Magister Artium - MA / Osteoarthritis (OA) is the major cause of pain and disability in the elderly, as well as people younger than the age of 45. Research reported the importance of conservative management of OA in the early stages, as it has proved to be effective in slowing down the progression of the disease, as well as reducing the secondary effects of decreased functional ability and disability. Early referral could assist with effective pain management, decrease in disease progression and increase in functional ability and quality of life. Therefore, the overall aim of the study was to establish a profile of patients with OA, as well as to explore the perceptions and experiences of health professionals regarding the conservative management of OA at a tertiary hospital in Nigeria. The study employed a sequential exploratory mixed method approach, using a retrospective and exploratory study design for the quantitative and qualitative phases respectively. Data was collected from one hundred and thirty-five medical records of patients with OA, meeting the inclusion criteria of the study, and admitted at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2016. The patient sample was predominantly female (n=80; 93%), with a mean age of 51.85 years old (SD=13.73). Thirteen (13) health professionals, eight (8) physiotherapists and five (5) orthopedic surgeons participated in the interviews. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24 was used to analyse quantitative data. Inferential and descriptive statistics were used to describe the results in terms of frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviation. Alpha level was set at 5%. Audio-taped qualitative data was transcribed verbatim, and analysed using categories and themes.

Magister Public Health - MPH / Long waiting times have, for many years, been synonymous with primary health care in South Africa, and this is evident by the long queues and consistent client dissatisfaction. There are multiple contributing factors that exacerbate waiting time in Primary Health Care (PHC) facilities such as shortage of health care providers, increase in the uninsured population and South Africa’s quadruple burden of diseases. Health establishments have initiated numerous strategies to reduce long waiting times with varying degrees of success. These strategies have mostly been quantified and linked to indicators to measure their level of success in relation to quality healthcare. This research explores the clients’ perception of one such intervention, which is the implementation of an appointment system in primary care facilities in the City of Cape Town. Qualitative, exploratory descriptive methods were used to gain understanding of the impact the appointment system has had on the clients’ experience of attending health care services. The researcher also explored how clients perceive their role with regard to the shaping of their clinic’s appointment system. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with fifteen purposively sampled clients from five City Health clinics, who have implemented an appointment system through the guidance of the Appointment System Learning Initiative (ASLI). Maximum variation in sampling ensured the inclusion of small, medium and larger facilities within different geographical settings. Data analysis was done using a thematic coding approach, the themes were derived from the emerging data and were used to guide the researcher in gaining a rich picture of the clients’ experiences within the clinics. Ethical approval was requested and received from both the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and City Health prior to engaging any participants.

Background: Sexuality has been considered as a part of people's lives that are more than a biological and reproductive function. Diseases, medications and mental conditions can directly or indirectly affect the person's sexual health, so it is a subject not to ignore in the nursing perspective. Although nurses believed that sexuality was an important subject, it is not a priority in psychiatric care. People with mental illness lacked information and conversations about sexuality and sexual health. It is precisely in this area that people had a higher risk of being sexually exploited, suffering from sexually transmitted infections, and unwanted pregnancies. In order to achieve a holistic care, nurses expressed that they needed to involve sexuality in their profession. Aim: The aim of this study was to describe nurses' experiences of talking about sexuality with the patients suffering from mental illness. Method: A literaturebased study of ten scientific qualitative articles that have been compiled and analyzed. Articlesearches were conducted in the databases PubMed, CINAHL, PsychInfo and PsycArticles. Results: Four categories emerged that explain the experiences of nurses related to their responsibilities and knowledge about sexuality. A category was how the responsibility of the organization to implement routines and effective work environment can influence the communication of the nurses and patients. Another category presented the feelings of nurses about how their approach and how their attitudes affect the communication with patients suffering from mental illness about sexuality. Conclusion: The nurses are awarded that sexuality is an important subject and a fundamental aspect of life. Nurses needed more education about sexuality to be able to engage in a conversation with patients and kept in mind that they are responsible for holistic care. Nurses attitudes towards to the mental health patients and sexuality is a big barrier in which nurses need to change and the organization needs to provide all the necessary help for the nurses to do an adequate job. Patients need to receive the best care regardless of their mental state.

BAKGRUND: Långa sjukskrivningar och psykisk och fysisk ohälsa beror oftast på dålig psykosocial arbetsmiljö, som mobbning, kränkande särbehandling och trakasserier. Mobbningen är ett globalt problem som orsakar betydande kostnader för individens hälsa, sjukhusorganisationen och samhälle. SYFTE: Att beskriva hur mobbning påverkar utsatta sjuksköterskor och konsekvenser som kan uppstå på arbetsplatsen. METOD: En allmän litteraturstudie genomfördes grundad på 11 vetenskapliga artiklar. Artiklarna innefattade både kvantitativ och kvalitativ forskning. Dataanalysen genomfördes med induktiv ansats där meningsenheter med samma tema identifierades och delades i tre kategorier. RESULTAT: Det framkom tre kategorier i resultatet; påverkan på hälsan, påverkan på personalomsättning och påverkan på sjuksköterskans arbete. Resultatet visade på negativa effekter av mobbning för utsatta sjuksköterskor, organisationen med personalomsättning och för patientsäkerheten. Utsatta sjuksköterskor påverkades och visade  olika psykiska symtom, som depression, ångest, posttraumatiskt stressyndrom (PTSD) och utbrändhet. Konsekvenser av mobbning och utsatthet hos sjuksköterskor drabbade även patientsäkerheten och vårdkvalitén, samt att det  fick konsekvenser på sjukhusorganisationen med ökad personalomsättning. KONKLUSION: Genom ökad kunskap och förståelse kan man hitta effektiva sätt att hantera och utreda mobbning tidigt på arbetsplatsen. Detta kan leda till förbättringar i ett både kort- och långsiktigt perspektiv för sjuksköterskors hälsa, personalomsättning på sjukhus och ökad patientsäkerhet. / BACKGROUND: Long sick leave and mental and physical illness are usually caused by poor psychosocial work environment where bullying, offensive treatment and harassment are present. Bullying is a global problem that has significant costs to the individual's health, the hospital organization and society. OBJECTIVE: To describe how bullying affects vulnerable nurses and consequences that may arise in the workplace. METHOD: A general literature study was conducted based on 11 scientific articles. The articles included both quantitative and qualitative research. The data analysis was carried out with an inductive approach, where opinion units with the same theme were identified and divided into three categories. RESULTS: There were three categories in the results; impact on health, impact on staff turnover and impact on the nurses´ work. The results showed the negative effects of bullying amongst nurses, and the negative effects bullying had on the organization in terms of staff turnover and patient safety. Exposed nurses showed various psychological symptoms, such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and burnout. The consequences of bullying and nurses exposure to it also affected patient safety, the quality of care and the hospital organization through increased staff turnover. CONCLUSION: Through increased knowledge and understanding one can find effective ways to handle and investigate bullying earlier in the workplace, which lead to improvements in a short- and long-term perspective for nurses' health, staff turnover in hospitals and increased patient safety.

Organisational design, development and change management is about dealing with the effectiveness and efficiency of organisations. Organisational design, development and change management practitioners use systematic strategies and approaches to improve the productivity of organisations and the well-being of individuals. In order to do this, the organisational design, development and change management practitioner must be able to manage customers, competition, change, relationships and processes. There is a need to understand the impacts of successful organisational design, development and change management implementations as they influence the success of an organisation. The aim of this study is to explore practitioners’ knowledge and experiences of organisational design, development and change management implementation. The objectives included explorations of practitioners’ experiences working on organisational design, development and change management implementations. The study is qualitative, exploratory research. Data was collected by means of face-to-face interviews guided by a semi structured interview schedule. Participants’ were practitioners working in the field of organisational design, development and change management. The study used non-probability (non-random) purposive, snowball sampling. The data was analysed using thematic content analysis to identify themes and sub themes in the data. The findings indicate what organisational design, development and change management involves, what the benefits are and the successes and challenges practitioners have encountered during implementation. The macroeconomic environment in which organisations operate is ever changing and in order to keep up, organisations need to call on experienced practitioners to assist in managing the change. The implications of the results will assist the industry as well as organisations to understand the value organisational design, development and change management implementations in enabling business strategies and driving organizations to achieve its business objective thus promoting and growing the discipline and practice.These insights will also contribute to the discipline and the availability of such data will assist future practitioners to be more effective in their roles.

Master of Arts - Arts / Background: With the increasing prevalence of stroke in developing countries, like South Africa, the long-term care of stroke patients living with disabilities has substantial consequences for caregivers and their respective families. Method: This study investigated caregiver perceptions of their experiences, as well as familial implications due to the incidence of stroke within the family system. The assessment, in the form of a semi-structured interview, described the experiences post-stroke as perceived by six primary caregivers. It additionally addressed the challenges the South African context adds to these experiences. This was conceptualised within a systems and biopsychosocial framework, enabling the caregiver and family to be considered in a comprehensive and holistic manner. Results: Prominent themes associated with the caregiving of a stroke patient included: role changes, relationship disruptions within the family system, occupational and social implications, fatigue, anxiety, depression, as well as financial problems. An additional sub theme was that the emotional impact on the family system was greater in cases where younger children were involved. However, social support increased the caregivers’ ability to cope and this additionally assisted the rest of the family in their adjustment. Caregiver experiences were exacerbated by the inadequate support structures available within the South African context, with the lack of post-stroke education being an issue of great concern. Conclusions: Practical implications of this study are discussed, along with considerations of the limitations of the study and suggestions for future research.

In Malawi, the new Biology curriculum draws from constructivist approaches. The Biology teaching syllabus emphasises the use of students’ experiences as a resource and the use of active student involvement strategies when teaching the curriculum to enhance conceptual understanding. However, inspection reports show that students are less actively involved in the lessons and the teachers rarely draw from their students’ prior experiences to enhance conceptual understanding. In this study, I investigated some factors affecting four teachers’ use of constructivist approaches when teaching the new biology curriculum in Malawi. Information was collected on the four teachers’ understandings of active student involvement in lessons and students’ experiences, the extent to which the four teachers involved students and built on students’ experiences to enable comprehension of science concepts in the Biology lessons and the factors that promoted/ hindered the use of these practices. Data was collected through lesson observations and interviews with teachers using an observation guide and an interview schedule respectively. Four Biology teachers, two from community secondary schools and two from conventional secondary schools were observed and interviewed. I found that all the four teachers understood students’ experiences as prior knowledge from previous school learning. The teachers understood active student involvement in relation to the type of schools they were teaching. For the teachers in community schools, involving students meant engaging them in group discussion while to the teachers in conventional schools it meant students doing experiments / practical work. Their teaching focused on giving information and little was done to develop students’ metacognitive abilities. According to the four teachers, pressure to cover the syllabus before the national examinations; lack of text books and laboratory equipment; lack of motivation among students; students’ backgrounds; and inadequate students’ fluency in the English language are some of the factors that affect their implementation of the constructivist approaches. Based on the lessons I observed, the teachers’ knowledge of subject matter and teachers’ understandings of the constructivism concept also affect the use of constructivist approaches when teaching Biology in Malawi.

Bakgrund: Endometrios är en gynekologisk sjukdom som drabbar ungefär var tionde kvinna. Sjukdomen uppstår då fragment av livmoderslemhinnan växer in i annan vävnad utanför livmodern, vilket ger upphov till många fysiska symtom där smärta är vanligast. Dessa symtom påverkar även andra aspekter av kvinnans liv.  Syfte: Syftet var att sammanställa aktuella forskningsresultat om hur kvinnor med endometrios upplever att sjukdomen påverkar dem och deras liv. Metod: En litteraturöversikt med kvalitativ ansats där elva originalartiklar inkluderades. Sökningarna genomfördes i databaserna PubMed och CINAHL. Resultat: Resultatet är uppdelat i följande teman; upplevelser av fysiska begränsningar, upplevelser av psykiska förändringar, upplevelser av sociala begränsningar och förändringar, upplevelser av begränsningar på jobb och studier och upplevelser av existensiella förändringar. Endometrios visade sig ha en stor påverkan på alla dessa aspekter av livet. Kvinnorna upplevde att sjukdomen bland annat påverkade deras mobilitet, sexuella aktivitet, självkänsla, relationer, sociala liv, arbetsliv, skola, fertilitet och livsperspektiv. Slutsats: Sammanfattningsvis påverkar endometrios alla aspekter av kvinnornas liv. Den största delen av kvinnorna upplevde en negativ påverkan på sitt fysiska, psykiska och sociala liv, arbetslivet samt existentiella frågor. Framöver behövs mer kvalitativ forskning för att vidareutveckla bilden av kvinnors upplevelser av att leva med endometrios. Detta för att öka kunskapen kring sjukdomen och därmed möjliggöra för en snabbare diagnostisering, bättre vård och en ökad livskvalitet för kvinnorna. / Background: Endometriosis is a gynecological disease that affects approximately every tenth woman. The disease develops when part of the endometrial lining implants in foreign tissue outside of the uterus, which causes many physical symptoms where pain is most common. These symptoms also affects other aspects of the woman's life. Aim: The aim was to compile current research results of how women with endometriosis experience the disease and how it affects them and their lives. Method: A review of literature research with a qualitative approach where eleven original research articles were chosen. The articles were found through the databases PubMed and CINAHL. Results: The results are presented through the following themes; experiences of physical limitations, experiences of psychological changes, experiences of social limitations and changes, experiences of limitations on work and education and experiences of existential changes. As it turned out, endometriosis had a big impact on all aspects of life. The women experienced that the disease among other things affected their mobility, sexual activity, self-esteem, relations, social life, work, education, fertility and life perspective. Conclusion: In summary endometriosis affects all aspects of the women's lives. The majority of women experienced that the disease had a negative effect on their physical, psychological and social life, work and existential questions. Furthermore, more qualitative research needs to be done to further investigate how women experience life with endometriosis. This is needed to gain more knowledge about the disease and therefore enable improvement in the diagnosis, the healthcare and the life quality of these women.

Background: Homestyling is still relatively new on the swedish market, but has increased in use over the past ten years. Homestyling can now be seen as a value-adding service to the brokers core service, which is mainly selling real estates. People, who today have a different view on services, put a lot of value into getting a full service package delivered. Homestyling can lead to an increased interest in the property and increased value for both buyers and sellers. Research question: How important is homestyling for the broker´s service offer? How does the process with homestyling work? Purpose: The purpose with the study is to investigate how important homestyling is for the broker's service offer. Furthermore, the study intends to look into how the process of homestyling works. Method: This qualitative study has a deductive approach and has been conducted through individual interviews. The interviews has been done with two brokers and two homestylists who works for different agencies. A pilot study has also been carried out via focusgroup interviews with potential buyers. The interviews were semi-structured. Theory: The theory chapter presents relevant theories about consumer behavior, services and experiences related to the chosen topic. These theories constitute a major building block in the study and form the basis of the study's collected empirical data. Conclusion: Homestyling turned out to be more important for the broker's service than just acting as a competition tool. The survey shows that flats are almost unsaleable unless homestyling is used. This is because homestyling is so deeply implemented in the broker's service that customers expect styling, which leads to an impaired experience if there is no styling at all. The study also shows that the process can be different depending on the stylist, but that their common goal is to create an experience for the customer which can influence the buying process.

Background The population in Israel is heterogeneous with inhabitants from diverse backgrounds with different religious affiliations, languages and customs. The diversity of cultural backgrounds can create a challenge for the healthcare system. Cultural competence is stated to be a necessary ability of a nurse when caring for culturally diverse persons, further promoted by the Israeli Ministry of health. Aim The aim of the study is to describe Registered Nurses experiences of working with cultural competence in caring for persons with culturally diverse backgrounds in Israel. Method A qualitative design was used. Five semi-structured telephone interviews with registered nurses working in a city in Israel, was conducted. The data was analysed using a qualitative content analysis with an inductive approach. Findings Four categories were identified in the findings: Understanding cultural needs, Addressing cultural needs, Challenges in caring for culturally diverse persons and Incidential finding: Risk of stereotyping, all further represented with the theme: Embracing patient’s cultural needs In healthcare. Approaches to understand cultural needs emphasised on seeing the whole person and being sensitive to their needs, depending on clear communication, although neglect of cultural needs occurred. Acceptance and respect for persons choices as well as adaptions made both in nurses encounter and hospital environment. Experiences of cultural differences evoked feelings of inconvenience and insecurities. Incidental findings show stereotyping as a challenge. Conclusion Approaches and behaviours in line with the values of cultural competence were learned through in-practice experiences. Implementation of the recommended guidelines in healthcare could further enhance nurse’s cultural competence and guidance when caring for culturally diverse persons.