Lived experiences of a community regarding its involvement in a university community-based education programme

BACKGROUND: Community involvement is one of the crucial principles in the implementation of successful community-based education programmes. However, a gap continues to exist between the rhetoric of this principle and the reality of involving or engaging communities in the education of health professionals. OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the experiences of a community regarding its involvement in a community-based education programme offered by a university nursing school in Durban, South Africa. METHODS: An interpretive existentialist-phenomenological design was employed for its richness in extracting human experiences. Individual interviews were held with school teachers and coordinators from non-government organisations, whilst focus groups were used for school children and community health workers. Although focus group discussions are not well suited for phenomenological studies, they can promote active participation and reduce possible intimidation by providing support through group interaction. Analysis of data was guided by Schweitzer’s model for analysing phenomenological data. RESULTS: Themes that emerged from the data include: (1) Community experience of unmet expectations; (2) Benefits to the community from its involvement in the University Nursing School community-based education programme; (3) Existing partnership between the community and the university; (4) Sharing in the case-based learning activities; (5) Awareness of available services, human rights and self-reliance.CONCLUSION: The researched community indeed benefited in its participation in the University Nursing School (UNS) CBE programme. However, there is a need to improve the communication between partners to make the partnership more sustainable through close relationships and interaction. There is also a need for further research on related aspects of the community’s involvement. Introduction Community involvement is one of the crucial principles in the implementation of community basedDepartment of HE and Training approved lis

Fire severity as a key determinant of aboveground and belowground biological community recovery in managed even-aged boreal forests

Changes in fire regime of boreal forests in response to climate warming are expected to impact postfire recovery. However, quantitative data on how managed forests sustain and recover from recent fire disturbance are limited.Two years after a large wildfire in managed even-aged boreal forests in Sweden, we investigated how recovery of aboveground and belowground communities, that is, understory vegetation and soil microbial and faunal communities, responded to variation in the severity of soil (i.e., consumption of soil organic matter) and canopy fires (i.e., tree mortality).While fire overall enhanced diversity of understory vegetation through colonization of fire adapted plant species, it reduced the abundance and diversity of soil biota. We observed contrasting effects of tree- and soil-related fire severity on survival and recovery of understory vegetation and soil biological communities. Severe fires that killed overstory Pinus sylvestris promoted a successional stage dominated by the mosses Ceratodon purpureus and Polytrichum juniperinum, but reduced regeneration of tree seedlings and disfavored the ericaceous dwarf-shrub Vaccinium vitis-idaea and the grass Deschampsia flexuosa. Moreover, high tree mortality from fire reduced fungal biomass and changed fungal community composition, in particular that of ectomycorrhizal fungi, and reduced the fungivorous soil Oribatida. In contrast, soil-related fire severity had little impact on vegetation composition, fungal communities, and soil animals. Bacterial communities responded to both tree- and soil-related fire severity.Synthesis: Our results 2 years postfire suggest that a change in fire regime from a historically low-severity ground fire regime, with fires that mainly burns into the soil organic layer, to a stand-replacing fire regime with a high degree of tree mortality, as may be expected with climate change, is likely to impact the short-term recovery of stand structure and above- and belowground species composition of even-aged P. sylvestris boreal forests

Die herkonstruksie van kultuur deur die personeel van 'n privaat psigiatriese kliniek : 'n gevallestudie

M.Cur.In a changing South-Africa new challenges regarding multiculturality emerge. In psychiatric nursing the psychiatric nurse also faces new challenges. During a cultural discussion, the personnel of a private psychiatric clinic realised that culture has numerous different meanings. (that numerous different meanings may be attached to culture). Culture has an interesting nature and certain expectations exist around culture. I have described this discussion in order to present a qualitative, descriptive, singular case study, within the paradigm of the Theory for Health promotion in Nursing. The data was processed according to the recommendations of Tesch (in Creswell, 1994:155). The discussion is presented according to certain themes. No guidelines have been set, but I have made certain recommendations that may be utilised in training of psychiatric nurses as well as in practise and research in the field of psychiatric nursing. The discussion was important because the participants were able to develop a sensitivity toward culture. This lead to the promotion of co-operation, productivity, and mutual understanding and respect within the context. The importance of the description of the discussion lies in the information that has been generated. This information will be available and will be incorporated as part of the body of knowledge in psychiatric nursing

Crown-fire severity is more important than ground-fire severity in determining soil fungal community development in the boreal forest

Wildfire shapes the structure, dynamic and functioning of boreal forests. With predicted warmer and drier summers, increased incidence and intensity of crown-fires may affect plant-soil interactions with consequences for post-fire fertility and forest productivity.We assessed how severity of crown- and ground-fire in boreal pine forests affected post-fire responses of soil fungal communities and their associated enzyme activities, and how variation in fire severity interacts with salvage (post-fire) logging in impacting soil fungi.Crown fire-induced tree mortality had a stronger impact on fungal biomass and community composition than did ground-fire-induced loss of soil organic matter. Severe crown-fire led to replacement of ectomycorrhizal- and litter-associated fungi by stress-tolerant ascomycetes. Elevated activities of hydrolytic enzymes in burned areas were correlated with root-associated ascomycetes and moulds, suggesting opportunistic exploitation of labile organic substrates. Fire did not, however, increase the abundance of more potent basidiomycete decomposers in the organic layer, nor did it enhance organic matter oxidation by fungal peroxidases, indicating that the potential for major post-fire losses of carbon due to stimulated decomposition is limited. Rather, peroxidase activity was low in burned areas, likely reflecting the absence of ectomycorrhizal fungi. Post-fire salvage logging induced larger shifts in fungal communities in areas with low crown-fire severity.Synthesis. Historically, boreal pine forests have been shaped by low-severity ground-fires. Our study highlights a risk that increasing occurrence of high-severity crown-fire as climate warms will have detrimental effects on mycorrhizal-mediated functions that are pivotal for maintaining organic matter turnover, soil fertility and forest resilience

Nursing students’ use of language in communicating with isiZulu speaking clients in clinical settings in KwaZulu-Natal

Language provides an important means by which humans communicate with one another, and communication plays a pivotal role in the health professions in developing trust and co-operation between the carer and the one being cared for. Little has been written about the importance of language barriers in nursing, although much has been written about the importance of cultural sensitivity in communication in nursing (Bischoff et al., 2003). A qualitative research methodology was implemented to explore and describe the experiences of senior undergraduate nursing students in communicating with isiZulu speaking clients in clinical practice settings. Permission to undertake the study was obtained from the relevant authorities. Data were collected by means of narratives and a focus group discussion and were analysed using Tesch’s method of analysis to identify categories. The category ‘language of colour’ emerged from the descriptions where language was used to illustrate colour or race differences. The category ‘translation and interpretation’ emerged from the students’ direct experiences of having to act as a translator or interpreter. The category ‘walls of language’ emerged from data that described how language can be used to access a group and the privileges of that group. The language that an individual uses can either include or exclude a person from a group – much like walls can create physical boundaries.S.Afr.J.Afr.Lang,2008,

IsiZulu Terminology Development in Nursing and Midwifery

Abstract The Education White Paper of 1997 on transformation in higher education in South Africa (South Africa 1997) indicated that because of the multilingual nature of the diverse communities in the new democracy, higher education should play a role in the development of all the official languages including the indigenous languages, as well as the Khoi, Nama, San and Sign languages. The School of Nursing of the University of KwaZulu-Natal took this obligation to heart by participating in the SANTED multilingualism project. This emanated from the needs of the student nurses who are being educated and trained in English, but serve in communities where Zulu is the dominant language. To meet the identified student needs, the nursing and midwifery specialists, in collaboration with various language specialists in KwaZulu-Natal, engaged in a process to develop terminology which enhances isiZulu as a scientific language. This article discusses the language policies and multilingual trends, both locally and globally and describes the experiences of the nursing specialists who participated in the terminology development process. The main categories for deriving terms based on the linguistic decisions made by the team are also described, and examples provided. The challenges are outlined and the recommendations include the importance of institutional buy-in at all academic levels and strategies for the sustainability of the project

Tumor-Tissue Expression of the Hyaluronic Acid Receptor RHAMM Predicts Histological Transformation in Follicular Lymphoma Patients

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Histological transformation remains the leading cause of death in patients diagnosed with follicular lymphoma (FL). To date, no clinical nor biological biomarkers have been identified to unequivocally predict patients in high risk of transformation. In this study, we investigated the predictive value of the hyaluronic acid receptors RHAMM and CD44. Expression levels of RHAMM were higher in patients with subsequent transformation and were associated with poorer outcome. ABSTRACT: Histological transformation (HT) remains the leading cause of mortality in follicular lymphoma (FL), underlining the need to identify reliable transformation predictors. The hyaluronic acid receptors CD44 and the receptor for hyaluronan mediated motility (RHAMM, also known as HMMR and CD168), have been shown to be involved in the pathogeneses of both solid tumors and hematological malignancies. In an attempt to improve risk stratification, expression of RHAMM and CD44 were evaluated by immunohistochemistry and digital image analysis in pre-therapeutic tumor-tissue biopsies from FL patients, either without (nt-FL, n = 34), or with (st-FL, n = 31) subsequent transformation, and in paired biopsies from the transformed lymphomas (tFL, n = 31). At the time of initial diagnosis, samples from st-FL patients had a higher expression of RHAMM compared with samples from nt-FL patients (p < 0.001). RHAMM expression further increased in tFL samples following transformation (p < 0.001). Evaluation of CD44 expression showed no differences in expression comparing nt-FL, st-FL, and tFL samples. Shorter transformation-free survival was associated with high tumoral and intrafollicular RHAMM expression, as well as with low intrafollicular CD44 expression (p = 0.002, p < 0.001, and p = 0.034, respectively). Our data suggest that high tumor-tissue RHAMM expression predicts the risk of shorter transformation-free survival in FL patients already at initial diagnosis