Competences of nurses caring for pediatric patients in the surgery of practitioner for children and adolescents

The work of a nurse in a general practitioner's office for children and adolescents is very diverse. The nurse is primarily involved in primary care, which is a set of activities related to health promotion, prevention, investigation, treatment, rehabilitation and, last but not least, nursing. Her other responsibilities include monitoring and evaluating the child's psychomotor development, thus creating a stimulating environment for healthy development. In the course of her work, the nurse takes on the role of administrator, care coordinator, educator, nurse, team player, organizer and above all communicator. The first objective of this study was to determine the competencies of nurses working in a general practitioner's office for children and adolescents. The second aim was to find out the attitude of nurses towards increasing their competencies in caring for paediatric patients in a general practitioner's office for children and adolescents. The third aim was to find out what barriers nurses perceive in the application of their competencies in the paediatric and adolescent practice. The practical part of the bachelor's thesis was prepared using a qualitative research method. We used the questionnaire method and the semi-structured interview technique to collect data. The research population consisted of ten nurses working in general practitioner's offices for children and adolescents from the South Bohemia region with different lengths of experience. After transcribing the interviews with the respondents verbatim, we analyzed the results using the open coding method of pencil and paper, where we established seven categories: Workload of nurses, Professional competencies, Increasing nurses' competencies, Adding competencies, Barriers to the application of new competencies, Performing tasks not falling within competencies, Education. The results are summarized in the individual tables and diagrams in the empirical part of this thesis. The survey shows that the most frequently used professional competences of nurses in the general practitioner's office for children and adolescents are vaccinations, checking physiological functions and taking biological material. Nurses' attitudes towards increasing their competencies were predominantly positive. Only two respondents indicated that they would not add any new competencies. The new competencies that the respondents would welcome are sampling and swabs without a doctor's office, administration, basic physical examination, prescribing chronic medications, diabetes education, and wound healing education. The barriers perceived by nurses to exercising their competencies with the pediatric and adolescent general practitioner included limited office hours, overflow patients, and the physician. The remaining seven respondents answered that they did not perceive any barriers. We believe that this bachelor thesis could serve as an overview of the interest of nurses to increase their competencies and as a study material for health professionals and the general public for orientation in the given issue, as well as an overview of the workload of nurses working in the general practitioner's office for children and adolescents