Faculty of Health Sciences
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Item Exploring the psychosocial effects of the Coronavirus 2019 (covid-19) pandemic on foreign national critical care nurses employed in Saudi Arabia(2022-09-29) Chetty, Krishnavellie; Naidoo, V.; Naranjee, N.Globally, the Covid-19 pandemic has confronted Critical Care nurses with an even greater, unprecedented challenge and to a great extent, exposed them to many risk factors. This has a profound psychosocial and psychological impact on their mental health and their well-being (El-Hage et al. 2020: 73). The same study notes that, foreign national Critical Care nurses have to deal with numerous end-of-life decisions, shortage of beds and inadequate supplies such as, shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) and the fear of getting infected or infecting others. In Saudi Arabia, the healthcare nursing workforce is comprised of both Saudi nationals and foreign nationals who are employed as contract workers. The greater proportion of the Critical Care Unit in Saudi Arabia comprises foreign nationals (Almalki et al. 2011a: 304). Although the initial Covid-19 outbreak was under control, there was still risk of viral transmission through the population and the disease continued to end in fatalities (Alshammari et al. 2020: 898). The purpose of this study was to use in-depth interviews to understand the psychological needs of foreign national Critical Care nurses working in extraordinary epidemic situations, and to analyse the main content of their psychological and psychosocial needs through the lens of the ERG theory and to provide a perspective for interventions to alleviate the psychosocial and the psychological stress of foreign national Critical Care nurses at the front-line. Aim of the study The aim of the study was to explore the psychosocial effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on Saudi Arabian foreign national Critical Care nurses. Methodology In the proposed study, a qualitative, exploratory design was followed to explore the psychosocial effects on foreign national Critical Care nurses who nursed Covid-19 patients in the Critical Care Unit. A qualitative explorative phenomenological design was particularly relevant to this study as this approach allowed for engagement and interaction with the foreign national Critical Care nurses through interviews whilst striving for subjectivity. The phenomenological method focuses on the experiences and feelings of participants to find shared patterns rather than individual characteristics of the research subjects. Findings The findings of the study were aligned to Alderfer’s ERG theory and provided evidence that foreign national Critical Care nurses experienced psychosocial factors whilst caring for Covid-19 critically ill patients. Critical Care nurses experienced great stress when they were fighting against Covid-19 with their own needs for health, safety, interpersonal relationships and related knowledge. The findings from the study yielded the following three core needs: namely a need for survival; a need for relationships; and a need for growth and development. Therefore, under the direction of the leaders’ and executive management, the provision of prompt and relevant training for the prevention and control of Covid-19 would help reduce psychological panic and insecurity caused by inadequate knowledge.Item Knowledge, perceptions and experiences of nurses towards family centred care in adult intensive care units(2018) Ngcobo, Andile; Basson, Petro MagdalenaAim and objectives: To explore and describe the knowledge, perceptions and experiences of nurses towards family centered care in adult ICUs. Background: Promoting quality patient care and family satisfaction is a current trend in health care systems. In addition, the identification of family needs has been used as a means to measure quality patient care in intensive care units (ICUs). Evidence shows that family centred care (FCC) is an essential approach to promote quality patient care through the recognition of family needs. Admission to an ICU creates increased stress levels for the patient and family members, thus nurses’ knowledge, skills and experiences are crucial during this time of a family crisis. Nurses in ICU are in the best position as critical bedside nurses to assess and evaluate strategies that can be used to minimise and prevent stressors that are caused by the critical illnesses and the ICU environment. Design: An exploratory descriptive qualitative design was used. Method: The study was conducted in a district and academic tertiary public hospital based in KwaZulu Natal. This hospital provides health care services to a diverse and cross cultural population. Two ICUs were used for data collection, namely, a surgical and a medical ICU. Nine nurses were purposively recruited from the two adult intensive care units. Data was collected using in-depth interviews with the assistance of an interview guide and audio recording. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data. Results: Findings of this study indicated that nurses have an accurate and correct knowledge on the concept of FCC, thus identifying and recognising their roles and responsibilities with respect to the components that enhance FCC. However their perceptions towards facilitating family involvement in nursing care activities as part of FCC, revealed discrepancies due to mentioned factors that cause a hindrance in family involvement. Participants’ experiences has been shown to be positive in relation to family presence in ICUs, however findings indicated that participants restricted family visitation in adult ICUs is based on the existing policy pertaining to family visitation in ICUs. Consequently, nurses noted the great contribution a family makes towards patients’ well being in an ICU. Conclusion: The study findings showed that nurses in the selected ICUs require skills and training on the strategies that can be used to enhance and promote active family involvement in relation to nursing care activities in adult ICUs. Relevance to clinical practice: Training and further research for nurses has been proposed so as to better equip and encourage nurses with the necessary knowledge and skills required to improve family nursing in adult ICUs. In addition, the ICU environment including management, infrastructure and policy development can be adopted to allow such changes. Hence, nurses would need guidelines to be able to practice evidence based practices.