A selected group of nurses' experience of termination of pregnancy support services at a health care facility in the Western Cape

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The aim of this pilot study was to do a needs analysis with a selected group of nurses with regardto the following three aspects: nurses' experiences of their involvement in termination ofpregnancy (TOP) services, the effects of their involvement in TOP service provision on apersonal, familial and career level, as well as their needs with regard to support. An importantaspect of the needs analysis was to develop a questionnaire which can be used as basis for futureresearch purposes.A qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual research design was applied in order toconduct this study. Participants were recruited from a health care facility in the Western Cape,v~and the small sample group (seven out of a possible fifteen) consisted of a selected group ofnurses who are currently involved in performing TOPs, as well as nurses involved in pre- and/orpost-procedure care of patients. Each participant completed a self-administered biographical dataandsemi-structured questionnaire, which was compiled specifically for the purpose of the pilotstudy. Specific guidelines according to previous research findings were incorporated. The resultsof the pilot study revealed that most of the participants experience some sort of cognitive,emotional and/or behavioural reaction before, during and after TOP procedures are performed.-Feelings of anxiety, sadness, anger, depression and guilt were reported in some cases, as well asmoral-ethical conflicts. With regard to the effect on a personal, familial and career level, it wasconfirmed that the work has an effect on the majority of respondents' personal life and career to acertain extent, although family life did not seem te be affected significantly. The results conveyedthat the majority of the nurses experienced that the impact of their work with TOPs seemed to bedifferent from that of their other nursing duties. It was found that participating nurses are in needof some sort of support service, and that the practicality of the services which are currentlyprovided, should be investigated further.Although the ability to generalise the results, was limited by the small research sample, valuableinformation was gained with regard to nurses' needs for support, as confirmed by other SouthAfrican research findings. Suggestions for improvements in the questionnaire, as well as otherfurther research possibilities, are provided.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University