An Audit of the Use of Regional Anaesthesia for Caesarean Section in the Free State: from 2002 to 2004

Regional anaesthesia (RA) is associated with a lower mortality than general anaesthesia (GA) for obstetric anaesthesia. Accordingly, the Saving Mothers Report 1999-2001 proposed that 75% of Caesarean section (CS) should be performed under RA.2 An initial audit found that in the Free State, 71% of CS’s were performed under RA in 2002. Various educational interventions promoting the use of RA for CS were then instituted and the audit repeated for 2004, to determine whether there had been any change in the use of RA for CS’s from 2002 to 2004 and the 75% target achieved

Obstetric anaesthesia: the source of the crisis

The Saving Mothers Reports have consistently shown that, out of all the provinces of South Africa, the Free State has one of the highest rates of maternal deaths arising from anaesthesia.The province's Department of Health requested the University of the Free State's Department of Anaesthesiology to investigate the problem. We examined possible factors, including training and experience of doctors administering anaesthesia, availability of suitable anaesthetic drugs and equipment, and use of regional anaesthesia. All the level 1 and 2 hospitals in which caesarean sections (CSs) were being performed were investigated. The foremost problems identified were lack of training and experience in administering obstetric anaesthesia, and lack of senior anaesthetic assistanceSouth African Medical Journal Vol. 98 (2) 2008: pp. 123-12

Errors in drug administration by anaesthetists in public hospitals in the Free State

Objective. To investigate errors in administering drugs by anaesthetists working in public hospitals in the Free State province. Methods. Anonymous questionnaires were distributed to doctors performing anaesthesia in public hospitals in the Free State Province, i.e. 188 doctors at 22 public sector hospitals. Outcomes included demographic information on respondents, information regarding the administration of anaesthetics, reporting of errors, and the occurrence of errors during anaesthesia. Results. The response rate was 46.3%; 48.8% were medical officers, and 39.3% of participants were involved in at least one event of erroneous drug administration. Registrars and specialists reported the most errors. Most events were of no clinical significance, caused no permanent harm to patients, and most commonly involved fentanyl and suxamethonium. Of the respondents, 23.8% indicated that they were aware of a South African standard for colour coding syringe labels, and 92.9% indicated that they would report anaesthetic errors if a single reporting agency for such events existed. Conclusions. More than a third of participating anaesthetists were involved in a drug error at some stage in their practise. Preventative systems and precautionary measures should be put in place to reduce drug administration errors

Authentic leadership, followership, and psychological capital as antecedents of work engagement

The present study investigated authentic leadership, psychological capital, and followership behaviour influences on work engagement of employees . Respondents were 901 South African employees within the healthcare industry organisation (n = 647) and mining industry (n = 254) . The employees completed questionnaires on authentic leadership, psychological capital, and followership behaviour, and work engagement . Results following structural equation modelling and mediation analysis suggest work engagement to be explained by the psychological capital of the employee rather than by authentic leadership qualities . Improving employee psychological capital has the potential to enhance the levels of work engagement of employees

The European Reference Genome Atlas: piloting a decentralised approach to equitable biodiversity genomics.

ABSTRACT: A global genome database of all of Earth’s species diversity could be a treasure trove of scientific discoveries. However, regardless of the major advances in genome sequencing technologies, only a tiny fraction of species have genomic information available. To contribute to a more complete planetary genomic database, scientists and institutions across the world have united under the Earth BioGenome Project (EBP), which plans to sequence and assemble high-quality reference genomes for all ∼1.5 million recognized eukaryotic species through a stepwise phased approach. As the initiative transitions into Phase II, where 150,000 species are to be sequenced in just four years, worldwide participation in the project will be fundamental to success. As the European node of the EBP, the European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA) seeks to implement a new decentralised, accessible, equitable and inclusive model for producing high-quality reference genomes, which will inform EBP as it scales. To embark on this mission, ERGA launched a Pilot Project to establish a network across Europe to develop and test the first infrastructure of its kind for the coordinated and distributed reference genome production on 98 European eukaryotic species from sample providers across 33 European countries. Here we outline the process and challenges faced during the development of a pilot infrastructure for the production of reference genome resources, and explore the effectiveness of this approach in terms of high-quality reference genome production, considering also equity and inclusion. The outcomes and lessons learned during this pilot provide a solid foundation for ERGA while offering key learnings to other transnational and national genomic resource projects.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio