Development of a community-based COVID-19 intervention in rural Ghana: a document analysis.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the loss of millions of lives and economic breakdowns in many countries across the globe. Despite the limited availability of vaccines and the challenges of poor health infrastructure, few interventions have been developed and implemented for those who live in rural areas, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. In response, Cocoa360, a global health nonprofit in rural Ghana designed an intervention called Cocoa360's COVID-19 Preparedness and Outbreak Prevention Plan (CoCoPOPP). This paper aimed to examine the extent to which CoCoPOPP's design aligned with the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (PARIHS) framework. METHODS: We reviewed documents influencing CoCoPOPP's design between March and June 2021. A total of 11 documents were identified for analysis. Using the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (PARIHS) framework as a guide, thematic analysis was done to analyze the extracted data. RESULTS: Overall, CoCoPOPP's design aligned with the evidence, context, and facilitation domains of the PARIHS framework. It positioned CoCoPOPP as an intervention that considered the unique context of a rural Ghanaian setting. It was guided by robust and high-quality published and non-published evidence and engaged external and internal stakeholders during its implementation. CoCoPOPP's context-dependent nature positions it for potential replication in sub-Saharan Africa's rural communities with similar farming contexts. Specific areas that were less well and/or not addressed were the unintended negative consequences of community engagement, the absence of primary data in the guiding evidence, and the lack of a facilitation continuum coupled with the role of power during the facilitation process. CONCLUSION: CoCoPOPP, Cocoa360's response to the COVID-19 pandemic in rural Ghana, is an evidence-driven, context-dependent public health intervention that has been designed to reduce COVID-19 infections and prevent potential deaths. This study underscores the importance of considering the unique community and cultural contexts, employing evidence, and engaging local and external actors as facilitators when designing interventions to respond to global health pandemics.

Dimensions of authentic leadership and patient care quality.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to investigate the causal relationships between the dimensions of authentic leadership and patient care quality in the nursing profession of Ghana. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The study used explanatory and cross-sectional survey designs. The data were obtained from 400 respondents, consisting of 200 nurses and 200 patients in selected general hospitals. The analysis was done using descriptive statistics, correlation and multi-linear regression techniques. FINDINGS: The study found that all four dimensions of authentic leadership, namely, self-awareness, internalized moral perspective, balanced processing and relational transparency positively correlated with patient care quality, however, only internalized moral perspective and self-awareness have positive significant association with patient care quality and internalized moral perspective being the highest predictor. Thus, the results suggest that authentic leadership can positively predict patient care quality. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The study contributes to the understanding of how dimensions of authentic leadership practices affect patient care quality. This understanding is relevant to academics in general and Ghanaian policymakers in particular. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The research makes a significant contribution to the existing authentic leadership literature by establishing that the dimensions of authentic leadership predict patient care quality with an internalized moral perspective being the highest predictor followed by self-awareness. Furthermore, the authors anticipate that the outcomes of this research, which so far is the first study in the Ghanaian context, can significantly shape nursing leadership discourse, practices and policies in Ghana and in other developing countries to improve patient care quality.