Nurses’ and doctors’ perspectives on emergency and critical care at primary health care facilities in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
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Background
In Tanzania, primary health care faces the worst challenges in delivering emergency and critical care with purposeful improvement strategies alarming from multiple stakeholders. This study described nurses’ and doctors’ perspectives on emergency and critical care at primary healthcare facilities in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.
Methods
A descriptive qualitative design was used. Twelve participants; 6 nurses and 6 doctors from three primary healthcare facilities in Moshi Municipal were purposively recruited for the audio-recorded, face-to-face individualized, in-depth interviews. Themes were generated through thematic analysis of the data.
Results
The analysis resulted in five (5) major themes: unconducive environment, disparity and disconnection of the continuum of care along the health care system, routines for emergency and critical care, raised needs for emergency and critical care, and strategies for improvement.
Conclusion
Nurses and doctors in primary healthcare severely face many challenges that limit their ability to manage critical illnesses adequately associated with the absence of favorable infrastructures, guidelines, trained personnel, on-job training, and expert support from higher-level hospitals, and the shortage of staff, lack of essential drugs and equipment, and lack of staff and managerial prioritization thereby tilting the balance of survival in these settings to the worst side.
