Implementation and factors affecting the nursing process among nurses working in selected government hospitals in Southwest Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: The nursing process was initially adopted from the general system theory, and was developed and implemented in the field of education. There is a demand to implement the nursing process in practical care in every health institution, but the perception remains that it is time-consuming and impractical. If the nursing process is not valued and not used, nurses may continue to intervene on the basis of a medical diagnosis rather than on the basis of a rational nursing Process steps. In any of the steps, oversight or omission can result in less than optimal nursing care. The purpose of this study was to assess implementation and factors affecting the nursing process among nurses working in selected government hospitals in Southwest Ethiopia. METHODS: An institution-based cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted from March 10 to April 1, 2015 in three hospitals in southwest Ethiopia using self-administered questionnaires. This study included a total of 138 nurses using simple random sampling. Data were classified, coded and entered into epidemiological information version 3.5.3, and exported to the statistical package for social science version 20 for analysis, descriptive statistics were used to describe the variables, bivariable and multivariable logistic regression were used to see the effect of each variable on the dependent variable. RESULT: The nursing process was found to be 73.9% implemented. Compared to a Bachelor of Science nurses’, the likelihood of implementing the nursing process was less likely among diploma nurses. Nurses working in administratively supported hospitals implemented the nursing process more compared to those without administrative support. The nursing process had been implemented higher by trained nurses compared to untrained nurses. CONCLUSION: The implementation of nursing process was good where; nearly seven in every ten nurses implemented the nursing process. Low educational qualification, lack of training, and non-supportive hospital administration were predictors of the nursing process implementation. The health service management, in collaboration with Ethiopian nursing/professional associations and international governmental and non-governmental organizations should give continuous on the job professional development education, and develop nursing practice guidelines. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12912-020-00498-8.