Professional Nurses Experiences’ Working Side by Side with Community Service Nurses During Community Service Placement

Abstract

Mthokozisi Zulu*, LA Snell-Hillermann and TSP Ngxongo

Background: Professional nurses are significant role players in the community service nurses’ lives as the community service nurses navigate their way in this new field they have chosen to embark on. The community service nurses need helping hands and personnel they can depend on, especially with task mastery and skills proficiency, thus professional nurses become a bridge to which a community service nurse can cross in order to get closer to their goal of being fully fledged in their profession.

Methods: A qualitative study design was carried out which had a support of 4 methods which were descriptive, explorative, contextual and cross-sectional, this study design was supported by the Schlossberg Transition theory as it was utilized to undergird the entire study. A one-on-one semi structured -interviews was utilized to collect and collate data, these data were collected from five Operational Nurse Managers, five Professional Nurses and seven Community Service Nurses in 10 KwaZulu-Natal hospitals between December 2024 and January 2025 after Ethics clearance (IREC no 216/24) by the institutional research committee granted the researcher permission.

Results: The study revealed five themes from the study when data collection was done, the themes were interpersonal relationships, clear Community service nurse guidance and support, consistent clinical exposure, resource availability and adequate incentives all of which revealed challenges between the community service nurses and professional nurses.

Conclusions: The study findings showed that the relationship between professional nurses and community service nurses during the community service placement period remain symbiotic although there may be challenges that exists between these two counterparts, the challenges are often beyond their power.

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