, newly qualified primary care (NQPC) nurses' preparedness for making sound clinical judgements in practice has not been evaluated in Gauteng province, South Africa.
To determine NQPC nurses' level of preparedness in making sound clinical judgements in practice.
A quantitative, non-experimental, descriptive design was used. The target population was NQPC nurses. A census method was used to select all NQPC nurses in public PHC facilities in three health districts of Gauteng. The sample size comprised 77 NQPC nurses, and data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire.
The findings indicated that 83% of NQPC nurses were able to notice salient changes in patients' conditions, 43% were able to correctly interpret the changes that were noticed, but only 42% prioritised the correct patient care.
The results reflect that 50.2% of the NQPC nurses in public PHC facilities in the three districts in Gauteng were functioning at exemplary levels.Contribution: This article highlighted NQPC nurses' level of preparedness to make sound clinical judgements within a year after qualifying.
南非公共卫生部门为超过 4000 万人提供医疗服务，初级卫生保健（PHC）诊所是大多数患者与医疗服务的首次接触点；80%的患者由初级保健护士治疗。初级保健护士较差的临床判断可能导致患者护理不佳、并发症和死亡。然而，在南非豪登省，尚未评估新合格的初级保健（NQPC）护士在实践中做出正确临床判断的准备情况。
确定 NQPC 护士在实践中做出正确临床判断的准备程度。
采用定量、非实验、描述性设计。目标人群是 NQPC 护士。采用普查方法选择豪登省三个卫生区的公共 PHC 设施中的所有 NQPC 护士。样本量包括 77 名 NQPC 护士，使用自填式问卷收集数据。
研究结果表明，83%的 NQPC 护士能够注意到患者病情的明显变化，43%能够正确解释注意到的变化，但只有 42%能够为患者提供正确的护理优先级。
研究结果反映，在豪登省三个地区的公共 PHC 设施中，有 50.2%的 NQPC 护士处于模范水平。
本文强调了 NQPC 护士在获得资格后一年内做出正确临床判断的准备程度。
