Thesis (MPH.) -- University of Limpopo, 2016. / Introduction and purpose: Midwives are the backbone of maternal and child health—the output of their action affect quality of life of mother and child. The purpose of the study was to describe the challenges encountered by one-year diploma student midwives while acquiring clinical skills at selected hospitals in Limpopo Province. Research design and method: A quantitative, descriptive cross-sectional research method was used in this study. The study population comprised all one-year diploma student midwives in selected hospitals in Limpopo Province, namely, Dilokong Hospital, Jane Furse Memorial Hospital, Mokopane Hospital, Philadelphia Hospital, Siloam Hospital and St Rita’s Hospital. The whole study population was used as the total population was small. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Informed consent was received from the participants as was ethical approval from the relevant authorities. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 22 with the aid of a statistician. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze and describe the data. Data were presented in tables and bar graphs.Findings: Respondents in this study indicated that they encountered the following challenges during their acquisition of clinical skills at the selected hospitals in the Limpopo Province: inadequate resources; inadequate mentoring. Male participants reported feelings of being more competent than their female counterparts. There was no relationship between acquisition of skills and marital status, and no correlation between age and acquisition of skills.

Studien hade till syfte att få förståelse för om stödbehovet för undersköterskorna inom hemtjänsten förändrats efter utbrottet av Covid-19 pandemin. Den hade även till syfte att undersöka om ledarskapsstilen hade möjlighet att tillgodose undersköterskans behov av stöd. Denna kvalitativa studie baserades på sex individuella semistrukturerade intervjuer med undersköterskor och enhetschefer inom kommunal hemtjänst i Mellansverige. Materialet analyserades tematiskt utifrån olika teorier som systemteori samt transformativt och transaktionell ledarskapsteori. Genom resultatet framgick det ett utökat stödbehov, och då i form av exempelvis information, handledning samt tydliga arbetsrutiner. Resultatet förordar även transformativt samt transaktionellt ledarskap för att stötta undersköterskorna.

The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the personal experiences of enrolled nurses while caring for patients infected with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in an urban tuberculosis hospital in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. Generic qualitative research was conducted with a sample of purposively selected enrolled nurses who cared for MDR-TB patients. Data was collected through in-depth individual interviews and analysed using Colaizzi’s (1978) method of data analysis. The research findings revealed six major themes: the working context, fear of contracting the disease, problems that have an impact on the quality of nursing care, nurses' perceptions of the patients, support structures and nurses' expressed needs. The findings of this study indicate that the nurses work in a challenging environment and need to be supported, as they experience more negative than positive feelings while caring for these patients. / Health Studies / (M.A. (Health Studies))

The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the personal experiences of enrolled nurses while caring for patients infected with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in an urban tuberculosis hospital in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. Generic qualitative research was conducted with a sample of purposively selected enrolled nurses who cared for MDR-TB patients. Data was collected through in-depth individual interviews and analysed using Colaizzi’s (1978) method of data analysis. The research findings revealed six major themes: the working context, fear of contracting the disease, problems that have an impact on the quality of nursing care, nurses' perceptions of the patients, support structures and nurses' expressed needs. The findings of this study indicate that the nurses work in a challenging environment and need to be supported, as they experience more negative than positive feelings while caring for these patients. / Health Studies / (M.A. (Health Studies))

The aim of the study was to investigate motivation, job satisfaction and attitudes of nurses in the public health services of Botswana. The objective was to discover how nurses felt about a wide range of variables in their work environment and ultimately to distil them into what they conceived as the mainstay motivators, job satisfiers and positive attitudes. The non pariel (unrivalled, unique) role of the government in creating both the hardware and the software of national health services was acknowledged and recognised with a particular reference to the primacy it placed on developing the human resources in the form of nurses, in order to realize the goals of administering the public health services efficiently and effectively. It was noted that nurses were the change agents and the axis in promoting quality standards of healthcare but in partnership with the government, which must be seen to be responsive and proactive in discharging its fiduciary responsibilities, in respect of both the content and the context of nurses’ occupational ambience. For the purposes of constructing a database from which both the government and the nurses can draw, the most salient thematic details of the theories of motivation, job satisfaction and attitudes were studied and examined and were used as a scaffolding for the empirical survey of nurses. Nine hundred questionnaires were distributed to both registered and enrolled nurses with a minimum of two years work experience in the public health sector and 702 of these were returned constituting a return rate of 78%. The findings indicated that a majority of nurses enjoyed job satisfaction in certain areas of their work namely autonomy, participating in decision-making, choice of type of nursing, change of wards or departments or work units, interpersonal relationships amongst nurses themselves and between nurses and their supervisors. Nurses also perceived the hospital as an environment in which they could continually learn and they were moreover satisfied with the nursing job or the work itself. The other end of the spectrum revealed an overwhelming majority of 92.2% of nurses who were dissatisfied with the level of pay and 88.5% who were not happy with the fringe benefits including the provision of accommodation. Working conditions were viewed as generally disliked by 67.3% of the nurses. Low pay, workload, lack of viii recognition for outstanding performance and or delayed promotional chances were singled out as being particularly disliked by 67.2%, 64.9%, 42.6% and 44.4% of the nurses respectively. Interviews held with 31 nurses yielded similar results. The research further showed that the most important motivators to nurses were dominated by competitive salary which was mentioned by 80.9% of the respondents, attractive or sufficient working conditions which were stated by 71.2% of the nurses, opportunity for continuous education which was rated by 63.8% of the nursing candidates, reduced workload which was claimed by 59.3% of the nursing cadres, opportunity for the recognition of outstanding performance and opportunity for promotion which were scored by 54.1% and 53.4% of the nurse respectively. Job satisfiers were also represented by competitive salary which received 76.1% of the nurses’ votes. Risk allowance occupied the second position with 69.1% and competitive working conditions were awarded a third ranking by 68.2% of the nurses. Those nurses who derived job satisfaction from the fact of each nursing shift being manned by an adequate number of nurses accounted for 63.1% of the sample. Competitive fringe benefits attracted 60.1% of the nurses. Opportunity to attend workshops and the need for high morale in nursing team-work were chosen as job satisfiers by 53.7% and 49.6% of the nurses respectively. In the section on recommendations the government was exhorted to invoke corrective or remedial measures in view of the detailed exegesis of the satisfactions and dissatisfactions in the nurses’ work environment and the ensuing problematique (doubtful, questionable) of raising the standards of health care in the public health services. Living up to these sanguine expectations should be the cherished longterm vision of the government if it is to meet and quench the soaring aspirations of its modernizing society for quality health care delivery and the escalating needs of the nurses. / Public Administration / D.P.A.

The aim of the study was to investigate motivation, job satisfaction and attitudes of nurses in the public health services of Botswana. The objective was to discover how nurses felt about a wide range of variables in their work environment and ultimately to distil them into what they conceived as the mainstay motivators, job satisfiers and positive attitudes. The non pariel (unrivalled, unique) role of the government in creating both the hardware and the software of national health services was acknowledged and recognised with a particular reference to the primacy it placed on developing the human resources in the form of nurses, in order to realize the goals of administering the public health services efficiently and effectively. It was noted that nurses were the change agents and the axis in promoting quality standards of healthcare but in partnership with the government, which must be seen to be responsive and proactive in discharging its fiduciary responsibilities, in respect of both the content and the context of nurses’ occupational ambience. For the purposes of constructing a database from which both the government and the nurses can draw, the most salient thematic details of the theories of motivation, job satisfaction and attitudes were studied and examined and were used as a scaffolding for the empirical survey of nurses. Nine hundred questionnaires were distributed to both registered and enrolled nurses with a minimum of two years work experience in the public health sector and 702 of these were returned constituting a return rate of 78%. The findings indicated that a majority of nurses enjoyed job satisfaction in certain areas of their work namely autonomy, participating in decision-making, choice of type of nursing, change of wards or departments or work units, interpersonal relationships amongst nurses themselves and between nurses and their supervisors. Nurses also perceived the hospital as an environment in which they could continually learn and they were moreover satisfied with the nursing job or the work itself. The other end of the spectrum revealed an overwhelming majority of 92.2% of nurses who were dissatisfied with the level of pay and 88.5% who were not happy with the fringe benefits including the provision of accommodation. Working conditions were viewed as generally disliked by 67.3% of the nurses. Low pay, workload, lack of viii recognition for outstanding performance and or delayed promotional chances were singled out as being particularly disliked by 67.2%, 64.9%, 42.6% and 44.4% of the nurses respectively. Interviews held with 31 nurses yielded similar results. The research further showed that the most important motivators to nurses were dominated by competitive salary which was mentioned by 80.9% of the respondents, attractive or sufficient working conditions which were stated by 71.2% of the nurses, opportunity for continuous education which was rated by 63.8% of the nursing candidates, reduced workload which was claimed by 59.3% of the nursing cadres, opportunity for the recognition of outstanding performance and opportunity for promotion which were scored by 54.1% and 53.4% of the nurse respectively. Job satisfiers were also represented by competitive salary which received 76.1% of the nurses’ votes. Risk allowance occupied the second position with 69.1% and competitive working conditions were awarded a third ranking by 68.2% of the nurses. Those nurses who derived job satisfaction from the fact of each nursing shift being manned by an adequate number of nurses accounted for 63.1% of the sample. Competitive fringe benefits attracted 60.1% of the nurses. Opportunity to attend workshops and the need for high morale in nursing team-work were chosen as job satisfiers by 53.7% and 49.6% of the nurses respectively. In the section on recommendations the government was exhorted to invoke corrective or remedial measures in view of the detailed exegesis of the satisfactions and dissatisfactions in the nurses’ work environment and the ensuing problematique (doubtful, questionable) of raising the standards of health care in the public health services. Living up to these sanguine expectations should be the cherished longterm vision of the government if it is to meet and quench the soaring aspirations of its modernizing society for quality health care delivery and the escalating needs of the nurses. / Public Administration and Management / D.P.A.

The purpose of the study was to investigate and describe the experiences of a mobile injection team for multi drug resistant-tuberculosis outpatients, and to design and recommend a mobile injection team guideline based on the experiences of the team members in Ugu District, KwaZulu-Natal and to indicate the support that the MIT require. Phenomenological research was conducted. Convenient census sampling was used as all the seven members of the Ugu District mobile injection team were included. The inclusion criteria was at least six months’ working experience with MDR-TB patients in a mobile injection team at Ugu District, be an enrolled nurse registered with the South African Nursing Council as an enrolled nurse and must have an annual practicing certificate, or be a TB assistant, be willing to participate in the study and be located at the decentralised and satellite site. Data were collected through individual in-depth interviews with the participants. Data were analysed using Giorgi’s method of data analysis. The research findings revealed four broad themes (the perceptions held by the team, challenges, available support and needs to promote the service) and 73 sub-themes. The findings of the study indicate that the MDR-TB outreach injection teams experience many challenges in the community and need to be supported by their management in order to provide quality care to the patients. This study contributes to the development of guidelines to assist the mobile injection teams to provide quality patient care and effective service delivery. Based on the findings, the recommendation is that an intervention study be performed to compare the utilisation of the mobile MDR-TB injection team after implementing the recommendations made and the guidelines developed in this study / Health Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies)

The purpose of this study was to conduct evaluation research on the implementation of the Baby and Mother Friendly Initiative in Namibia in order to identify its successes and failures, as well as to develop guidelines for the strengthening of the programme. An evaluation research design using a sequential mixed-methods approach to collect qualitative and quantitative data was conducted. In phase 1, qualitative data were collected through face-to-face interviews. Participants were the chief health programme officer for nutrition at national level and nurse managers in charge of the baby and mother friendly hospitals. In phase 2, quantitative data were collected from 391 registered and enrolled nurses/midwives working in the baby and mother friendly hospitals through a self-administered questionnaire. Both phases 1 and 2 indicated partial implementation of the Baby and Mother Friendly Initiative programme. Factors influencing the implementation positively or negatively were identified. The integrated findings formed the basis of guidelines to strengthen the programme. Nine guidelines were developed and validated. / Health Studies / D.Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies)

It is important for nurses to show acceptable behaviour when interacting with the patients. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the factors that contribute to nurses’ negative behaviour when rendering patient care and to determine the effects of nurses’ behaviour on patient outcomes. The study used a non-experimental explorative and descriptive quantitative design. Data collection was done using a structured questionnaire. The sample comprised of 64 respondents which consisted of 25 registered nurses and 39 enrolled nurses. The study found that besides the known contributing factor, that is, the shortage of nurses, further identified contributing factors to nurses’ negative behaviour when rendering patient care are failure to retrain nurses identified with negative behaviours, poor condition of employment and patients’ behaviours and cultural beliefs. These results suggested a need to train more nurses, improve conditions of employment, as well as support and retrain nurses identified with negative behaviours. / Health Studies / M.A. (Public Health)