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Nursing Education 2018 Journal of Nursing and Health Studies
ISSN: 2574-2825 Page 22
April 23-25, 2018
Rome, Italy
27th Edition of World Congress on
Nursing Education &
Research
Background : Patients admitted to critical care units receive
specialised care based on modern science and technology.
In these units doctors and nurses perceive western practices
as superior to traditional practices. Conversely, South Africa
comprises of diverse people (including nurses and doctors)
and cultures, where up to 85% of the population believe in
and make use of traditional practices when ill. Nurses are
requested by patients and/or family members to incorporate
traditional practices in the management of critically ill/dying
patients. Some nurses do allow traditional practices, whilst
others say no. Consensus should be reached on what should
and what should not be accommodated.
Aim: Evaluate healthcare professionals accommodation of traditional
practices in the critical care unit
Methods: Appreciative conversations with healthcare professionals
and creative arts with nurses were used to collect data relating
traditional practices accommodated in critical care units. Strategies
were identified and consensus reached on which traditional practices
should be accommodated in future.
Results: Healthcare professionals acknowledged that traditional
practices are accommodated in a haphazard way and dependant
on bedside nurses. Consensus was reached that traditional
practices such as prayer, singing, religious symbols and rituals
associated with dying are allowed by some nurses. In future
traditional practices that are risk-free (e.g. topical application) and
non-disruptive (healing session) should also be accommodated.
Conclusion: Healthcare professionals are required to develop
cultural sensitivity and respect patients and/or families
requests to allow traditional practices for the critically ill/
dying patient. Accommodation of traditional practices should
become an integral part of daily bedside nursing in critical
care units. Traditional practices requested by patients and/or
family members which cannot be accommodated should be
discussed and re-negotiated to accommodate Western and
traditional practices.
Biography
Prof T Heyns is a senior lecturer at University of Pretoria for past 19 years
involved in the education and training of pre-graduate and post-graduate
students. Her area of clinical expertise is Emergemcy Nursing Care. She
has supervised post-graduate scholars to completion a total of 41 Masters
and 3 PhD students.. Currently she is supervising 11 Masters and 10 PhD
students. She is an external examiner at several national and international
universities, has examined 25 Masters dissertations and 9 PhD thesis. She
has presented at various National and International Conferences relating
Trauma and Emergency care as well as Practice development in the Critical
Care environment. She has 20 published article in National and International
Journals and is a lead researcher in an International Practice development
research project with NRF Funding. She is a Fellow of the Academia of Nurs-
ing in South Africa (FANSA), as well as the past president of the Emergency
Nursing Society of South Africa.
Why do we sometimes say NO? Consensus on the
acaccommodation of traditional practices in critical care unit
Tanya Heyns and Isabel Coetzee
University of Pretoria, South Africa
Tanya Heyns et al., J Nurs Health Stud 2018, Volume 3
DOI: 10.21767/2574-2825-C1-002