Experiences and challenges of an interprofessional community of practice in HIV and AIDS in Tshwane district, South Africa.

Collaboration amongst stakeholders remains a central tenet to achieving goals in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of HIV and AIDS prevention and care strategies. This paper describes the experiences of members of a health care team who joined efforts to collaborate and form a community of practice (CoP) in HIV and AIDS. Qualitative, exploratory case study methods were used. Twenty-six participants were interviewed. Transcripts from the interviews were subjected to the thematic framework of data analysis. Based on the analysis, three themes emerged as impacting on collaboration and these were: the understanding and expectations of being a CoP member; professionalism and ethics within the CoP and collaboration in HIV and AIDS care. The key findings were that the understanding and expectations from the CoP varied. Ethical principles including respect, trust and confidentiality were identified as key tenets of collaboration and were expressed in various ways. The expectations of being a CoP member, the ethical principles within the CoP all impacted in differing ways on how they collaborated. The implication of this study suggests that consultation during inception and throughout the process, clarification of roles, transparency and respect are cardinal points in professional relationships.

Factors that Master of Nursing students associate with study progress in higher education institutions in Gauteng province.

BACKGROUND: Globally, the unsatisfactory progress of postgraduate students registered for a master's degree is a cause for concern. It affects graduation numbers and completion time. AIM: This study aimed to determine the perceived supervisory-researcher community support, research writing, work-life balance, and research conceptions factors that Master of Nursing students associate with study progress. SETTING: The study was conducted in three selected higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Gauteng province. METHOD: A correlational cross-sectional research design was utilised. A self-administered questionnaire adapted from the Cross-Country Doctoral Experience Survey was e-mailed to a total sample of 136 Master of Nursing students who were at least in their second year of study, of which 122 (89.7%) responded. Descriptive statistics, factor analysis, the Mann-Whitney U test, and the Kruskal-Wallis test were used to analyse the responses. RESULTS: Most of the students' perception was greater regarding supervisory-researcher community support and research conceptions. Despite a high mean composite score of 4.134 (SD-1.452) on work-life balance, some respondents found it difficult to balance work and life. Respondents with a source of income perceived greater supervisory-researcher community support (p = 0.022) while those studying full-time had better research writing perceptions (p = 0.002). CONCLUSION: There is need for HEIs to develop or strengthen interventions targeting research writing and work-life balance factors that were perceived to result in less support. Funding remains a concern for Master of Nursing students. CONTRIBUTION: This study contributes to knowledge on factors that Master of Nursing students associated with study progress.

Mental health challenges of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people: An integrated literature review.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals are often stigmatised and discriminated against. This population is expected to experience poorer mental health outcomes compared with heterosexual and cis-gendered people, a phenomenon healthcare providers need to take note of and act upon. This study aimed to explore and describe the mental health challenges of LGBT people. An integrative literature search was conducted. The following electronic databases were searched: Academic Search Premier, Africa-Wide Information, Business Source Premier, eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), E-Journals, ERIC, Family & Society Studies Worldwide, Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition, Humanities Source, MasterFILE Premier, MEDLINE, PsycARTICLES, Social Work Abstracts, TOC Premier, WorldCat.org, Taylor and Francis Journals, Biomed Central and Wiley Online Library. An internet search was also carried out using Google and Google Scholar databases. The following search terms were identified: 'LGBT' OR 'LGBT community' AND 'mental health challenges/problems' OR 'mental/psychiatric illness'. The reviewed literature comprised research conducted globally between 2010 and 2019. From the 2545 titles, 345 abstracts were examined, resulting in 57 articles. The 57 full-text articles were examined to verify whether they addressed the scope of the literature review, of them, 21 addressed the mental health challenges of LGBT people. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people experience the following mental health challenges: emotional distress, stigmatisation, victimisation, discrimination and barriers to accessing healthcare services. The results showed that although LGBT has been legalised in many countries, LGBT communities still experience significant mental health challenges. Healthcare providers are in a position to address challenges related to social and healthcare structures and act as advocates in order to promote the mental health of LGBT individuals.

Accessibility and availability of the Female Condom2: Healthcare provider's perspective.

BACKGROUND: Despite the acceptability of the Female Condom2 (FC2) as a contraceptive method by some women, it remains inaccessible and unavailable to the majority of women because of affordability, training, distribution and marketing strategies. The FC2 affords women dual protection and the option to negotiate safe sex. OBJECTIVE: This paper explores and describes the perspective of the healthcare providers regarding accessibility and availability of the FC2 as a contraceptive method in the Tshwane district. METHOD: The study used an explorative, descriptive, and qualitative design. Data were collected from 26 healthcare providers who were purposively selected. In-depth face-to-face interviews were conducted with these healthcare providers in the Tshwane district. Tesch's method of open coding was used for data analysis. RESULTS: Two main themes emerged, namely, the availability of the FC2 and the knowledge o fthe healthcare providers. The findings of this study indicated that the availability of the FC2 remains a challenge because of factors such as lack of affordability, inefficient procurement and lack of distribution measures. The condoms are also not available at strategic points so as to ensure accessibility. Insufficient knowledge amongst healthcare providers was described as a barrier which affects the quality of training of the service users. CONCLUSIONS: It is evident that the FC2 is not yet available in all healthcare settings, therefore strategies to safeguard accessibility and availability of the FC2 as a contraceptive method are recommended.