Nurse Managers’ Perception of Mentoring Community Service Nurses in North West Province, South Africa

Abstract

Newly qualified Community Service Nurses (CSN) rely on experienced  nursing managers (NMs) for support and mentoring. In the context of North West Province (NWP), there is anecdotal evidence which suggest that CSN are not adequately mentored. The study purpose was to measure the perceptions of NMs regarding mentoring of CSN in NWP public health facilities South Africa. The authors used quantitative descriptive cross-sectional design, to collect data from 174 NMs working with the newly qualified CSN in the four districts in NWP. Simple random sampling was used to select the participants. Ethical approval to conduct the study was obtained from North West University ethics committee. The study revealed that majority of NMs agreed that there were benefits to mentoring. There was no significance difference between those who have mentored CSN and those who did not mentor the CSN with regard NM’s perceptions regarding mentoring costs and benefits, and willingness to mentor were presented. Stratified and Simple random sampling techniques were used to select NMs in public health facilities in NWP. Other public health facilities were not included because the participants were unavailable. However adequate representation was ensured by selecting participants proportionately in the four NWP districts to achieve the required number for the quantitative study. The study was conducted at eight hospitals, 28 clinics in NWP, where CSN are placed.

Keywords: Community Service Nurses; Mentoring; Nurse Managers