Development of an educational programme to improve the supervision of nursing care by registered professional nurses in selected regional hospitals in Limpopo Province

Abstract

Background: Supervision is a practical method for advancing nurses' professional growth, creating advanced independent practitioners, supporting nursing personnel, and raising the standard of patient care. An educational programme in supervision positively impacted nurses’ ability to provide high-quality nursing care aimed at reducing patient complaints and improving patient outcomes. However, it seems that this is not happening as expected because there were continuous complaints from the patients about the poor quality of care. This study aimed at development of an educational programme to improve the supervision of nursing care by registered professional nurses in the selected regional hospitals of Limpopo Province. Methodology: A qualitative study was conducted using an explorative, descriptive, and contextual research design, the 5D phases of Appreciative inquiry design. The nonprobability purposive sample was used, where twenty-four (24) registered professional nurses and thirty (37) registered staff and registered assistant nurses were selected, of which eighteen (18) were registered staff nurses and nineteen (19) were registered assistant nurses. Participants were recruited from Paediatric, Maternity, and Casualty units of the selected regional hospitals. Semi-structured individual face-to-face interviews were used to collect data from registered professional nurses, whereas focus group interviews were used to collect data from registered staff nurses and registered assistant nurses. The focus group was also used to collect data from registered professional nurses, registered staff nurses, and registered assistant nurses using an interview guide. The nominal group technique was used to develop and validate an educational programme to improve the supervision of nursing care. Data Analysis: Data was analysed according to Tesch’s eight steps. Trustworthiness was ensured by following the principles of credibility, dependability, confirmability, transferability, and authenticity. Ethical considerations were ensured by requesting permission before conducting the study and observing human rights principles, including informed consent, voluntary participation, and avoidance of harm. Findings: The findings from the data collection were administrative challenges, Shortage of resources, organisational challenges and education and training challenges. The findings were validated using the Nominal group technique method. The findings after Nominal group Technique were the need to address the shortage of resources, the need to address organizational challenges, the need to address staff attitude, the need to address professional growth and development, and the need for role modelling. These findings assisted with the development of an educational programme to improve the supervision of nursing care by registered professional nurses. Recommendations: The study recommends that there is a need for future research in other provinces to check if the findings could be the same. The incorporation of intensive training on supervision in the training of nurses from the beginning. The need to develop a supervision policy was identified. Conclusions: Supervision of nursing care is mandatory for the purpose of improving quality patient care outcomes, reducing patients’ complaints and litigations