A PERSONNEL PROFILE OF PROFESSIONAL NURSES IN THE J . D . ALLEN OPERATING THEATRE COMPLEX OF BARAGWANATH HOSPITAL

In this exploratory descriptive study an attempt was made to develop a profile of professional nurses in the J.D. Allen operating theatre complex o f Baragwanath hospital. Aspects of significance have been extracted front the analysed data and highlighted as trends, not only of demographic nature but also in nursing education and practice, with specific reference to operating theatre nursing. Problem areas have been indicated and recommendations suggested.


Introduction
Sincc the researcher's appointment as the nursing manager to the J.D. Allen operating theatre complex of Baragwanath Hospital in 1983, an attempt was made to develop and establish an organizational staff structure.The abilities of a number of senior professional nurses, identified through observation and discussion, had been utilized in the structure s in c c th e re w as no d e ta ile d re c o rd e d information on the present personnel.
The main and most valuable component of an organizational structure is the human resource element which is always subjected to change and professional mobility and may encompass * promotion within the existing structure * transfer to another field of nursing in view of changed attitudcsor the acquisition of higher nursing qualifications A nursing manager never can be totally accurate in predicting what effect changes in human resources may have on her organizational situation.Nevertheless, she can anticipate and plan the extent of these changes which will enable her to di mi nish possible adverse effects.She may even turn new circumstances into opportunities.
^Statement of the Problem Sincc 1983 to date there has been no recorded profile of professional nurses in the J.D. Allen operating theatre complex of Baragwanath hospital.This poses problems in personnel management such as ethnic compatability and preparation for retirement or promotion, only to name a few.

A IM OF TH E STUDY
The purpose of this study is to construct a complete and written profile of all professional nurses in the J.D. Allen operating theatre complcx of Baragwanath Hospital.

Objectives of the study
* to d e te rm in e an d a n a ly se , for each professional nurse, the following details: --particular biographical data -educational standard -nursing qualifications -non-nursing qualifications -experience in operating theatres nursing

Uses of a Personnel Profile
A p e rso n n e l p ro file p ro v id e s b a s e lin e information about the manpower status in a department or an organization which would be available for future requirem ents.If identifications and analysis o f the goals of an organisation is the first phase of planning, a p erso n n e l p ro file w ill fa c ilita te fu tu re manpower planning and may be considered as the second phase o f this planning process.(B each, 1980:188;B eatty and S chneier 1982:31;Pera 1988:13).
M ore s p e c ific a lly , B each (1 9 8 0 :3 1 -3 2 ) identifies several important uses for such a profile, which are to:-

Data for a Personnel Profile
Practices vary as to how much information s h o u ld b e c o n ta in e d in a p r o f il e .Biographical, educational and professional b ackground data have been included in nursing profile studies by Brink (1988:2), Pera (1988:14-15) and Paton (1988:5) on an individually selective basis which suggests that data selection format be flexible.
G illi e s ( 1 9 8 2 :1 9 1 -1 9 2 ) e x c lu d e s b io g ra p h ic a l d ata and c o n c e n tra te s on p e r s o n n e l e d u c a tio n an d n u m b e rs in accordance with job classifications.She also includes length of service, employment and re s id e n tia l v a ria b le s in c o n s tru c tin g a nursing personnel profile.

Educational Standard Patterns
One is aware that the average educational levels for B lack w om en have increased considerably over the past few decades.D e p a rtm e n ta l p e r s o n n e l, w h e th e r professional or non-professional, forward a constant flow o f requests for accommodation of their formal learning needs and provision of learning opportunities which have to be considered in a master staff developm ent programme.Paton (1988:5) indicates in her study on the p ro file o f n u rse e d u c a to rs th a t school qualifications o f the younger respondents appear to be higher (matriculation) than those of the older group.The significant aspect of th is o b s e r v a tio n is th a t 45% o f th e respondents were Black.

Demographic Patterns as part of Biographical Data
The acquisition of higher education and lately, home ownershi p by Black women have changed traditional roles of male sexual dominance (Becker, 1972:180;Researcher's experience) Through this trend it could be assumed that the age o f m otherhood and fertility rates in p a rtic u la r, a lso m ay be in flu e n c e d .Raubenheimer (1987:107) offers support for this view by indicating that the urbanized Black population rate under the age of 15 years at 17% is considerably lower than the 46% rate of rural areas.Rhoodie & Swart (1971:109), with reference to the 1960 population census, indicate an average number of children for women with a diploma qualification of 2.02and for those with a degree of 2.1.
From these few points raised, one gathers that these issues are some of the implications of acculturation (abandonment) and deculturation (adaptation) which are consequential when members of different cultural groups have contact over an extended period o f time (Myburgh, 1981:8-9;Terry, 1963).

Nursing Education Patterns
P ro fe ss io n a l n u rse s w ith a B a c h e lo r 's degree in n u rsin g ed u catio n or nursin g a d m in istra tio n are em erg in g slo w ly in direct patient care positions as a result of saturated fields in nursing education and adm inistration (Paton 1988:5)

Non>nursing Qualifications among Professional Nurses
In spite o f intensive scanning of literature, little has been found in this regard.Paton (1988:5) m entions that respondents have o b ta in e d v a r io u s n o n -n u r s i n g qualifications but she gives no reference; o n e is a w a r e , h o w e v e r , th a t m a n y professional nurses possess non-nursing qualifications and often a casual reference is made to the existence o f these during conversations on a personal basis.

Nursing Practice Patterns
The age of technology and the explosion of knowledge is on hand.The role of high technology is evident already in the treatment setting of health care institutions (Sanford in Hein and Nicholson, 1986:385).In the curative setting, the area concerned in this study, highly sophisticated endoscopic and non-invasive eq u ip m en t g rad u a lly is rep la cin g som e elem entary surgical instrum entation and consequent change in procedures requires new knowledge, skills and cost-control measures.
N ursin g sp e c ia litie s and se rv ic e s have proliferated which has resulted in the need for more organization and an increased demand for middle managers.(Derating theatre units, too, need more managers who are clinical specialists in th e ir re sp e c tiv e field s.B ecause of ever-increasing reliance on machinery and eq u ip m en t -such as in the anaesthetic, ophthalmological, oto-rhino-laryngological, orthopaedic, neurosurgical and cardio-thoracic disciplines to name a few -problems of storage, service and distribution have been created and subsequently call for specialised materials management (Sanford in Hein and Nicholson, 1986:386).
A natural progression in the development of nursing specialization is the evolvement of su p er-sp ecializatio n (F elder in Hein and N icholson, 1986:66) which is particularly evident in operating theatre nursing.Within a surgical speciality such as orthopaedic surgery, nursing specialists in spinal surgery, major joint reconstruction or micro neuro-vascular limb surgery are emerging.
But the clinical nursing specialists in the South A frican context are not on par with their A m erican counterparts who must hold a master's degree with their clinical e x p e rt^^ concentrated in specific areas of clinical n u r s ^P (Hamricand Spross 1983:40).Not only do they have expectations of higher formal education for the clinical nurse specialists, but the em ergence of super-specialization requires g re a te r c o o rd in a tio n and p a rtic ip a tiv e management to avoid fragmentation of scrvice within a department as suggested by Sanford (Hein and Nicholson, 1986:390).
Participative management not only allows the c lin ic a l n u rse sp e c ia lists to enact their m u ltifa c e te d ro le s o f im p le m e n tin g theory-based practice, teaching, consultation and research (Hamric and Spross 1983:41) but calls for a scientific approach to nursing management.To deal effectively with the complexity of health care delivery, a computer inform ation system is the ultimate aid to management activites such as determining the human resource status and planning future requirements.(Gillies 1982:381) Experience of all categories of profexsia^k nurses The only South African literature found to make any reference to experience of personnel in the operating theatre is that of Hamilton's study (1988:151).Forty (81,6%) of her respondents were professional nurses in charge of operating theatres with more than five years experience in their field.These are considered to be experts, with which conclusion the researcher does not agree as the term was not qualified.Groah (1983:39-92) dedicates two chapters in her book to job descriptions for the different categories of nursing personnel in the operating and recovery rooms within the American co n tex t.T he em p h asis is on academ ic qualifications rather than on clinical experience in this discipline.Two to three years clinical experience with an additional one to two years m anagem ent experience are the minimum requirements for the post of Nursing Director or Operating Room Supervisor.
Should the candidate possess a Master's degree, less clinical experience is required.The o p p o site h o ld s tru e fo r a nurse w ith a Baccalaureate degree.

FIGURE 1 Categories of Professional Nurses in the Operating Theatre Complex, 1989
For the post of a Clinical Nurse IV and V -a senior professional nurse and clinical nurse s p e c ia lis t re sp e c tiv e ly -the m inim um requirement is two/three years of clinical experience with al least experience of one year in a specific area of specialization.For the Clinical Nurse IV a Baccalaureate or Master's degree is required and for the Clinical Nurse V a Master's or Doctoral degree.As the level of the Clinical Nurse drops, so docs the required minimum of experience.

RESEARCH M ETHOD
This is a exploratory descriptive study of the profile of professional nurses in the J.D. Allen operating theatre complex of Baragwanath hospital as reflected in July 1989.

Population
All professional nurses assigned to ih cJD Allen operating theatres complex in accordance with the official allocation list, including those professional nurses who are on accouchmcnt leave or sem i-perm anent transfer to the cardio-thoracic operating theatres of the Johannesburg hospital; thusa 100% sample was achieved.
The Instrum ent A structured questionnaire was developed which enables the researcher systematically to analyse all relevant data.Where returned questionnaires had very relevant data omitted, a telephonic request to the persons concerned was made through the researcher's deputy in the operating theatre complex.This information was acquired in written form and was entered on appropriate form by the researcher.'ITic questionnaires were anonymous but coded by the rese arch e r to fa c ilita te co n tro l.A self-addressed envelope to the researcher was s u p p lie d w ith each q u e s tio n n a ire .Q u estio n n aire s w ere retu rn ed in sealed self-addressed envelopes and placed in a post box specially supplied in the department.

Analysis of Data
F requency and p ercentage d istrib u tio n s were the main methods used for analysing the data.

The Sample
O ut o f a total s ta ff e sta b lish m e n t o f 139 p ro fe ssio n a l n u rses, 131 q u e s tio n n a ire s w ere retu rn ed but tw o had been sp o ilt.
T h e s a m p le u se d th e r e f o r e w a s 129 ( 9 2 % ) w h ic h is s e e n a s a r e a l i s t i c r e p r e s e n t a t i o n o f th e t o t a l s t a f f e s ta b l is h m e n t.T h e ir q u e s tio n n a ir e s h av e been a n a ly s e d an d th e fin d in g s follow .

Categories
In th e s a m p le , 3 ( 2 ,3 % ) a rc C h i e f P ro f e s s io n a l N u rs e s , 27 (2 0 ,9 % ) are S en io r P ro fessio n al N u rses, 57 ( 4

Residential Area
Most (91,5%) of the personnel reside i n Soweto.

Geographic area where born and reared
Of these nurses, 67,5% were born and had spent their whole lifcs in an urban area, whilst 11,6% o f them were reared in urban surroundings although born in a rural area.See Table 1 for the total distribution.

Age
'llic frequency distribution of the age groups for all professional nurses were obtained and the percentage distribution calculated, as shown in Figure 2. Their mean age was 40,6 years.For a breakdown of the age distribution among nursing categories refer to Figure 3.

Basic Schooling
The highest educational standard achieved by the 12% respondents is shown in Figure 5.Most o f th e n u rse s (7 9 ,8 % ) had a tte n d e d a government shool for their secondary education and 16,3% had been to mission schools .With regard to the stage of life when respondents acquired their standard ten or matriculation certificates, only 42 (43,3%) had commenced nursing in possession of such a certificate.T able 3 d e ta ils tim es o f o b ta in in g this educational standard.

Nursing Education
Basic professional and advanced qualifications By far the greatest number of respondents (96,9% ) have only G eneral N ursing and Midwifery as basic professional qualifications with 4 (3,1%) having obtained Community Health Nursing as well.
Additional qualifications excluding Operating Theatre Nursing Science (O.T.N.S.1 Additional post-basic qualifications, other than OTNS are held by 5 (3,9%) nurses of whom 1 (0,8%) holds three additional qualifications as shown in Table 4.

Nursing Experience
The respondents' years of experience since gaining General Nurse registration is shown in Figure 6.A d m in is tra tio n , 14 (4 5 ,2 % ) in N ursing Education, 3 (9,7%) in both disciplines and 2 in n o n -s p e c ifie d a re a s o f stu d y .N early three-quarters (74,7%) of the non-participants in further studies envisage being engaged in future study.

Non-nursing Qualifications
Non-nursing qualifications were indicated by 11,7% of respondents with 16,4% omitting an answer.Seven (5,4%) of the professional nurses hold a teaching diploma, one has a technical and another a secretarial diploma.O ther q u alifica tio n s given w ere interior d eco ratin g and flow er arranging (3,1% ), b o okkeeping and accounting (0,8% ) and nursery supervision (0,8%).Most respondents (72,9%) held no non-nursing qualifications.
The total experience o f all categories of professional nurses in operating theatre nursing is shown in Figure 7.

Experience in Present Position
The 54 (41,9%) respondents who have held their present positions for five years or less include tw o C h ief P rofessional and nine Senior Professional Nurses.Among the professional nurses making up the remaining numbers, 13 possessed the qualification OTNS and 30 did not.
One Chief Professional Nurse has been in her present position between 11 and 15 years.Among the Senior Professional Nurses seven had been in their present position between 6 to 10 years, eight between 11 to 15 years, two between 16 to 20 years and one for more than 20 years.The Professional Nurses who hold the OTNS, which total qualification is 27 (47,4%), have been in their present positions for between 6 to 10 years.Another twelve have held their positions for 11 to 15 years.Of the remaining five, two have been in their present position for

FIGURE 7 TOTAL OPERATING THEATRE NURSING EXPERIENCE OF A LL PROFESSIONAL NURSES IN THE OPERATING THEATRE COMPLEX, 1989.
16 to 20 years and three for more than 20 years.The 12 Professional Nurses without the OTNS qualification, showed that ten had been in their present position for 6 to 10 years with one in the 11 to IS years bracket and the last one holding her position for 16 to 20 years.

First Choice of Specialization within Operating Theatre Nursing
The most common areas of preference identi fi ed were general surgery (10,9%), orthopaedic surgery (10,1% ), post-anaesthesia nursing (10,1%) and clinical teaching (9,3%).Eighteen respondents (14%) had more than one first choice.No-one selected facio-maxillary as their chosen area of specialization and only 0,8% 32 selected ear, nose and throat surgery as their initial preference, these being the least desired areas of specialization.Preferences for the remaini ng specialities ranged between 1,6% and 5,4%.
Operating Theatre Nursing as a discipline of choice O f the sample group 118 (91,5%) respondents indicated that operating theatre nursing was their discipline of choice.
Among those respondents preferring other nursing disciplines (8,5%), intensive care and community health nursing were each chosen by four respondents.Industrial nursing and nursing education (SPN engaged in formal study) each received one vote.One respondent did not indicate her choice.

Choice of nursing practice
The majority of respondents (55,8%) indicated that they would like to remain in operating theatre nursi ng.Details of preferred broad areas of work are reflected in Table 5.

Categories
Four categories of professional nurses have been identified in the J.D. Allen operating theatre complex of Baragwanath hospital:-1.The Professional Nurse with the Diploma in O perating Theatre Nursing Science or engaged in studying for the diploma, p ra c tisin g at a ju n io r n u rsin g level, constitutes 44,2% of the staff establishment.T h is categ o ry p ro v id es a m ore than adequate human resource supply for future promotion.
2. The Professional Nurse category without the necessary post-basic qualification constituted 32,6% of staff whom selected candidates could be draw n for future post-basic training.
3. At middle-management level, the Chief Professional Nurse category constitutes 2,3% of the total staff complement.This latter percentage may be too low when one considers that within the hospital, two wards are allocated to a nurse of this particular category.
4. The Senior Professional Nurse category constituted 20,9% of total staff which may be considered as rather low in view of future promotion opportunities.
It is recommended that the projected new staff establishment should have increased numbers in both C hief and Senior Professional N ^se grades.

Biographical Picture
The T he m ain e th n ic g ro u p s to w h ich the professional nurses belong were identified as Z i^(2 6 ,3 % ) and Tswana (25,6%).The Xhosa (12,4%) headed the 11 minority groups.In contrast to the Tswanas who have roots in the Transvaal the Zulu group migrated from Natal to becom e established in this area.An interesti ng fact drawn from the study is that only 37,9% of the professional nurses are married to men of the same ethnic group and most of these professional women (66,7%) prefer and practise their own culture in preference to that of their husbands which may indicate the reversal of sexual dominant roles.Results indicated that nearly 50% of the professional nurses may be the breadwinners of their families and that nearly 75% of them are home owners, cither as a family unit or as sole owners.
The mean age of motherhood was 26,1 years indicating a relatively late commitment to sexual relationships.In addition, most of the professional nurses had two or less children (75,2%) so that the average number of children per woman at 1,9 is below zero-growth rate as calculated by Smith (1989:15) and Rhoodie & Swart (1971).
If one considers that 29,4% of the respondents intend to enlarge their respective families, then the figure may change somewhat in the near future as the mean age of the respondents at 40,6 years is within the child-bearing group of 15 to 49 years (R hoodie and Sw art, 1971:88).Nevertheless, this is a significant trend among urbanized and professional Black women who show clearly the results of planned family life.
The majority of professional nurses (72,9%) have a matriculation or standard ten certificate with an additional 2,3% having obtained a degree, reflectin g the educational trend associated with Black urbanization.This trend is substantiated when one considers that 43,3% of the professional nurses obtained their highest school education before they commenced nursing and is significant among the younger age group.In addition, nearly 50% obtained their highest educational standard after completing midwifery or the OTNS diploma.Secondary education was obtained mostly at g o v e rn m e n t sc h o o ls w hich co u ld have contributed to som e not com pleting their secondary education in view of urban unrest over the last 15 years.Since 24,8% of the professional nurses lack m atriculation or standard ten certificates further requests for accommodation of their learning needs can be expected.
The 3 professional nurses who have University degrees all obtained these after completing the theatre course.

Nursing Education
Basic and Advanced Qualifications By far the g re a te st num ber (9 6 ,6 % ) of professional nurses have only General Nursing and M id w ife ry as b a s ic p ro fe ssio n a l qualifications with an additional 3,1% having obtained Community Health Nursing as an advanced qualification, this may be regarded as inappropriate for the operating theatre situation.
Additional Qualifications -Excluding OTNS With the exclusion of the Diploma in Operating Theatre Nursing Science, 3,9% women held additional q u alificatio n s.Intensive Care N ursing as one, is very ap p ro p riate for post-anaesthesia care in view of the four intensive care beds in this area.Ophthalmic Nursing as another, is also appropriate for the situation although all ophthalmic surgery is performed at St. John's hospital in affiliation with the main hospital.
O ne person holds the D iplom a in Ward Administration and Clinical Instruction as well as Oncol ogy (overseas) which are both outdated fo r th e p re s e n t s itu a tio n in a middle-managcment position.
O th er useful and su itab le q ualifications identified were Nursing Education and Nursing Administration of which both are held by two persons, one being in a Chief Professional Nurse's position.The person holding Nursing Education works in clinical teaching within the department.
It is recommended that the Chief Professional Nurse with the outdated qualifications be advised to consider formal study applicable to the position she holds.In addition, the Senior Professional Nurse with the dual qualifications in education and administration has many years of experience in this discipline and should be incorporated w ithin the proposed revised organizational staff structure.

Nursing Experience
The number of years of experience of the professional nurses range from less than 5 years to alm ost 39 years since G eneral Nurse registration.The length of time spent in the nursing profession by the Black professional nurses indicates a very stable work force.
Diploma in Operating Theatre Nursing Science About two-thirds of the professional nurses possess the necessary post-basic qualification (61,3%) or are engaged as students on the course (5,4%) which provides for a considerable input in setting the training standards.This input co u ld be in c re a se d .O f th e 33,3% o f professional nurses who do not possess the necessary diploma in this nursing discipline, more than 75% intend to acquire it.Although 42,2% lack matriculation or standard ten, the South African Nursing Council should be urged on special grounds to have a few admitted to the course.Since many have experience in operating theatre nursing, it may not be required to do the course.Training standards have to be set, however, and for clinical specialization the nccessary post-basicqualification is obligatory.

Formal Tertiary Education
Only 24% of professional nurses are engaged in formal study through the University of South Africa on a part-time basis and one is a f u ll-tim e s tu d e n t at W itw a te rs ra n d University.O f these 38,7% will graduate in Nursing Administration, 45,2% in Nursing Education and 3,2% in both areas.Nearly 75% o f the non-participants in formal study indicate the intention to do so at a later stage.Since one can have only a limited number of to p ra n k p o s ts th e s e n u r s e s m ay be over-qualified for their positions.This may not present a major problem in the near future since the infiltration of graduates will be gradual but once the majority who intend future study qualify, the situation may change radically.The highly intellectual nurse may not w ant to partake in direct patient care unless deliberate efforts are made to introduce planned change of attitudes.The clinical nurse specialist concept may provide some outlet for possible conflict situations but is not the ultim ate solution since basic patient care providers will always be required.

Reasons for participation in Formal Education
Whether the professional nurses are engaged in or intending formal study, the main reason for these endeavours is given as being for personal and professional development.The validity o f this reason is doubted as the nursing profession carries a high degree of social status among the Black community.Since the first graduates em erged in the community the wearing of graduate gowns in highly valued funeral processions has lent the necessary recognition to the acquired social status o f the academic.

Reasons for intended non-participation in Formal Education
Those professional nurses (20%) who have no intentions of future formal study ascribe their mai n reasons to fi nancial and age factors (20,8% each).To a lesser degree, family problems (12,5%) and preference for a discipline other than nursing (8,3%) are indicated.

Non-nursing Qualifications
Nearly 12% of the professional nurses possess additional qualifications.A teaching diploma is held by 5,4%.This may not be of a high level since most persons only possessed a standard eight certificate before obtaining a teaching qualification.

Experience in Operating Theatre Nursing
The most outstanding finding of the study is the fact that such a high percentage of professional nurses had been practising operating theatre nursing for such a lengthy period of time.If one looks at the total experience of these women one finds the mean years of experience to be 10,4 years but 14,6% exceed 20 years.Considering the high-technology situation prevailing in the J.D. Allen operating theatre com plex, the dem onstrated pool o f experience in this discipline indicates that many of these nurses are experts in their field.

Experience in Present Position Held
The 41,9% of professional nurses who have held their present positions for five years or less include two Chief Professional Nurses and nine Senior Professional Nurses which signifies active professional mobility in the hierarchical structure o f the hospital.What is of concern, is the large percentage (77,2%) of Professional Nurses who qualify for promotion in terms of the necessary post-basic qualification and length of experience in this particular discipline (more than 6 years and exceeding 20 years).The recommendation for increased senior posts can only be reiterated.
All but one professional nurse held permanent appointments.This particular person who was identified may be in a locum post, but it is recommended that the matter be investigated.

First Choice of specialization within Operating Theatre Nursing
The areas of first choice indicated seem to be g e n e ra l s u r g e r y , o r th o p a e d ic su rg e ry , post-anaesthesia care and clinical teaching.The least preferred areas are facio-maxillary and E.N.T. surgery which may present problems once these specialities are allocated to their own individual operating theatres as is anticipated for the near future.It is recommended that problems related to each of these specialities be identified and suitable solutions found.
Operating Theatre Nursing as discipline of choice Nearly 9% of professional nurses indicated that they prefer nursing disciplines other than operating theatre nursing and it is recommended th a t th e s e n u rs e s b e in te rv ie w e d an d arrangements made to move them out of the department.

Choice of Nursi ng Practice when Graduated
The indication that 55,8% of professional nurses would like to remain in operating theatre nursing once graduated provides additional support that this particular nursing discipline is indeed their discipline of choice.Development p ro g ra m m e s h av e b e tte r r e s u lts if the participants have the right interest at heart.In addition, quality patient care becom es a personal and valued com m itm ent w hich generates recognition of such commitment.A very positive move towards clinical nurse specialist practice may be assumed in view of the fact that 32,6% of the professional nurses would prefer to remain in their particular areas o f s p e c ia liz a tio n o n ce g ra d u a te d .It is recommended that specific attention be given to orientate staff towards this concept and at the same time coach attitudes in the right direction.A close watch will be kept on those professional nurses who would graduate in time but prefer other nursing disciplines than operating theatre nursing.The aim would be to lend assistance towards individual goal realization.

LIM ITATIONS OF TIIE STUDY
Although particular care was taken in designing the questionnaire using a collective approach which included the suggestions of all three Chief Professional Nurses, two small problems were encountered during the analysis of the data.
The first problem pertained to the residing township.The general opinion was that Soweto is seen as a city and each area within it is seen as a township.On the contrary, about 42% of respondents indicated that Soweto is the to w n sh ip in w hich they resid e th ereb y excluding their precise place o f residence.Since exact location would fascilitate transport arrangements in times of crisis, it was thought necessary to request the required information by means of a written list of the respondent's names.
T h e se c o n d p ro b le m c o n c e rn e d so m e respondents' perception of the meaning of formal education.About 2% of respondents considered post-basic nursi ng courses to be part of formal education and even indicated that they w ould be e lig ib le to reg ister additional q u alifica tio n s in N ursing Education and Administration.These respondents were busy with the course for the Diploma in Operating Theatre Nursing Science.It was thus necessary to a lte r th e ir a n s w e rs in v ie w o f th is misperception Although the sample constitutes 92% of the operating theatre nursing staff which may be regarded as a real istic representation of the total s ta f f e s ta b lis h m e n t, it is n e v e rth e le s s incomplete.O f specific concern is the fact that some of the outstandi ng questionnaires included those o f nurses who hold the Diploma in Operating Theatre Technique (2,8%) and it will be necessary to extend this study at a later stage to obtain a complete profile of staff.
B e c k e r ( 1 9 7 2 :1 8 0 ) p o in te d o u t th e significance of this educational trend nearly two decades ago and noted that a dominant f e a tu re o f B la c k u r b a n iz a tio n is th e educational opportunities offered for the social advancement of women.
. T his trend, e s p e c ia lly a m o n g B la c k p r o fe s s io n a l n u rse s, se em s to re fle c t th e A m erican pattern of more than a decade ago.The A m erican N urses A sso ciatio n projected th a t th e m in im u m p r e p a r a t i o n fo r professional nurses o f a B ach elo r's degree in n u r s in g w o u ld b e an e s ta b l is h e d prerequisite in 1985 (D eB ella 1986:128).In b o th i n s t a n c e s , th e u n d e r ly i n g determ inant is the expectation o f liberation through education.
4 ,2 % ) are P ro fessio n al N u rses w ith O p eratin g T h e a tr e N u rs in g S c ie n c e (O T N S ) as q u a l i f i c a t i o n a n d 4 2 ( 3 2 ,6 % ) a r e P r o f e s s i o n a l N u r s e s w i t h o u t th e n ecessary q u a lific a tio n .S ee F ig u re 1 f o r th e p e r c e n t a g e c o m p a r i s o n o f c a te g o rie s o f p ro fe ssio n a l n u rses.Biographical Data Sex All in the sample arc female.
FIGURE 2 AGE DISTRIBUTION OF A LL CATEGORIES OF PROFESSIONAL NURSESIN THE OPERATING THEATRE COMPLEX, 1989.
FIGURE 6 NURSING EXPERIEN CE OF PROFESSIONAL NURSES IN THE OPERATING THEATRE COMPLEX AFTER GRADUATION IN GENERAL NURSING.
Professional Nurse category, one post should be assigned to e v e ry th re e to fo u r o p e ra tin g th e a tre s d ep e n d in g on the degree o f specialized n u rsin g p ra c tic e d e liv e re d .T he sam e consideration should be given to nursing oriented areas such as anaesthetic nursing, post anaesthesia (recovery room) nursing and the sterile supply production unit as first priorities.The recommended increase in posts for the Senior Professional Nurse category would in c re a se p ro m o tio n o p p o rtu n itie s for a number of middle-aged and very experienced professional nurses who would otherwise have little chance o f being recognized.

BLE 3 TIME OF ACQUIRING STANDARD 10 OR MATRICULATION CERTIFICATES AMONG PROFESSIONAL NURSES IN THE OPERATING THEATRE COMPLEX, 1989
Participation in Continuing Formal EducationLess than one-quarter (24%) of the nurses are furthering their studies after being assigned to the operating theatre complex.Of the 24% professional nurses who arc engaged in formal study, 12 (38,7%) will graduate in Nursing 30 TA

October 1991 TA BLE 5 PREFERRED CHOICE OF SPH ERE OF NURSING PRACTICE AMONG PROFESSIONAL NURSES IN THE OPERATING THEATRE COMPLEX, 1989 CHOICE OF NURSING PRACTICE ONCE DEGREED
greater majority of the professional nurses resid e in S o w eto (91,5% ) show ing that Baragwanath hospital draws most of its nursing staff from the surrounding township.Just over 80% o f the professional nurses fell in the combined age group of 30 -49 years (mean age of 40,6 years) indicating that they are in the middle years of their professional lives.In the Curationis, Vol.14, No. 3,