Experiences of Nurse Managers in Managing a Workforce Who Are HIV and/or TB Infected

Managing a workforce suffering from HIV and TB leads to management and administrative issues for nurse managers to deal with. The purpose of this study is to describe the experiences in the management of a nursing workforce suffering from HIV and TB in selected hospitals in South Africa. An interpretive constructionist ethnography using qualitative research methods was used to conduct research in selected hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. In-depth interviews were conducted with 17 participants in 4 hospitals; the interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis. The nurse managers' descriptions lead to administrative, emotional, employee personal protection, and the burden of death as the categories which emerged from the data. A theme emerged regarding the ambivalence between making decisions which are best for the patients and those which are best for the ill nurse. The burden experienced by nurse managers needs to be understood and requires organizational support. Understanding the human resource management experiences of nurse managers managing HIV and TB-infected nurses in a workforce may guide nurse managers working in similar contexts, with a similar HIV and TB prevalence as that in Southern Africa