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published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Nursing in Advanced Practice

South Africa has one of the highest country HIV/AIDS statistics in the world. The large number of ill individuals has created an unprecedented care work crisis in the country. In the absence of an adequate state supported care work response, the task of caring for people living with HIV/AIDS has fallen on community members. Under-resourced communities often do not have the capacity to engage in such intensive care work, and this shift has resulted in deleterious emotional, physical and financial consequences. This study sought to create greater understanding of the support available and accessible to friends and family members who serve as informal carers of people living with HIV/AIDS. Methodologically, this is a qualitative study. Nine participants from KwaNgcolosi, a periurban area in KwaZulu Natal, were interviewed. A semi-structured interview schedule was directed to elicit participants’ perceptions of the support that is available and accessible to them. Data was thematically analysed. Perceptions of support were understood in the context of the elements of social capital, namely trust, reciprocity, norms and networks, as well as the sociological strata in which these elements function, the bonding, bridging and linking levels. Findings suggest that informal carers perceive low levels of support. Participants reported poor support from local community and extra-community members which include friends and family members, local political and traditional leadership and leadership at a governmental level. Low levels of social capital exist in the community evidenced by lack of reciprocity, norms that isolate the carer, mistrust, lack of control over resources, and weakened networks which inhibit the participants’ pool of human resources. Stigma, discrimination and conditions of extreme poverty were major impediments to the availability and accessibility of beneficial social capital and thus the social support inherent in it. On the converse, the home-based carer (HBC) emerged as the strongest source of assistance to informal carers. The support reportedly received by the HBC 6 include emotional, instrumental and informational assistance. However, these contributions were insufficient, evidenced by the testimony from all participants that they were still experiencing extreme hardships in their care work. The findings suggest that development, project and policy initiatives should focus on empowerment, greater involvement of all stakeholders ranging from individual community members to government policy makers, greater networking and participation and finally that there should be greater investment in the HBC and the informal carer in terms of resources and capacity building. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

Background: Despite the prevalence of HIV/AIDS stabilizing and slightly decreasing in certain provinces, there are a number of People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in South Africa. Many people seek help at primary health clinics and hospitals and receive chronic care at these facilities. Caring for these chronic patients and new patients entering the health system can be stressful to the health professionals who are involved. Many studies that have been conducted have focused on the clinical aspects of individual patients, while few studies have focused on the experiences and stressors of health professionals looking after PLWHA. To ensure quality of care for patients with HIV/AIDS, it is important to understand the experiences of health professionals looking after HIV/AIDS patients and how stressful experiences may influence their attitude towards these patients. Aim: The aim of this study is to report the factors health professionals perceive as occupational stressors caring for people living with HIV/AIDS in the public health sector of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality. Research design and Methodology: A quantitative, descriptive and non-experimental research design was followed. A pilot study was conducted to determine the clarity of questions, effectiveness of the instructions, completeness of the response sets, the time required to complete the questionnaires and the success of the data collection. The primary method of data collection was self-administered questionnaires. The questionnaires were dispatched to 30 health professionals at the public health facilities in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality. A descriptive statistical analysis was done using a Statistical Package. This revealed the following findings. Findings: The following are the findings that were perceived to be occupational stressors: organizational factors, job design factors, career and promotional factors, role-related factors and cultural factors. iv Conclusion and recommendations: There are occupational stressors that affect health care professionals working in an HIV/AIDS setting. The following are the recommendations to rectify or to improve the situation: • Improve the communication of goals and objectives; • Redesign the job; • Human-resources development ; • Improvement of salaries; • Career planning and mentoring; and • Sensitisation of employees to cultural differences.

Complex patient are becoming more and more of a challenge to the health care system given the amount of care they require and the amount of documentation needed to keep track of their state of health and treatment. Record keeping using the EHR makes this easier but mounting amounts of patient data also means that clinicians are faced with information overload. Information overload has been shown to have deleterious effects on care, with increased safety concerns due to missed information. Patient record summarization has been a promising mitigator for information overload. Subsequently, a lot of research has been dedicated to record summarization since the introduction of EHRs. In this dissertation we examine whether unsupervised inference methods can derive patient problem-oriented summaries, that are robust to different patients. By grounding our experiments with HIV patients we leverage the data of a group of patients that are similar in that they share one common disease (HIV) but also exhibit complex histories of diverse comorbidities. Using a user-centered, iterative design process, we design an interactive, longitudinal patient record summarization tool, that leverages automated inferences about the patient's problems. We find that unsupervised, joint learning of problems using correlated topic models, adapted to handle the multiple data types (structured and unstructured) of the EHR, is successful in identifying the salient problems of complex patients. Utilizing interactive visualization that exposes inference results to users enables them to make sense of a patient's problems over time and to answer questions about a patient more accurately and faster than using the EHR alone.

Thesis (MCur)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The overall objective of this study was to ascertain whether lay counsellors offer psychosocial counselling to clients at antiretroviral therapy clinics. The study was conducted at two clinics in the Greater Tzaneen municipality, Limpopo province, South Africa. The sample of 14 consisted of seven female lay counsellors and seven HIV positive clients, three females and four males, at Xihlovo and Nyeleti antiretroviral clinics. They were interviewed using 11-item and 12-item interview guides, respectively. Interviews were conducted in the local languages. Qualitative data were collected for the study. The data were audiotaped, translated, transcribed and then categorised into a thematic framework. HIV positive participants were found to be suffering from psychosocial consequences of living with HIV, such as shock, denial, anger and blame, fear of death, fear of disclosure, and intimate-partner violence. However, lay counsellors did not offer effective counselling that could relieve the psychosocial consequences. They instead used religion to console clients, discouraged clients from expressing their feelings, and minimised their clients’ concerns. It is recommended that lay counsellors be taught basic counselling theories as part of their training so that they are better able to screen their clients for psychosocial problems and provide basic counselling. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die algehele doelwit van dié studie is om te bepaal of leke-beraders psigo-sosiale berading aan kliënte by die die anti-retrovale terapie klinieke bied. Kwalitatiewe data is vir dié studie versamel. Die studie is by twee klinieke in die groter Tzaneenmunisipaliteit in Limpopo provinsie in Suid‐Afrika gedoen. Die eksperimentele groep van 14 het bestaan uit sewe vroulike leke-beraders en sewe MIV-positiewe kliënte: drie vrouens en vier mans, by Xihlovo en Nyeleti anti-retrovale klinieke. Daar was onderskeidelike onderhoude met hulle gevoer en die 11-item en 12-item onderhoudriglyne is toegepas. Onderhoude is in inheemse tale gevoer. Die data was opgeneem, vertaal, getranskribeer en in 'n tematiese raamwerk vasgevang. Daar is gevind dat die MIV-positiewe persone negatiewe psigo-sosiale gevolge ervaar: skok, ontkenning, woede, blaam, vrees vir die dood, vrees dat hul status openbaar sal word, asook geweld binne hul verhoudings. Leke-beraders het egter nie doeltreffende berading gegee om bogenoemde psigo-sosiale gevolge te verlig nie. Hulle het eerder godsdiens gebruik in 'n poging om hul kliënte te vertroos, nie die kliënte aangemoedig om hul gevoelens uit te druk nie en hul gevoelens en kommer afgemaak. Daar word aanbeveel dat leke-beraders basiese beradingsteorie as deel van hul opleiding ontvang sodat hulle psigo-sosiale probleme in hul kliente kan uitken en beter basiese berading kan verskaf.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Nursing Science)) -- University of Limpopo, 2018 / Introduction: Health care workers have a pivotal role in the management of Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and their well-being is consequently crucial as it could impact negatively on the quality of caregiving. With the development of a care and support model, the needs of health care workers can be identified and catered for, and quality patient care will be rendered through well-cared and supported health care workers. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a care and support model for health care providers of patients diagnosed with HIV and AIDS in the public hospitals of the Limpopo Province. A key step in the development of a model for care and support is to explore and describe the experiences of professional nurses regarding care and support they receive while providing care to HIV and AIDS patients in the public hospitals of Limpopo Province Methods: A qualitative, descriptive, exploratory and contextual design was the method used which guided the development of the model. The population of the study were the professional nurses in five public hospitals from each district of the Limpopo Province. These hospitals were selected because they all shared similar characteristics of having clinics where HIV and AIDS patients receive care. The sample was purposively selected. The sample size was 20 professional nurses which was determined by data saturation, meaning that four professional nurses who worked for 24 months or more per public hospital were selected. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews and an audiotape was used to record all unstructured interview sessions conducted. Analysis of data were done through using an open-coding method in accordance with Tech’s qualitative data methodology to develop a model. Results: The research findings revealed emotional and physical strain due to shortage of staff and heavy workload which was exacerbated by staff turnover and high absenteeism. Exhaustion, fatigue, development of work-related vi illnesses and increased level of stress were also challenges experienced which led to increased customer complaints and decreased quality of service provided to patients. Many professional nurses were not trained in the management of patients with HIV and AIDS, but were expected to execute their activities competently. There was also lack of counselling, debriefing sessions, recognition and rewarding systems for the health professionals who were taking care of those patients. Recommendations: This Care and Support Model provides strategies to be used by the managers in public hospitals of Limpopo Province to enhance care and support to health care providers of HIV and AIDS patients. The model should be implemented at various public hospitals throughout Limpopo Province and feedback provided so that it could be further developed and refined. Conclusion: The results indicated that health care providers of HIV and AIDS patients were deprived of the necessary care and support during provision of care to HIV and AIDS patients. A model for care and support as a strategy to assist the managers to offer care and support to health care providers of HIV and AIDS has been developed. The model is a contribution to the nursing management, the government and it serves as a guideline for improving the quality of patient care through well-cared and supported health care workers.

More than three decades after the outbreak of the AIDS pandemic, sub-Saharan Africa is home to the largest epidemic in the world. Over 70% of infected people live in this region and are aged 15–49 years. Given that it is at this age that young adults are more likely to start families, their death as a result of AIDS gives rise to the crisis of AIDS-orphaned children. Several studies show that the number of AIDS orphans is on the rise and can reach up to 18 million throughout the continent. Generally, patients expect to be admitted in formal health care facilities for adequate treatment but the absence of cure and an increasing number of infected make it difficult for them to be treated as in-patients. In order to fill the gap, the elderly care for AIDS patients and take on the parenting role of AIDS orphans. However, there is not much information on the implications of caregiving on the well-being of the elderly. This dissertation aims at shedding light on this issue – using data from an informal settlement in the province of KwaZulu-Natal – in order to highlight the risks to the health of elderly caregivers. The elderly are the primary caregivers to thousands of AIDS patients and AIDS-orphaned children across sub-Saharan Africa. Their caregiving activities are strenuous and repetitive on a daily basis. Through qualitative data collected from 14 elderly caregivers, this project found that their well-being was compromised by several caregiving activities and the expectations placed upon them were unbearable. The vulnerability of caregivers was emphasized by the high number of dependents that resulted in lowered standard of living. There was also the risk of contracting HIV during caregiving since the elderly were not able to afford protective equipment. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor in Public Management, Durban Universit of Technology, 2017. / HIV-AIDS has infected more than 37 million individuals globally and has resulted in approximately 35 million HIV-AIDS related deaths globally since its discovery 35 years ago. HIV-AIDS remains a global and local health crisis as, despite innovative and accessible HIV-AIDS prevention efforts, the disease continues to spread. UNAIDS estimated over 2 milliion new HIV-AIDS infections with 700 000 of these infections occurring in young African women in 2015, revealing that the burden of HIV-AIDS is far from over (UNAIDS, 2016). As more individuals become infected with HIV-AIDS, more infected individuals are living longer, productive lives due to the international rollout and scale-up of life-saving antiretroviral (ARV) therapy aimed at halting disease progression. In 16 years, the world has initiated over 16 million HIV-infected individuals onto ARV programmes across the world aimed at preserving first line drug effectiveness of treatment, less resistance and lower mortality and morbidity rates( UNAIDS, 2016). This number is set to double as countries across the globe take bold steps to provide ARV treatment for all, based on latest WHO guideline changes. The initiative of ARV roll out for all HIV-positive individuals globally, brings with it the challenges and complexities of infrastructure support, resource allocation, uninterrupted drug supply, global access and clinical training requirements for HIV-AIDS programmes across the globe. Quality management systems with monitoring and evaluation frameworks in particular play a pivotal role in planning, allocating and utilising resources for optimal health benefits.This research study reviews available data on the prevalence of quality management systems in HIV-AIDS healthcare and identifies gaps and smart practises towards recommendations for comprehensive global HIV-AIDS standards development. This research study aims to propose a conceptual monitoring and evaluation framework derived from quality management systems for management of HIV-AIDS private sector programmes that can be used in both public and private healthcare sectors through analysis of current conceptual frameworks in the HIV-AIDS healthcare and the HIV-AIDS programmes within the South African context of HIV-AIDS healthcare provision. / D

Standard economic models often emphasize inputs, outputs and an examination of the structures in order to conduct an economic performance evaluation. This study applies the Institutional and Development Framework (IAD) in the broader context of New Institutional Economics (NIE) in order to examine the transaction costs of delivering Community and Home Based Care and Support (CHBC) to HIV/AIDS sufferers. For purposes of unveiling the empirical reality guiding decision making processes in the CHBC service delivery, comparative qualitative research techniques of normative variable and concept formation have been adopted to draw out the relative institutional influences from the HIV/AIDS national response partnerships. The study identifies the conflict between the predominantly standardized and more rigid formal management techniques adopted by key members of the national response and the informal cultural techniques familiar to the rural communities, and a lack of motivational incentives in the CHBC structures as the key factors against CHBC capacities to draw external funding for service delivery. CHBCs are also weakened by incoherent governance structures at the district level for facilitation of funding and information flow exacerbating the community vulnerability. Rationalization of the institutional arrangements and a clarification of roles from district to community levels, a shift of focus to facilitation of informal techniques and an integration of performance enhancing incentives are the critical policy insights envisaged to spur CHBCs to work better.