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What is the capacity of the children's nursing workforce in seven selected Sub-Saharan African countries? Gathering insights from Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia

Background This study attempted to identify as far as possible the extent of the children’s nursing workforce in five selected countries in the sub-Saharan African region. Strengthening children’s nursing training has been recommended as a primary strategy to reduce the underfive mortality rate in...

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Main Author: North, Natasha
Other Authors: Coetzee, Minette
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Paediatrics and Child Health 2019
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access_status_str Open Access
author North, Natasha
author2 Coetzee, Minette
author_browse Coetzee, Minette
North, Natasha
author_facet Coetzee, Minette
North, Natasha
author_sort North, Natasha
collection Thesis
description Background This study attempted to identify as far as possible the extent of the children’s nursing workforce in five selected countries in the sub-Saharan African region. Strengthening children’s nursing training has been recommended as a primary strategy to reduce the underfive mortality rate in African nations, including South Africa and Malawi. The current level of data monitoring capacity worldwide means that it is not possible to disaggregate the children’s nursing workforce in countries in the World Health Organisation African Region from the data provided by the WHO Global Atlas of the Health Workforce database. Yet developing an accurate depiction of the specialist children’s nursing workforce is a necessary step towards optimizing children’s health service delivery. Methods In attempting to respond to this need, this study adheres to a collaborative research philosophy, using a convergent parallel mixed methods design, incorporating a scoping documentary review, together with quantitative (surveys and case study compilation) and qualitative (interview) components collected independently and then integrated during analysis and interpretation, to generate data addressing three related questions: how many children’s nurses are believed to be in practice nationally; how many such nurses are recorded on the nursing register nationally; and how many children’s nurses are being produced through training. Results Findings suggest there are approximately 3 728 children’s nurses across the five countries in this study. A combined total of 260 children’s nurses are produced through training each year across the five countries on average. Survey responses, interview data and content analysis of items identified through the scoping review suggest that adequate information regarding the children’s nursing workforce is not currently available to inform decision-making. Conclusion In conclusion, it is hoped that the data generated might contribute towards identifying the size of the children’s nursing workforce, as a first step towards identifying what would represent a viable and sustainable regional children’s nursing workforce for the future.
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language eng
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license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2019
publishDateRange 2019
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publisher Department of Paediatrics and Child Health
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spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/29838 What is the capacity of the children's nursing workforce in seven selected Sub-Saharan African countries? Gathering insights from Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia North, Natasha Coetzee, Minette King, Shung Maylene Paediatrics Background This study attempted to identify as far as possible the extent of the children’s nursing workforce in five selected countries in the sub-Saharan African region. Strengthening children’s nursing training has been recommended as a primary strategy to reduce the underfive mortality rate in African nations, including South Africa and Malawi. The current level of data monitoring capacity worldwide means that it is not possible to disaggregate the children’s nursing workforce in countries in the World Health Organisation African Region from the data provided by the WHO Global Atlas of the Health Workforce database. Yet developing an accurate depiction of the specialist children’s nursing workforce is a necessary step towards optimizing children’s health service delivery. Methods In attempting to respond to this need, this study adheres to a collaborative research philosophy, using a convergent parallel mixed methods design, incorporating a scoping documentary review, together with quantitative (surveys and case study compilation) and qualitative (interview) components collected independently and then integrated during analysis and interpretation, to generate data addressing three related questions: how many children’s nurses are believed to be in practice nationally; how many such nurses are recorded on the nursing register nationally; and how many children’s nurses are being produced through training. Results Findings suggest there are approximately 3 728 children’s nurses across the five countries in this study. A combined total of 260 children’s nurses are produced through training each year across the five countries on average. Survey responses, interview data and content analysis of items identified through the scoping review suggest that adequate information regarding the children’s nursing workforce is not currently available to inform decision-making. Conclusion In conclusion, it is hoped that the data generated might contribute towards identifying the size of the children’s nursing workforce, as a first step towards identifying what would represent a viable and sustainable regional children’s nursing workforce for the future. 2019-03-01T06:28:59Z 2019-03-01T06:28:59Z 2018 2019-02-25T11:52:36Z Master Thesis Masters MSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29838 eng application/pdf Department of Paediatrics and Child Health Faculty of Health Sciences University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Paediatrics
North, Natasha
What is the capacity of the children's nursing workforce in seven selected Sub-Saharan African countries? Gathering insights from Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia
thesis_degree_str Master's
title What is the capacity of the children's nursing workforce in seven selected Sub-Saharan African countries? Gathering insights from Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia
title_full What is the capacity of the children's nursing workforce in seven selected Sub-Saharan African countries? Gathering insights from Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia
title_fullStr What is the capacity of the children's nursing workforce in seven selected Sub-Saharan African countries? Gathering insights from Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia
title_full_unstemmed What is the capacity of the children's nursing workforce in seven selected Sub-Saharan African countries? Gathering insights from Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia
title_short What is the capacity of the children's nursing workforce in seven selected Sub-Saharan African countries? Gathering insights from Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia
title_sort what is the capacity of the children s nursing workforce in seven selected sub saharan african countries gathering insights from botswana kenya namibia malawi south africa uganda and zambia
topic Paediatrics
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29838
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