Resilience of nurse managers in the private healthcare sector in Gauteng, South Africa

Abstract

Nurse managers of private hospitals play a critical role in ensuring that quality care is delivered to all entrusted to their care. The challenges within the private healthcare sector, shortage of staff, increased stress levels and burnout leads to high staff turnover and absenteeism. That is the reason nurse managers need to be resilient within the role. The same effects are also experienced by other healthcare sectors in South Africa and within the African continent, which include overcrowded hospitals and high patients’ loads with limited resources and finances. A number of studies have been conducted about resilience of nurses in South Africa (Koen et al., 2011; Pillay 2010, Gray, 2012) but not on the experience of nurse managers with regard to their resilience specifically their strengths and coping skills. The researcher then identified that a supporting, positive environment is lacking for nurse managers to improve their resilience specifically their strengths and coping skills. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the experience of nurse managers with regard to their resilience, specifically their strengths and coping skills in the private healthcare sector in Gauteng, South Africa. The information provided by the study guided the researcher to formulate recommendations to support nurse managers in improving their resilience, specifically their strengths and coping skills. A qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological design was used with an interpretive approach. Unstructured interviews were conducted with participants to collect data. The population was comprised of nurse managers from the private healthcare sector who were selected by purposive sampling. Sample size was determined by data saturation while data analysis was conducted simultaneously with data collection. Four themes and thirteen sub-themes were identified during a consensus meeting between the researcher and the co-coder. Main findings were related to the nurse managers’ experiences with regard to their resilience specifically their strengths and coping skills, and how they could be supported in improving their resilience. Conclusions were drawn with regard to: adversity experienced by participants, lack of support and limited resources and induction in their role; coping measures for nurse managers and suggested recommendations for building resilience. Recommendations were formulated for nursing practise, nursing education, nursing research and nursing policy that focused on supporting and improving resilience of nurse managers, specifically their strengths and coping skills within a private healthcare company, in Gauteng South Africa.