Factors hindering paediatric ward nurses from using nursing care plans at Kenyatta National Hospital

Abstract

Factors Hindering Paediatric Ward Nurses from Using Nursing Care Plans at Kenyata National Hospital (KNH) BACKGROUND: Documentation is an essential and integral part of quality nursing care. A nursing care plan best suits this purpose because it combines holistic and scientific approach to patient care. Further, it communicates and supports continuity of care though minimally used by nurses. OBJECTIVE: The aim was to identify factors hindering paediatric nurses from using nursing care plans. METHOD: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted from June to August 2007 at KNH. It used a random sample of 7 in-charge and 100 non in-charge nurses who filled a self-administered close-ended questionnaire. Pearson product-moment correlation was used to assess the association between variables with a P value set at 0.05. RESULTS: Only 2% nurses were utilizing care plans. The characteristics of the nurse (i.e. age: r = .026, p= .796 ; qualification: r = .007 , p= .941 and years of service: r = .135 , p= .181 ), nursing work (i.e. workload: r = .099 ,p = .328 and stress: r = -.027 ,p = .786) and nursing administration (i.e. staffing: r = .192 ,p = .680 and care plan policy: r = .277 ,p = .547) had a non significant linear relationship with utilizing care plans. The linear relationship between familiarity with the care plan content (r=.198, p= .049)) and its use was statistically significant whereas ease to update a care plantr = .013, p = .897) was not. CONCLUSION: Further research is indicated to determine hospital-specific factors predicting non-use of care plans in order to address them with aim of popularizing their use. This will go a long way to enrich the four main areas of nursing: Research, Education, Administration and Teaching.