Standards to assure quality in nursing research.

The focus of this article is quality assurance in nursing research. Due to well established problems regarding the education of nursing research and increasing pressure to take responsibility for the quality of all educational activities, departments of nursing are obliged to initiate actions to assure quality in nursing research. A nursing department functions within a well-defined external context. The external context comprises of various aspects such as role player expectations and current educational and professional legislation. Standards are the basic components of any quality assurance system (Booyens, 1996:305). Standards give direction to the practitioner and must be compiled within the context of the country's cultural, philosophical and ethical value systems, as well as its social economic and political development. The premise of the study was that if the education of nursing research, indeed the total management of nursing research within the department, is subjected to quality assurance, the outcome of the in terms of nursing research will be positive. The research objective addressed in the study was to formulate and validate standards against which quality in nursing research in a nursing department can be judged. Muller's phases of standard formulation were used as the methodological basis for the study. Optimal, specific standards were formulated using a deductive process and validated by implementing the standards in a department of nursing.

Role-player expectations regarding the education of nursing research.

This article reports on role player expectations regarding the education of nursing research. The importance of the role player expectations are two-fold: firstly as a factor in the external environment influencing and guiding the formulation phase of the development of standards and secondly, due to the clear indications of problems regarding nursing research in the nursing profession in literature. The role player expectations were elicited using a qualitative, exploratory and contextual design. The role player population included nurse educators, nurses in managerial, clinical and research positions, students and the medical profession. The data was gathered using the naïve sketches and qualitative data analysis was done using Morse & Field's approach (1996:103-107) in combination with Tesch's data analysis approach as cited by Creswell (1994:154-156). Sixty initial categories were narrowed down to six final categories, which are the research learning programme, personnel, students, departmental policies, funding and support systems. The role player expectations were elicited as part of a research study aiming tot develop a self-evaluation system for quality assurance in nursing research and as such, the role player expectations plays a pivotal role in the development of standards for the self-evaluation system.

Expectations of stakeholders regarding home care provision in rural Namibia.

As in many countries, the disease pattern in Namibia has changed, health problems are increasing and outweigh the capacity of the existing health resources. Government health facilities in Namibia have limited capacity to accommodate all sick people, especially those who are chronically and terminally ill. Many hospitals in rural Namibia are overcrowded, patients sleep on the floors and, in some cases, children share beds. Morbidities relating particularly to AIDS, chronic conditions and other physical and emotional disabilities are likely to require long-term home care. In most instances, the health system is also not prepared to provide home care, nor provide the support that is required by the caregivers of disabled, chronically sick people. To ease the burden of care felt by the state at health facilities, the Ministry of Health and Social Services in Namibia has, on several occasions, called upon the community and other stakeholders in health care to assist in caring for their loved ones at home (NBC, 1996; MOHSS, 1996). The purpose of the study was to develop and describe a model for capacity building for quality home care in rural Namibia. This article focuses on the first phase of the bigger study, namely the expectations of stakeholders regarding home care provision in rural Namibia. A qualitative, exploratory and descriptive case study design was used. Five cases were purposively selected and thirty stakeholders were interviewed. Data were analysed using a combination of the approaches of Tesch and Morse and Field. To ensure trustworthiness, triangulation and other measures of Lincoln and Guba were used. The expectations were categorised into structures, process and outcome-related expectations. Stakeholders in rural Namibia appear to have dependency tendencies and still expect all resources and services to be provided by someone else, be it the government, the church, the headman and/or any other non-governmental agencies. There is a need empowerment and capacity building in the community and awareness must be created of the responsibility of the community in dealing with home care provision.

Problem-based case study to enhance critical thinking in student nurses.

The use of traditional teaching methods, for example the lecture method, does not stimulate critical thinking in student nurses. This problem can be solved by the utilisation of problem-based case study in the classroom/clinical setting. The purpose of this study is to describe guidelines for the implementation of problem-based case study in a clinical setting among first year, comprehensive course students at the Northern Province College of Nursing: Sovenga campus. The research design of this study was qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual and was conducted in the following phases: Phase 1: The development and implementation of a program for problem-based case study in the clinical setting; Phase II: The experiences of student nurses who were exposed to problem-based case study in the clinical setting; Phase III: The perceptions of tutors regarding the implementation of problem-based case study in the clinical setting (focus group), and; ase IV: Guidelines for the implementation of problem-based case study. The data from Phases I, II and III were used to formulate guidelines for the implementation of problem-based case study. The sample group consisted of all 69 first year student nurses at the Northern Province College of Nursing: Sovenga campus and ten tutors teaching clinical courses at the same campus. The Tesch (1990) approach is used for data analysis. Nine guidelines for the implementation of a problem-based case study approach were formulated and recommendations for development of an instrument to measure critical thinking in nursing were recommended.

Ethical Standards for the Occupational Health-Nursing Practitioner Regarding the HIV Positive Person in the Workplace

The occcupational health-nursing practitioner often becomes involved in ethical dilemmas with regard to the handling of HIV-positive people in the workplace in that the interests of the HIV-positive people conflict with the interests of the employer. Therefore; the occupational health-nursing practitioner could find himself ? Herself acting as mediator between the two parties. Despite the existence of legal norms ancl ethicirl standards to regulate the interests of the HN-positive person in the workplace; no guidelines exist as to how these norms and standards should be operrationalised during interaction between the HN-positive person; the occcupational health-nursing practitioner and the employer: The occupational health-nursing practitioner is therefore rrncertain us to the manner in which to act professionally within the laid-ilown ethical standards for HN positive people in the workplace.The purpose of this study is to provide guidelines and criteria for the operationalisation of ethical standards for the occupational health-nursing practitioner regarcling the HN-positive person in the workplace. This is done through a literatrrre study with specific reference to current ethical frameworks within the occupational health-nursing context; after which the research is focused on two target groups; namely the occupational haalth-nursing practitioners and HIV-positive persons in the workplace. The design of the research is qualitative; explorative and descriptive. In order to assist the occupational health-nursing practitioner to handle the HIVpositive person in the workplace in an ethical manner guidelines and criteria were compiled for the operationalisation of the standards

Community-based curriculum in psychiatric nursing science.

As community-based health care delivery is now a prominent feature of the health care system in South Africa, nursing curricula are being challenged to prepare student nurses for community-based nursing roles and responsibilities. The purpose of this study was to describe guidelines for a community-based curriculum in psychiatric nursing science for a nursing college in KwaZulu-Natal. A qualitative, quantitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual design was employed. To reach the purpose of the study, a situational analysis was done in three phases to identify the principles for a community-based curriculum for psychiatric nursing science. PHASE I: A document analysis of relevant government policies and legislation. PHASE II: Statistics from psychiatric hospitals and community psychiatric clinics. PHASE III: Focus group interviews with nurse educators and literature control and conceptual framework. The principles obtained from the three phases were used to formulate the guidelines for a community-based curriculum in psychiatric nursing science. (PHASE IV): Eight guidelines with practical implications are described for the implementation of a Community-based curriculum in Psychiatric Nursing Science.

[The management of didactic support systems at a nursing college]. / Die bestuur van didaktiese steunstelsels aan 'n verplegingskollege.

The learning accompanists (nurse educator), in the didactic situation within the context of a nursing college, is midst a process of transformation. This transformation has a direct influence on the learning accompanists didactic role fulfilment. Didactic support systems enables the learning accompanist to fulfill her/his didactic role. These didactic support systems should be managed during the process of transformation, in such a way that it enables the learning accompanist to fulfil her/his didactic role. A new creative approach to the management of the didactic situation is necessary. The goal of this study was to describe guidelines for the management of didactic support systems, at a nursing college, to enable the learning accompanist to fulfil her/his didactic role. An inductive, qualitative, contextual, exploring, descriptive strategy was used to reach the goal of the study. No explicit conceptual framework was used as point of departure. Because the participants are midst a process of transformation, their knowledge and experience was used as source of data, as they can express their needs and views the best. The goal of this study was reached by setting four objectives. The uniqueness of the study lies in the relevance within the current time frame context and that it expresses the needs of the learner accompanists and the views of the managers at a nursing college. An abundance of possibilities for further research was created.

An orientation program for nurses in a cardio thoracic intensive care unit.

The objective of this qualitative, explorative and descriptive study was to explore and describe the contents and management of an orientation program for a specific cardio thoracic intensive care unit of a specific private hospital. The goals of the study were: Conducting a literature review to explore and describe the concepts identified in the conceptual framework and thereby lending theoretical support to the contents and management of the orientation program. To explore and describe the expectations of the learner with regard to the contents and management of the orientation program. To explore and describe the expectations of the senior professional nursing team with regard to the contents and management of the orientation program.