Nurses’ Experiences in Managing Cardiovascular Disease in Selected Rural and Peri-Urban Clinics in Limpopo Province, South Africa

Mamoeng Nancy Kgatla, Tebogo M. Mothiba, Tholene Sodi and Mpsanyana Makgahlela
Additional contact information
Mamoeng Nancy Kgatla: Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Limpopo, Sovenga 0727, South Africa
Tebogo M. Mothiba: Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Limpopo, Sovenga 0727, South Africa
Tholene Sodi: Department of Psychology, University of Limpopo, Sovenga 0727, South Africa
Mpsanyana Makgahlela: Department of Psychology, University of Limpopo, Sovenga 0727, South Africa

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 5, 1-12

Abstract: Deaths caused by cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) account for 60% of all deaths that occur in rural and remote areas. Disease management programs are increasingly used to improve the effectiveness of chronic care. Nurses are a key component of the health workforce and have an important role to play in CVD prevention, treatment, and the care of sick people in remote areas. Due to the nature of their work, nurses are prone to working hard, and to experience burnout, sleep, or eating disorders. This is often exacerbated by a shortage of staff and equipment. The objectives of the study were to explore and describe the experiences of professional nurses in managing CVDs in South African rural and peri-urban clinics. A qualitative, explorative-descriptive design and a contextual research approach were adopted for the present study. Purposive sampling was employed to recruit nurses who were managing patients with CVD from 11 primary health care facilities. Data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews and analyzed using Tesch’s open coding method. Interview transcripts were coded and analyzed for common themes. The following two major themes emerged from the data: perceived institutional challenges affecting the management of CVDs and nurses’ perceptions of patient challenges that impede the effective management of CVD. The study concludes by highlighting that apart from a resource challenge, the shortage of nurses in rural clinics is the biggest reason behind overcrowding, waiting long hours for consultations, and an increase in the workload, resulting in medical errors and poor quality care. It is, therefore, recommended that, for improved care and management of CVD in rural populations, local governments need to employ more skilled nurses whilst availing the necessary material resources.

Keywords: experiences; management; nurses; cardiovascular diseases; clinics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/5/2570/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/5/2570/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:5:p:2570-:d:510531

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().