Perceptions of strategies to facilitate caring for patients in primary health care clinics

BACKGROUND: Caring in nursing helps patients feel better, whilst the absence of caring will affect patients psychologically, emotionally and physically. AIM: The aim of this article was to explore and describe primary health care (PHC) professional nurses’ and PHC nurse managers’ perceptions of the developed strategies to facilitate effective caring for patients in PHC clinics. SETTING: This study was conducted in two PHC clinics in Ekurhuleni, an area east of the Gauteng province, South Africa. METHODS: The study used a qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual design. In-depth individual phenomenological interviews were conducted with eight purposively selected PHC professional nurses working in PHC clinics and two PHC nurse managers supervising PHC clinics in Ekurhuleni. Giorgi’s coding method was used to analyse the data. RESULTS: Three themes were identified from the results of the exploration and description of PHC professional nurses’ and PHC nurse managers’ perceptions of the developed strategies. The use of active listening skills, showing interest in what is being said, asking questions and providing constructive feedback that focuses on the issue were the most effective strategies in improving effective communication between PHC nurse managers and PHC professional nurses. The PHC professional nurses were encouraged to put patients’ interests first whilst adhering to the ethical principles of nursing. CONCLUSION: Although caring is considered as the core of nursing practice, PHC professional nurses and PHC nurse managers perceive that rendering effective caring for patients needs to be reinforced through the use of strategies that will enable change and improve clinical practice in PHC clinics.