Abstract

Most critical care units in private healthcare in South Africa are staffed below maximum workload levels and additional staff is supplemented when needed. The additional staff often consists of enrolled nurses. In South African context, the enrolled nurse is a person who is trained to perform basic nursing care and works under direct or indirect supervision of the registered nurse. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of critical care nurses regarding the utilization of enrolled nurses from a general ward as relief staff in critical care units. A descriptive design with a qualitative approach was applied. A sample size of n=15 was drawn from a total population of N=377, using purposive sampling technique. The findings demonstrated that some enrolled nurses perceived the critical care units as frightening whereas others viewed the distribution of the workload among themselves and the critical care nurse as unfair with the enrolled nurse feeling exploited. The critical care nurses perceived the experienced enrolled nurses as supportive and those with little or no experience in the critical care unit as a burden. Staff development for enrolled nurses who work in critical care units occasionally was found to be minimal and subsequently some critical care nurses disapprove their presence. However, nursing management encourage the use of enrolled nurses in the critical care unit to contain cost pertaining to labour. Enrolled nurses, who assist occasionally in the critical care unit to limit expenditure pertaining to labour, require supervision as well as ongoing development to ensure safe and quality patient care.

Key words: Critical care unit, patient-nurse ratio, staff management.