Knowledge retention strategies for professional nurses at Philadelphia hospital, Limpopo, South Africa

Abstract

In the nursing profession, knowledge retention is aimed at retaining ownership and recognising the importance of critical nursing knowledge across all healthcare organisations. In Philadelphia Hospital, like many other healthcare organisations in South Africa, knowledge retention is hardly understood, practiced, and implemented in the nursing profession. The challenge of losing critical nursing knowledge in healthcare organisations has resulted in the occurrence of countless medical blunders, misdiagnosis and erroneous treatments leading to multiple drug resistant diseases and unpredicted deaths. The purpose of the study was to develop a knowledge retention strategy for professional nurses with the views to retain critical nursing knowledge that is vulnerable to loss when professional nurses leave the organisations through a variety of employee attrition factors. The study adopted a qualitative research approach and a case-study research design in which interview guides were used to solicit data from participants. Out of 90 professional nurses, 20 professional nurses were interviewed to a point of saturation. Data collected were analysed by virtue of content analysis. From the research findings, it was deduced that, Philadelphia hospital encounters individual, organisational and technological challenges that affected their current knowledge retention practices in the nursing profession. However, challenges also occurred when professional nurse were reluctant to participate in knowledge retention practices due to the lack of awareness and educational training programmes on the importance of knowledge retention. The study recommended alternative ways in which knowledge retention practices for professional nurses may be enhanced, this included the following: development of knowledge retention policy, awareness training programmes on knowledge retention, reward systems and programmes for effectively encouraging professional nurses to participate in knowledge retention practices, programmes for recovering lost knowledge, conducting knowledge audits on the basis of lost knowledge, making resources available for utilising retirees to capture their expert knowledge, identifying and adopting tools for preserving nursing knowledge. The study suggested that more studies should be conducted on knowledge retention in the nursing profession in South Africa, particularly quantitative research studies that will explore the concept on a broader quantifiable approach. The study further suggested that factors to be explored should also include, knowledge retention tools, knowledge retention challenges, knowledge retention practice enablers and enhancers within healthcare sectors, particularly within the nursing profession.