Exploring the role of patient care workers in private hospitals in the Cape Metropole

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Controversy was observed regarding the opinions of nursing managers on the role of patientcare workers (PCWs) in private hospitals. These opinions ranged from praise for theircontribution towards patient care to serious concerns about the impact of their role on patientsafety. The aim of this study was therefore to explore the role of PCWs in private hospitalsin the Cape Metropole, South Africa.A qualitative approach with a descriptive design was applied to explore the role of PCWs asperceived by unit managers, nurses and patient care workers. Purposive sampling wasused to select participants from medical and surgical wards from three different privatehospitals, one each from the three major private hospital groups in South Africa (n=15).Permission to conduct the study was obtained from the Health Research Ethics Committeeof the Stellenbosch University, as well as from the private hospital organisations.Fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted, transcribed and analysed. Six themesemerged from the data. These included PCW activities, care organisation, position in thepatient care team, training, reasons for employment and concerns about the PCW role. Thefindings indicated strong similarities with the health care asistant role as described in theliterature study. The activities of PCWs are focused on direct patient care and they spendmuch time with patients. They are close observers of the patient's condition and report tonurses. PCWs seem to be well integrated into the patient care team and are mostly seen asnurses.Yet, there are concerns about their evolving role despite their limited training programmesand the lack of direct supervision. The researcher recommends that the work of PCWsshould be regulated, but that the nursing profession should critically evaluate the need foranother nursing category in addition to that of the enrolled nurse auxiliary.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University