“Coming to a Strange Land”: The West African Migrant Women’s Establishment of Home and Family in a New Culture Within Australia

© 2015, © The Author(s) 2015. Purpose: Migrating and establishing a new life in another culture can have diverse health effects especially for women. This article explores the struggles and social adjustment issues that might constitute negatively to the health of West African migrant women living in Australia. Design: Qualitative storytelling. Audiotaped voluntary stories from 20 West African migrant women living in Sydney, Australia were transcribed and analyzed. Findings: Three themes are presented for discussion: (1) But it is different here: life in a new country; (2) I have to do it all by myself: communal versus individual living; and (3) They don’t listen to parents: perceived threats to the family unit. Conclusion/Implication for Practice: The demand for and the importance of nurses and midwives in supporting migrant families is demonstrated by findings suggesting that social adjustment into the Australian culture has a significant impact on both the nuclear and extended family unit of women

Resilience of African migrants: An integrative review

© 2016 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. African migrant women represent a rapidly growing cohort of new arrivals in many countries. Many of these women demonstrate strength and resilience throughout the stressful migration process. In this integrative review, we explore the literature on African migrants' resilience using an ecological framework. Nine peer-reviewed journal articles and six grey literature documents were reviewed. Key internal and external factors in achieving resilience were identified, discussed, and diagrammatically represented using Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Framework under micro-, meso-, exo-, and macro-levels. Our findings show that the capacity for resilience demonstrated during migration could have implications for policy and practice

Nurses\u27 experience of managing adults living with multimorbidity: A qualitative study

Background: The number of adults living with two or more chronic conditions is increasing worldwide. Adults living with multimorbidity have complex physical, psychosocial and self-management care needs. Aim: This study aimed to describe Australian nurses\u27 experience of care provision for adults living with multimorbidity, their perceived education needs and future opportunities for nurses in the management of multimorbidity. Design: Qualitative exploratory. Methods: Nurses providing care to adults living with multimorbidity in any setting were invited to take part in a semi-structured interview in August 2020. Twenty-four registered nurses took part in a semi-structured telephone interview. Results: Three main themes were developed: (1) The care of adults living with multimorbidity requires skilled collaborative and holistic care; (2) nurses\u27 practice in multimorbidity care is evolving; and (3) nurses value education and training in multimorbidity care. Conclusion: Nurses recognize the challenge and the need for change in the system to support them to respond to the increasing demands they face. Impact: The complexity and prevalence of multimorbidity creates challenges for a healthcare system configured to treat individual disease. Nurses are key in providing care for this population, but little is known about nurses\u27 experiences and perceptions of their role. Nurses believe a person-centred approach is important to address the complex needs of adults living with multimorbidity. Nurses described their role as evolving in response to the growing demand for quality care and believed inter-professional approaches achieve the best outcomes for adults living with multimorbidity. The research has relevance for all healthcare providers seeking to provide effective care for adults living with multimorbidity. Understanding how best to equip and support the workforce to meet the issues and demands of managing the care of adults living with multimorbidity has the potential to improve patient outcomes. Patient or Public Contribution: There was no patient or public contribution. The study only concerned the providers of the service

Health screening and preventative health care in refugee women: A qualitative analysis.

Background: Regular health screening provides opportunities for early detection and effective treatment of disease. There is underutilisation of health services by migrants from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, particularly refugees in Australia. Aim: To explore the beliefs, understandings, and use of health and healthcare screening services among African refugee women living in Australia. Design/Method: Qualitative secondary analysis. Method: Oral narratives derived from two primary qualitative datasets of Sub-Saharan women in New South Wales, Australia, underwent secondary thematic analysis. Findings: Twenty-two of the forty-two women had refugee status on migrating to Australia. Thematic findings reflection of misinformation, low health literacy, and health screening as not a priority. Conclusions: There is an urgent need to develop innovative strategies to engage refugee migrant women in health screening by provision of culturally meaningful health information. Relevance to clinical practice: Including refugee women's suggestions for information to be provided by health services may improve attitudes towards screening and preventative health care

Resilience of African migrant women: Implications for mental health practice

© 2019 Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc. Migrants from areas affected by war, especially refugee migrants, are susceptible to mental health issues. In addition to recognising trauma, health professionals, such as mental health nurses, need to be aware of the strength and resilience of refugees and migrants. The capacity to provide trauma-informed care that is shaped by the recognition of clients’ strength and resilience is required/paramount to meet the current demand of multiculturalism emanating from an increased global migration. To facilitate increased awareness about West African women’s resilience prior to migration and support trauma-informed care, we used a qualitative strength-based storytelling approach with 22 West African women residing in Sydney, Australia. Thematic analysis of the women’s stories identified two major themes: When the World Falls Apart and Battered but Strong. Findings revealed that past personal experiences significantly influenced participants’ strength and resilience and contributed to their mental health. Mental health professionals such as nurses can play an important role by incorporating knowledge about the resilience of migrants and refugees into providing appropriate trauma-informed care

Antimicrobial activity of Plumbago zeylanica plant extracts and its application in water and laboratory disinfection

This study was carried out to investigate the antimicrobial activities/ potentials of Plumbago zeylanica components (leaf, stem and root) on four bacterial species, Baccilus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumonia with the aim of using the active part of the plant to be used in water and laboratory disinfection. The plant parts crude extract was concentrated using a rotary evaporator and dried in a freeze drier. Different concentrations of the plant parts were then prepared from the dried plant extract and tested on the four pathogens using agar diffusion methods. The results indicated that active antimicrobial properties are concentrated more in the roots been very effective against Escherichia coli even at low concentration. However, at higher concentration all the plant extracts became effective against the bacteria. The study concludes that the roots of Plumbago zeylanica possess the highest antimicrobial potentials for disinfection. Then, the root extract was tested on effluent water and the results showed significance reduction level of Escherichia coli

Prevalence of urinary schistosomiasis in Nigeria, 1994–2015: Systematic review and meta-analysis

Introduction: The Global significance of schistosomiasis started waning over the years owing to its eradication in most developed societies, until the reawaking of global attention and it now occupies a prominent place amongst the neglected tropical diseases (NTD). The aim of our study was to accurately estimate the prevalence of schistosomiasis in Nigeria, and its six geo-political zones. Subjects and methods: We utilized electronic databases to search and select studies on prevalence across the geographical zones between 1994 and 2015. STATA 10 Random effects meta-analysis of observational studies was used to generate our estimates. Result: Sixty-seven studies met the inclusion criteria. The unified pooled population studied was 47,440 (n = 14,888 persons). The pooled prevalence]) of Schistosoma haematobium infestation was, for all regions = 34.7% (31.0–38.5) (95% confidence interval [CI)). Conclusion: Schistosomal infestations remain hyperendemic in Nigeria. Nigeria must, therefore, expedite the execution of resolution WHA66.12 adopted by the World Health Assembly on NTD