Kultuurkongruente beraming van die moeder en haar baba binne 'n kultuurdiverse gemeenskap

Abstract

Since April 1994 South Africa has been freed from Apartheid and drastic changes have taken place in the health services that also reflect on the practice of the community nurse. Little exposure to cultural diversity as a result of former fragmented health service delivery, however, resulted in the fact that some community nurses are not equipped to handle the prevailing cultural diversity. In the light of this reality and further conversations with community nurses at local health clinics it is obvious that a need exists to investigate culture congruent assessment of the mother and her baby within the culturally diverse community of the Potchefstroom district. The aim of this research was on the one hand, to investigate the perceptions of both the community nurse and the mother with regard to culture congruent assessment by the community nurse of the mother and her baby within a culturally diverse community by means of a qualitative research design. On the other hand the researcher strove to formulate a conceptual framework that will facilitate the execution of culture congruent assessment of the mother and her baby within a culturally diverse community. Purposive, voluntary sampling was used in this research for the selection of the participants. Data collection took place by means of semi-structured interviews with participants and it was pursued until data showed a repetitive pattern. An independent nursing specialist conducted the interviews for data collection. Data analysis was undertaken by means of open coding. An independent co-decoder was used for coding and for consensus of data analysis to strengthen the reliability of the research. During interviews field-notes were taken down to confirm findings. The findings of the research were confirmed by means of control of literature and showed that although both the mother and the community nurse indicated that culture is taken into consideration during assessment, opinions were likewise raised that it is not always the case. The aspects that were mentioned by both the mother and the community nurse that fulfill cultural congruency during assessment are, among others, communication with, attitude towards and treatment of the mother by the community nurse who facilitates the interaction during assessment with the aim to promote a trust relationship that leads to effective assessment. Deficient knowledge with regard to cultural practices, beliefs and values, as well as poor communication skills impede the interaction between the community nurse and the mother. When culture congruence does not really realise within the assessment of the mother and her baby, the trust relationship between the parties is undermined that leads to ineffective assessment. Recommendations for nursing research, education and practice were presented in the last chapter of the research report. The field of the nursing practice with the accent on community nursing was the focus of this research. Therefore the conceptual framework was presented in the form of a visual model. It was followed by a discussion of the conceptual framework for the facilitation of a culture congruent assessment by the community nurse of the mother and her baby within a culture diverse community, as proposals for the community nursing practice.