Support for nurses dealing with rituals held in health care facilities

Abstract

Health facility management support remains a strong pillar and motivator for nurses during service delivery but, unfortunately, in most cases a lack of management support is experienced in hospitals in South Africa. Lack of management support exists in one health district in Mpumalanga Province. The problem was realised when families visited the health facility to fetch the spirit of deceased. These family members were dissatisfied about the care they received from the nurses. During a study which explored the nurses experiences regarding the ritual of fetching the spirit if the deceased, the study findings revealed the suggestions for possible consideration by the hospital management to support the nurses in dealing with the families. That triggered the researcher’s intentions to identify the participants’ suggestions which the health care management should use as support for the nurses dealing with rituals held in health care facilities. A qualitative, explorative, descriptive study was conducted using unstructured interviews. The data collection method used was one-one interviews. An interview schedule was used to collect data. Techs’ method of data analysis was used for analysing the collected data. The findings of the study revealed ways that may effectively promote management’s support for nurses during their daily encounter with families who fetch the spirit of the deceased. The findings were used as suggestions to support the nurses; for example, increased nursing staff coverage, formulating the standards of nursing care, advocating for the nurses, mentoring, bereavement debriefing sessions for the nurses, limitation of the non-nursing duties and creating a healthy environment for the nurses. Management support is a priority motivator for nurses. The researcher believes that the use of the suggestions of this research should lead to increased harmonious stakeholder interaction with resultant quality care in health facilities.