Curationis
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A qualitative study with a pre- and post-intervention component was undertaken among 66 professional nurses at 11 hospitals in the Eastern Cape to assess their perceptions and attitudes towards severely malnourished children and their mothers/caregivers. Nurses' attitudes were compared before and after attending a 5-day training course to improve the management of malnutrition along with implementing World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Severe malnutrition is a major cause of death among paediatric patients in many hospitals in South Africa. ⋯ These nurses have begun advocating for raised awareness of the physiological differences that occur in malnutrition and the need to include the WHO Ten Steps of treatment in the nursing curricula and inservice training. A cadre of volunteer nurse-trainers has been formed in Eastern Cape. Experience in this province has shown that in-service training changes attitudes to malnutrition and treatment practices, as well as saving lives.
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The purpose of this study is to formulate practice standards for quality clinical decision-making in nursing. Clinical decision-making is a critical component of nursing practice, as the life of the patient is at stake. The quality of clinical decision-making is, therefore, essential in delivering quality nursing care. ⋯ The conceptual framework was constructed based on an exploration and description of the expectations of the stakeholders about quality clinical decision-making in nursing and a literature study on clinical decision-making. To ensure the credibility of the standards for clinical decision-making in nursing, principles of logic, prolonged engagement, triangulation, peer-group discussion, dense description, step-wise repetition and an investigative audit (Lincoln & Guba, 1985:289-331) were adhered to. Two experts were consulted to validate the standards for quality clinical decision-making in nursing.