Browsing by Author "Mutabani, Pauline"

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    Exploring enrolled nursing and midwifery students’ opinions on professionalism in their clinical placements
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03) Mutabani, Pauline; Chikte, Usuf; Turawa, Eunice; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Centre for Health Professions Education.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY : Introduction: Professionalism is a contested concept due to dynamic evolutions and variations in use and application. The term remains hard to define despite the extensive research by many social science researchers. Consequently, various professions have different viewpoints on which characteristics constitute professionalism. It is imperative to define professionalism in the science and practice of nursing in order to comprehend its nature and attributes in the profession. The researcher explored with this study the enrolled student nurses’ and enrolled midwives’ opinions of professionalism as experienced in day-to-day clinical placements. Methods: A quantitative descriptive study was conducted at Windhoek Health Training Centre, a training centre for nurses only. A convenient sample of 199 was drawn from nursing students at different levels of nursing training. Structured self-administered questionnaires were used to measure the presence of professionalism in clinical practice among nursing students. The data was exported into SPSS version 2.0 for statistical analysis according to gender, age, and year of study. Results: The results showed that out of 100 participants, 58 (58%) were females, 33 (33%) were males, and 8 (8%) did not wish to reveal their gender. Among the participants, 29% were first year students, while 36% were in their second year of training and 33% were third year students. The majority, 46 (46%) were aged 18-24, while 37 (37%) were between the ages of 25 and 34. Fourteen (14%) were not willing to disclose their age. According to the participants, professionalism in nursing means positive/proactive professional behaviour and promotion of standard behaviour and attributes of professionalism in nursing. The Cronbach co-efficient for the aspects of personality measured in this study were as follows: •Feeling valued by the public = 2 (0.42) •Appropriate behaviours = 7 (4.80) •Organisational and professional care = 6 (4.60) •Positive/proactive professional behaviours = 9 (0.86) •Professional identity and pride = 5 (0.42), and •Learning process = 3 (0.20). Conclusion: According to the participants’ opinions, professionalism in nursing means the organisational and professional care, positive/proactive professional behaviours; and the promotion of appropriate behaviours and attributes of professionalism in nursing.