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Development of a process to support stakeholder engaged children's nursing workforce planning for high-need, lower-resourced Primary Health Care systems in Malawi

Background: Effective workforce planning requires stakeholders to agree about the desired roles and contributions of advanced and specialist nurses across different tiers of service delivery. Role descriptions can help to reduce role confusion and inform workforce planning if stakeholders use them t...

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Main Author: North, Natasha
Other Authors: Coetzee, Minette
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Paediatrics and Child Health 2023
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access_status_str Open Access
author North, Natasha
author2 Coetzee, Minette
author_browse Coetzee, Minette
North, Natasha
author_facet Coetzee, Minette
North, Natasha
author_sort North, Natasha
collection Thesis
description Background: Effective workforce planning requires stakeholders to agree about the desired roles and contributions of advanced and specialist nurses across different tiers of service delivery. Role descriptions can help to reduce role confusion and inform workforce planning if stakeholders use them to establish a shared contextual basis for defining roles within their health service or system. There is a scarcity of rigorously developed role descriptions worldwide, especially role descriptions accurately reflecting the work of advanced and specialist nurses in Africa. Aim: Malawi is one of many African countries investing in establishing a specialist children's nursing workforce as part of globally advocated strategies to improve child health. This study aimed to develop a replicable process to assist stakeholders with specialist nursing workforce planning, informed by understanding the roles and contributions of children's nurses in the context of Malawi's health system. Methods: This study used a multiple methods approach with four phases. Design principles of stakeholder engaged research were incorporated into all research activities, which included: 1) a systematic scoping review to inform stakeholder identification; 2) a situational analysis; and 3) focus groups and interviews with 41 children's nurses in Malawi about their roles. Following qualitative content analysis of interview and focus group data, 4) concept mapping was used to integrate characteristics of the roles of children's nurses in Malawi and published role descriptions of other African specialist and advanced nursing roles with global frameworks for advanced nursing roles. Results: The study generated a framework for systematic identification of nursing HRH stakeholders; a situational analysis; and richly descriptive accounts of the roles of children's nurses in Malawi. The major product of the study was a flexible framework proposing four role domains and associated categories of activity for specialist and advanced practice children's nurses in Malawi, also applicable to other specialisations and other African health systems. Conclusions: The flexible framework is a distinctive response to the needs of African health systems. Advanced and specialist nurses in Africa are establishing their newly introduced roles into health systems in transition, within challenged and challenging practice contexts which demand high levels of adaptability. The framework is positioned to form part of a replicable process for stakeholder engaged nursing workforce planning. It is hoped that it will assist nurses and other stakeholders to manage the development of advanced and specialist roles at the levels of individual nurses, institutions and health systems.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:40.116Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2023
publishDateRange 2023
publishDateSort 2023
publisher Department of Paediatrics and Child Health
publisherStr Department of Paediatrics and Child Health
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/38122 Development of a process to support stakeholder engaged children's nursing workforce planning for high-need, lower-resourced Primary Health Care systems in Malawi North, Natasha Coetzee, Minette Brysiewicz, Petra Paediatrics and Child Health Background: Effective workforce planning requires stakeholders to agree about the desired roles and contributions of advanced and specialist nurses across different tiers of service delivery. Role descriptions can help to reduce role confusion and inform workforce planning if stakeholders use them to establish a shared contextual basis for defining roles within their health service or system. There is a scarcity of rigorously developed role descriptions worldwide, especially role descriptions accurately reflecting the work of advanced and specialist nurses in Africa. Aim: Malawi is one of many African countries investing in establishing a specialist children's nursing workforce as part of globally advocated strategies to improve child health. This study aimed to develop a replicable process to assist stakeholders with specialist nursing workforce planning, informed by understanding the roles and contributions of children's nurses in the context of Malawi's health system. Methods: This study used a multiple methods approach with four phases. Design principles of stakeholder engaged research were incorporated into all research activities, which included: 1) a systematic scoping review to inform stakeholder identification; 2) a situational analysis; and 3) focus groups and interviews with 41 children's nurses in Malawi about their roles. Following qualitative content analysis of interview and focus group data, 4) concept mapping was used to integrate characteristics of the roles of children's nurses in Malawi and published role descriptions of other African specialist and advanced nursing roles with global frameworks for advanced nursing roles. Results: The study generated a framework for systematic identification of nursing HRH stakeholders; a situational analysis; and richly descriptive accounts of the roles of children's nurses in Malawi. The major product of the study was a flexible framework proposing four role domains and associated categories of activity for specialist and advanced practice children's nurses in Malawi, also applicable to other specialisations and other African health systems. Conclusions: The flexible framework is a distinctive response to the needs of African health systems. Advanced and specialist nurses in Africa are establishing their newly introduced roles into health systems in transition, within challenged and challenging practice contexts which demand high levels of adaptability. The framework is positioned to form part of a replicable process for stakeholder engaged nursing workforce planning. It is hoped that it will assist nurses and other stakeholders to manage the development of advanced and specialist roles at the levels of individual nurses, institutions and health systems. 2023-07-17T11:03:07Z 2023-07-17T11:03:07Z 2023 2023-07-17T11:01:55Z Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/38122 eng application/pdf Department of Paediatrics and Child Health Faculty of Health Sciences
spellingShingle Paediatrics and Child Health
North, Natasha
Development of a process to support stakeholder engaged children's nursing workforce planning for high-need, lower-resourced Primary Health Care systems in Malawi
thesis_degree_str Doctoral
title Development of a process to support stakeholder engaged children's nursing workforce planning for high-need, lower-resourced Primary Health Care systems in Malawi
title_full Development of a process to support stakeholder engaged children's nursing workforce planning for high-need, lower-resourced Primary Health Care systems in Malawi
title_fullStr Development of a process to support stakeholder engaged children's nursing workforce planning for high-need, lower-resourced Primary Health Care systems in Malawi
title_full_unstemmed Development of a process to support stakeholder engaged children's nursing workforce planning for high-need, lower-resourced Primary Health Care systems in Malawi
title_short Development of a process to support stakeholder engaged children's nursing workforce planning for high-need, lower-resourced Primary Health Care systems in Malawi
title_sort development of a process to support stakeholder engaged children s nursing workforce planning for high need lower resourced primary health care systems in malawi
topic Paediatrics and Child Health
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/38122
work_keys_str_mv AT northnatasha developmentofaprocesstosupportstakeholderengagedchildrensnursingworkforceplanningforhighneedlowerresourcedprimaryhealthcaresystemsinmalawi