The financial challenges of caring for children with profound intellectual disability as experienced by newly qualified nurses

Background: Financial challenges are often experienced by professionals who are employed due to low salaries that do not meet their needs. Newly qualified nurses are among those employed professionals who experience financial challenges due to low salaries. The situation is even worse for those newly qualified nurses who are providing care to children with profound intellectual disabilities. Children with profound intellectual disabilities need complete custodial or nursing care. The complexity in the nature of caring enables them to be amongst the highly paid professionals; however, this is not the case. Little is known about the financial challenges experienced by such nurses, hence the study. Method: A qualitative-exploratory-descriptive design was used to explore and describe the financial challenges of caring for children with profound intellectual disability as experienced by newly qualified nurses. Fifteen newly qualified nurses who provide care to children with profound intellectual disabilities were interviewed, using semi-structured interviews. Results: Two themes emerged, budget constraints and cost of living, and emotional toll. The two themes further provided more details on why it is concluded that newly qualified experienced financial challenges through their subthemes and paved the way to interventions that will alleviate the challenges. Conclusion: The study concluded that newly qualified nurses have financial challenges. The study further concluded that there is an urgent need to revisit human resource remuneration policies for newly qualified nurses. Clinical trial number: Not applicable.