Self‐care neglect through the voices of nurses working in primary healthcare clinics in Gauteng, South Africa

BACKGROUND: Self‐care is essential, but while professional nurses often pay attention to the health of their patients, they give little heed to their own well‐being. With the current pandemic continuing to negatively affect the world, the need for health professionals to make time for self‐care is imperative. The concept “self‐care” is not a new phenomenon; however, this study strives to show the importance of self‐care practices in the world of nurses and its benefit for the nursing profession. The reality for nurses taking care of themselves will assist them in providing consistent quality care for their patients. METHOD: A qualitative approach with a descriptive, phenomenological, contextual method was used in this study. Ten professional nurses employed within different primary healthcare clinics were selected through purposeful sampling. Through in‐depth, individual interviews, the professional nurses shared their lived experiences with self‐care practices while being employed within a primary healthcare clinic. The recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and then analyzed using Colaizzi's method. RESULTS: The findings revealed: Theme 1: Participants experienced internal and external factors that compromised self‐care practices. Theme 2: Holistic well‐being and the quality of patient care are compromised by self‐care neglect. Theme 3: Participants experienced the need to take responsibility and accountability to promote self‐care practices. RECOMMENDATIONS: Specific recommendations were formulated to facilitate professional nurses' empowerment to practise self‐care as a lifestyle. These specific recommendations focused on reducing the burden of caring for others to the extent that professional nurses working in primary healthcare settings have nothing left for themselves.