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Original Research Article
ABSTRACT
Background: Annually, burns result in more than 7.1 million injuries and more than 250,000 deaths, with the vast majority being in low and middle income countries. In Zambia, at Kabwe Central Hospital, burn trauma is one of the commonest causes of trauma admissions in surgical wards. To mitigate the trend, Ministry of Health distributed infection prevention and control guidelines and emphasized on the need to manage all patients with burns in accordance with national guidelines. Main Objective: To assess the level of compliance with Burns treatment protocol by nurses at Kabwe Central Hospital. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study design was used in the study. A self-administered questionnaire was used to obtain data from 60 nurses and 55 nurses observed using an observational checklist. Convenient sampling was used to recruit nurses for the study. Results: Findings showed that observed compliance to burns treatment protocol is very low and stood at 51%. This was despite high knowledge, good management support and positive attitudes expressed by the majority nurses. This can be attributed to rare availability of most medical surgical supplies at the institution. Conclusion and Recommendations: The findings suggests the need of the hospital to improve on the supply of resources to the burns units as most nurses reported resource inadequacy in the management of burns. There is also need of building an ideal burns unit.
Original Research Article
ABSTRACT
Background: Pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) is a contagious bacterial infection of the lungs caused by mycobacterium tuberculosis, also known as tubercle bacilli. The symptoms of PTB can appear gradually and vary in severity. Malnutrition, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDs), age (young and old), diabetes mellitus, substance abuse, low socioeconomic status, malignancies, and or overcrowding are some of the common risk factors for PTB. According to the Zambia Demographic Health Survey (ZDHS, 2021), Zambia’s prevalence rate of PTB stood at 455 cases per 100,000 population. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended Direct Observation of Treatment (DOT) by a trained supervisor (WHO, 2019). However, implementing DOT in Zambia is challenging for both the patient and healthcare provider as it has been observed that a daily visit to a health facility for the first two months by PTB patients was very difficult for a range of reasons which included severe illness at the initiation of treatment, distance too far for walking, and high transportation costs. Objective: The study aimed at determining Factors Influencing Adherence to Pulmonary Tuberculosis Treatment among Adult PTB Patients at St Francis’ Hospital-Katete, Zambia. Methods and materials: Data was collected using a questionnaire and the study sample was one hundred (100) Adult PTB patients, who were selected by simple random sampling method. A quantitative descriptive cross-sectional study design was used. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21. Chi-square test was used to determine the relationship between independent and dependent variables. Conclusion: The study revealed a significant association between ‘level of information and knowledge, individual motivational support, behavioural skill’ and ‘Adult PTB patients’ adherence to PTB treatment’. Level of Information and knowledge (p-value 0.001), Individual .........
Original Research Article
ABSTRACT
Background: The responsibility of case managers is to facilitate and coordinate patient care. Their presence in the implementation of case management is expected to have a beneficial impact. The program is also expected to benefit the hospital in a variety of ways, specifically in terms of patient service management related to more cost-effective services. Objective: This research aims to explore the experience of case managers in carrying out case management at Langsa City General Hospital (RSUD), which has been operational since June 2019. Methods: This research adopted a qualitative design with a descriptive phenomenological approach. From a total of seven individuals on duty, five case managers from the nursing profession were included in the population. The remaining two are medical professionals and refused to participate. Data were collected by conducting interviews, observations, and documentation. Results: The results showed that case managers are still in the honeymoon phase, with their services focused on the collaboration gap and overlapping roles. Conclusion: Almost all case managers feel that their work experience has not been fully implemented in accordance with the work program. They have to adapt to new tasks and receive some training related to the implementation of case management in hospitals.
Original Research Article
ABSTRACT
Background: Zambia has seen a decline of maternal mortality rate (MMR) from 213 per 100,000 live births to 183 per 100,000 live births and the infant mortality rate (IMR) from 45 per 1,000 live births to 43 per 1,000 live births (United Nations, 2020). In spite of this, the ministry of health (MoH) has continued advocating for the use of the partograph in preventing negative birth outcomes. Nevertheless, most available research nationally and internationaly show that it is unclear whether there is a relationship between utilisation of the partograph and birth outcomes. Objective: The study aimed at investigating the relationship between utilisation of the partograph and birth outcomes. Methods and Materials: A cross-sectional quantitative study design was used. The systematic random sampling was used to select 183 partographs and convenience sampling was used to select 20 midwives. The materials used were self-administered questionnaire/ partograph checklists, Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 and the Chi square test. Results: The study has indicated that use of the partograph in monitoring women in labour has the potential to influence birth outcome which could be appropriate or inappropriate. The cross tabulation showed no correlation between utilisation of the partograph birth outcomes as most partographs with bad utilisation still had a p value of 0.045. Conclusion: There is no relationship between utilisation of the partograph and birth outcomes.
Original Research Article
ABSTRACT
Breast cancer is a prevalent form of cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women across the globe. Women can perform breast self-examination at home to detect any abnormalities in the breast early on, making it an affordable, easy, and effective screening technique. In this cohort study, we aimed to assess undergraduates' knowledge and practice of breast self-examination. Between February 2023 and May 2023, we used an online survey tool to collect information and structured the questions to meet our research objectives. Findings indicate that 40% of those recruited were knowledgeable about the procedure, while 60% had minimal or no knowledge. Age did not significantly impact knowledge and practice (p=0.7). Women, especially female students, must be more informed about breast cancer and encouraged to perform breast self-examination regularly. Raising awareness can be achieved through organizing workshops on breast cancer and early detection methods on university campuses, secondary schools, and even in public markets. Pamphlets may also be an effective method for promoting awareness.
ABSTRACT
Simulation-based learning (SBL) is a pedagogical method of teaching and assessing clinical skills across all levels of midwifery education. The SBL is based on implementing scenarios. The stages of a clinical scenario include briefing, action and debriefing. Briefing includes information to guide trainees on the scenario and the objectives. The training of participants in the clinical scenarios begins under the supervision of the instructors which is referred to as action. After each scenario, a debriefing takes place to provide immediate feedback on participants and their performance. Finally, an assessment of the trainees’ attitudes, skills and knowledge, is provided. The skills developed during simulation training are knowledge of algorithms, learning clinical skills and handling emergency situations, developing ethical values and decision-making, self-confidence and competence, communication with the patient and the colleagues, teamwork and leadership, patient safety and finally the satisfaction of being part of a multidisciplinary team. It is highly recommended that simulation is incorporated into midwifery curricula because it combines theory with practice and the development of specialized clinical skills to handle complex situations and get ready for future midwifery care.
Original Research Article
ABSTRACT
The infant mortality rate is also an important indicator to reflect the state of health status in a society, progress in the field of prevention and eradication of various diseases that cause death will be clearly reflected by the decline in the level of IMR. Thus the infant mortality rate is a sensitive measure of all intervention efforts made by the government, especially in the health sector. The purpose of this study was to find out and analyze what factors had the most influence on early neonatal deaths due to asphyxia in Timor Tengah Selatan Regency in 2021. The design of this study used a case-control research design with a retrospective study approach. The population in this study was divided into 2, namely the case population were all live births that experienced asphyxia and died in early Neonatal and the control population in this study were all live births who had asphyxia and did not die in the 2020 period in the work area of the Health Service. South Central Timor Regency (TTS). The sample size in this study was taken using a total sampling technique, where the entire population was used as the research sample, namely as many as 26 case samples, with a sample size comparison between cases and controls was 1:1, so the total sample size was 52 samples. The results showed that there was an effect of gestational interval (95% CI = 3.20-47.834 p-value = 0.000), history of premature (95% CI = 1.836-20.315 p-value = 0.003) and asphyxia (95% CI = 4.509- 74.539 p-value = 0.000) on Early Neonatal Death in Timor Tengah Selatan Regency (TTS). There was no effect of parity on gestational age (p-value=0.213), anemia (p-value=0.432), Long Parturition (p-value=0.201) and ANC visits (p-value=0.211 on Early Neonatal Mortality in Timor Tengah Selatan Regency (TTS) The most dominant variable and the most influential on the incidence of Early Neonatal mortality is the Asphyxia variable.