Abstract

The target audience of this presentation is clinical nurses, nursing assistants, nursing supervisor, hospital managers, human resources director, care association group, patients, important media people and people pay attention to the medical environment. Nursing manpower shortage is deteriorating, due to the rapid growth of aging population and increasing workload of clinical care. Nursing staff have anticipated other personnel such as nursing assistants to join the current nursing care model.

Purpose:

The purpose of this study was to, through the frontline nurses" perspectives, in-depth understand their viewpoints of and expectations from nursing assistants. Contacted was a convenience sample of 14 staff nurses, who worked at a medical center or at a regional teaching hospital in southern Taiwan.

Methods:

Using data triangulation method, this study applied focus group conferences, questionnaires survey, and individual interviews to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. This study was conducted three times focus groups interviews at two hospitals in Taiwan. 14 nurses from a medical center and a regional teaching hospital in southern Taiwan.

Results:

The result deduced three themes as (a) nurses" demands and needs for assistants, (b) the expected work content of nursing assistants, (c) promote skill-mixed collaborative interaction. The results revealed that staff nurses positively support the role of nursing assistants. Many of their working experiences and expectations should be valuable references on developing the scope of practice and establishing the qualification and training of nursing assistants.

Conclusion:

The results suggest that the type of hospitals (such as acute or subacute care), the unit characteristics (such as workload and length of stay), and the nursing care model (such as primary or team nursing) should be considered while establishing nursing assistantship. Clear scope of practice of both staff nurses and nursing assistants is conducive to release more nursing hours for staff nurses in playing their professional roles and, in turn, leads to construct a quality nursing work environment.

Authors

Su-Hua Tsai

Author Details

Su-Hua Tsai, MSN, RN

Sigma Membership

Pi at-Large

Type

Poster

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

N/A

Research Approach

N/A

Keywords:

Nursing Assistants, Nursing Care Model, Triangulation

Conference Name

28th International Nursing Research Congress

Conference Host

Sigma Theta Tau International

Conference Location

Dublin, Ireland

Conference Year

2017

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Acquisition

Proxy-submission

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Explore the clinical nurses' viewpoint and expectations toward nursing assistantship in Taiwan: A triangulation method

Dublin, Ireland

The target audience of this presentation is clinical nurses, nursing assistants, nursing supervisor, hospital managers, human resources director, care association group, patients, important media people and people pay attention to the medical environment. Nursing manpower shortage is deteriorating, due to the rapid growth of aging population and increasing workload of clinical care. Nursing staff have anticipated other personnel such as nursing assistants to join the current nursing care model.

Purpose:

The purpose of this study was to, through the frontline nurses" perspectives, in-depth understand their viewpoints of and expectations from nursing assistants. Contacted was a convenience sample of 14 staff nurses, who worked at a medical center or at a regional teaching hospital in southern Taiwan.

Methods:

Using data triangulation method, this study applied focus group conferences, questionnaires survey, and individual interviews to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. This study was conducted three times focus groups interviews at two hospitals in Taiwan. 14 nurses from a medical center and a regional teaching hospital in southern Taiwan.

Results:

The result deduced three themes as (a) nurses" demands and needs for assistants, (b) the expected work content of nursing assistants, (c) promote skill-mixed collaborative interaction. The results revealed that staff nurses positively support the role of nursing assistants. Many of their working experiences and expectations should be valuable references on developing the scope of practice and establishing the qualification and training of nursing assistants.

Conclusion:

The results suggest that the type of hospitals (such as acute or subacute care), the unit characteristics (such as workload and length of stay), and the nursing care model (such as primary or team nursing) should be considered while establishing nursing assistantship. Clear scope of practice of both staff nurses and nursing assistants is conducive to release more nursing hours for staff nurses in playing their professional roles and, in turn, leads to construct a quality nursing work environment.