TY - JOUR
T1 - Barriers to community healthcare delivery in urban China
T2 - a nurse perspective
AU - Li, Bo
AU - Chen, Juan
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Mental Health Research Centre (Project ID: P0040455) and Department of Applied Social Sciences (funding for research students). We are grateful to the nurses for their active participation in this study. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2023/12/1
Y1 - 2023/12/1
N2 - PURPOSE: There is considerable research on China's community healthcare, but little examining its delivery from a nurse perspective. This article, set in the context of Shenzhen, elicits community nurses' views on barriers to healthcare delivery, providing an initial evidence framework to improve community nursing practice at organizational and policy levels. METHODS: We used qualitative methods. Data from semi-structured interviews with 42 community nurses in Shenzhen underwent inductive content analysis. Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research were consulted to structure our reporting. RESULTS: Our analysis suggests four elements discouraging community nurses in care delivery: lack of equipment, stressful work environments, staff incompetence, and patient distrust. Centralized means of procurement, management indifference to nurses' well-being, unsystematic training and reluctance to enter the community healthcare sector, and public prejudices against nursing contributed to these constraints, preventing community nurses from performing patient-centred care, devoting energy to caring, freeing themselves from heavy workloads, and building trust-based care relationships. CONCLUSIONS: Delivery barriers devalued community health services systematically and undermined nurses' professional advancement and psychological well-being. Targeted management and policy inputs are necessary to reduce caring barriers and enhance the ability of community nursing to safeguard population health.
AB - PURPOSE: There is considerable research on China's community healthcare, but little examining its delivery from a nurse perspective. This article, set in the context of Shenzhen, elicits community nurses' views on barriers to healthcare delivery, providing an initial evidence framework to improve community nursing practice at organizational and policy levels. METHODS: We used qualitative methods. Data from semi-structured interviews with 42 community nurses in Shenzhen underwent inductive content analysis. Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research were consulted to structure our reporting. RESULTS: Our analysis suggests four elements discouraging community nurses in care delivery: lack of equipment, stressful work environments, staff incompetence, and patient distrust. Centralized means of procurement, management indifference to nurses' well-being, unsystematic training and reluctance to enter the community healthcare sector, and public prejudices against nursing contributed to these constraints, preventing community nurses from performing patient-centred care, devoting energy to caring, freeing themselves from heavy workloads, and building trust-based care relationships. CONCLUSIONS: Delivery barriers devalued community health services systematically and undermined nurses' professional advancement and psychological well-being. Targeted management and policy inputs are necessary to reduce caring barriers and enhance the ability of community nursing to safeguard population health.
KW - China
KW - Community healthcare
KW - community nursing
KW - healthcare delivery
KW - inductive content analysis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85161653064&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/17482631.2023.2220524
DO - 10.1080/17482631.2023.2220524
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 37300842
AN - SCOPUS:85161653064
SN - 1748-2623
VL - 18
SP - 2220524
JO - International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being
JF - International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being
IS - 1
M1 - 2220524
ER -