Exploring students’ perceptions towards African immigrants in South African tertiary education.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.This study examined the perceptions of students from tertiary institutions, with specific focus on the Howard College campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, towards African immigrants in South Africa. Xenophobia has been found to be widespread and negative perceptions towards African immigrants have been found in high schools but have not been well examined in South African universities. Xenophobic attitudes were found to be an obstacle towards quality contact with, and for, collaboration between local and immigrant students. This attitude had made immigrant students to feel less accepted, created a state of mistrust with local students, and elicited fear for safety, as well affected academic performance. The study investigated local students’ attitudes and beliefs towards African immigrants and the level of contacts/interaction with immigrants. This study used quantitative methodology, characterized by a positivistic approach. It statistically described local students’ perceptions, attitudes and beliefs towards African immigrants. The sample size was 363 first year psychology students at Howard College Campus of the university. However, only 347 participants returned their questionnaires. The participants were mainly students of South African origin. Data collection was done through a self-administered survey. The findings of this study indicated that locals had negative and positive perceptions towards immigrants. On one hand, immigrants were perceived as threats; this was found to be caused by fear. On the other hand, the participants believed that skilled immigrants made valuable contributions to South Africa. Although students had general knowledge of immigrants, findings showed there was not regular quality contact with immigrants, such as a friendship. Education and other ways that increased contacts between the locals and the immigrants were found to be the most important mechanisms to reduce the xenophobic phenomenon, and negative attitudes towards African immigrants. They were also important in promoting integration of immigrants into South African communities as well as in tertiary institutions. It was found that there was a need to educate local South Africans about immigrants and the reasons behind immigration, and, that it would also be beneficial to educate immigrants about South African laws and cultures

Health Assessment of Bosnian Refugees in Black Hawk County, Iowa

This study examined the public health status of the Bosnian refugees in Black Hawk County Health, Iowa. A random sample of 557 Bosnian medical records was selected from People\u27s Community Health Clinic. Virtually all Bosnians seek health care at People\u27s Community Health Clinic in Waterloo. High rates of smoking behaviors and dental health problems were the most common health concerns among this group. The Bosnians refugees had rather low hypertension rates, low use of alcohol, healthy weight and a health diet, and low history of cardiovascular diseases

Management of co-morbidity of depression and chronic non- communicable diseases in Rwanda

Background: Chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are a major global health problem of the 21 stcentury. They are now the world’s leading cause of disease burden and high mortality. An even more alarming health problem is when depression coexists with chronic NCDs, as is frequently the case. Management of this co-morbidity with collaborative care has become a global topic of interest, with the World Health Organization (WHO) recommending implementation of collaborative care for this purpose. The study investigated existing protocols and/or interventions for managing this co-morbidity in Rwandan district hospitals.Methods: The study used an action research design involving a research team of 14 health care professionals to collaboratively identify existing protocols or interventions for managing co-morbidity of depression and NCDs in Rwanda. Focus group discussion using a structured interview guide was used to collect qualitative data, followed by qualitative content analysis using inductive approach.Results: We found no particular protocols or interventions in place to manage the co-morbidity of depression and chronic NCDs. Depression and chronic NCDs were found to be treated separately, in separate health care settings and by different health professionals.Conclusion: The findings revealed a gap in management of co-morbid depression and chronic NCDs in Rwanda district hospitals. We recommend that health care providers follow the WHO collaborative care advisory for better quality care and better patient improvement in management of this co-morbidity.Keywords: Chronic NCDs,depression, co-morbidity, managemen

Depression and Associated Factors Among the Patients with Type 2 Diabetes in Rwanda

Background: Various studies have found a greater prevalence of depression among patients having one or more chronic non communicable disease like diabetes mellitus than in the general population. This co-morbidity is linked with serious health consequences such as high mortality and morbidity, debility, low quality of life and increased health costs. The aim was to determine the prevalence of depression among patients with diabetes attending three selected district hospitals in Rwanda. Sociodemographic factors associated with depression were also explored.Methods: It was a descriptive cross sectional study. A sample of 385 was selected randomly to participate in the study and 339 complete the questionnaires making a response rate of 88%. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) was used to screen depression. Descriptive and inferential analysis were done.Results: The majority of respondents 83.8% (n=284) had depression. Among them 17.9% (n=61) had moderately severe to severe depression while 81.9% (n=223) had minimal to moderate depression. A statistically significant association was found between age and depression (p=0.01) also between gender and depression (p=0.02). Significance was determined at P<0.05.Conclusion: we found a high prevalence of depression among patients with diabetes. The regular screening of depression among these patients is recommended.

E-Learning and Open Distance Education (ODL) in IPRC Kigali during COVID-19 Pandemic Spread: Opportunities and Challenges Available

This study entitled “E-Learning and Open Distance education (ODL) in IPRC Kigali during COVID-19 Pandemic spread: Opportunities and Challenges available” was conducted to examine the opportunities available for IPRC Kigali students who were learning via Rwanda Polytechnic E-Learning platform, established to maintain the learning process and contain COVID-19 pandemic spread. It also examined the challenges they encountered during this period. More than 60% of the student-respondents supported the statement saying that their E-learning platform is able to provide opportunities for relations between learners by the use of the discussion forum. The respondents agreed that E-learning offers opportunities for learning for a maximum number of trainees with no need for many building. Therefore more than 67% of them found this as an opportunity. More than 63% also agreed that a small number of teaching staff may deliver courses to a big number of students at the same time. The majority of them did not accept that the students’ mindsets prevent them from accessing the E-learning platform (48.1%). They didn’t also agree on the statement that lecturers/instructors have a little experience in delivering courses through Distance Learning mode (65.4%). This shows that they are proud of their teaching staff. It was recommended that to address the issue of impossibility to control malpractice; the use of appropriate software used in other universities would be adopted; the government should speed up the distribution of laptops to students who have not received them yet; there should be sensitization to change the students’ mindsets and join E-Learning platform; trainers should design appropriate online learning resources and provide timely feedback to students, and emerging technologies like zoom, Microsoft teams, WebEx, Google meet … videoconferencing, social media, and other virtual classrooms should be considered. Keywords: E-Learning, ODL, opportunities, challenges, ICT DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-27-04 Publication date:September 30th 202

Perceived contributory factors to medication administration errors (MAEs) and barriers to self-reporting among nurses working in paediatric units of selected referral hospitals in Rwanda

Background: Medication administration errors (MAEs) occur in health care settings however, the types, contributing factors to MAEs and barriers to reporting are not well studied in Rwandan context.Methods: Quantitative approach was adopted. Descriptive cross-sectional design was used. A convenience sampling was used to select 151 nurses working in the paediatric units of the selected teaching hospitals in Rwanda. Pre-tested questionnaire for validity and reliability was used to collect data. Data was coded and entered into SPSS version 21. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics (Chi-square test) were used to analyze data.Results: Approximately 33.6% of the participants were able to identify one type, 17.4 % two, 18.1% three, 17.4% four types, 10.7% six types and only 2.7% identified all the seven MAEs. Identified main contributory factor to MAEs was the heavy workload it like this-Identified main contributory factor to MAEs was the heavy workload [82 (55%)]. The main barrier to self-reporting was fear to be blamed if something happens to the patient as a result of the medication administration error (88 (59.1%)). All the socio demographic were associated with the types of MAEs committed by participants. In addition, the experience, marital status and job position of the participants were significantly associated with factors contributing to MAEs (p= .001, p=.000 and p= .044) respectively whereas all the socio demographic were significantly associated with barriers to self reporting.Conclusions: Factors contributing to MAEs were found in both parties and barriers to self-reporting were identified to be the fear reasons and administrative reasons. Therefore, the heavy workload should be addressed to reduce MAEs and a non-punitive environment is imperative in encouraging self-reporting of MAEs

Leadership practices in selected successful schools.

Master of Education in Education Studies. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 2016.The study sought to explore leadership practices in three successful schools each from rural, township and urban areas. Nine school managers reported their day-to-day leadership practices they believed enhanced their schools’ success in terms of consistent outstanding matriculation results. In the study I used three data generation methods: semi-structured interviews, observation and document analysis. The main research focus was to study what made these schools successful. The sub-areas of focus included the following: management practices, teaching practices, managing challenges, leadership styles, leadership skills and the school- community relationships. The findings revealed various ways in which success was achieved regardless of the schools significant differences in terms of socio-economic backgrounds. The most common leadership practices that brought successes in these three schools were the following: daily extra classes including weekends and public holidays; having visionary leadership that worked toward a common goals; having the right and committed staff who worked extra miles without expecting extra payment, ensuring quality tests, team leadership behaviours; effective planning and monitoring strategies to ensure curriculum coverage; having turnover strategies in place and using a mixture of tactical, strategic and democratic skills such as communication skills, performance management skills, analysis and judgment skills, coaching skills, empowerment skills; leading through vision and value; building trust; facilitating learning; building partnership; ability to lead participative meetings; listening skills; ability to handle conflict; group-centered decisionmaking skills, and team-building skills. However, the study showed that in all the schools leaders did not only use one leadership style, but a combination of these such as team leadership, transformational leadership, African leadership, reflective leadership, relational leadership and dictator leadership(sometimes) as well. I recommend that motivational workshops and seminars for both teacher and SMT; acknowledgements and reward system for well performing schools, and educating the community about their role in education could be useful strategies towards schools’ success

Connaissances, attitudes et pratiques des étudiantes et étudiants universitaires rwandais.es à l’égard du VIH-sida

Les jeunes universitaires sont parmi les groupes les plus exposés au VIH-sida. De plus, des études menées hors de l’Afrique et en Afrique montrent qu’ils ont des connaissances insuffisantes, des attitudes négatives ainsi que des pratiques à risque envers le VIH-sida. Au Rwanda, 210 000 jeunes de 15 ans et plus vivaient avec le VIH en 2018. Vu que peu d’études ont été menées sur les connaissances qu’ont les étudiants universitaires rwandais de cette maladie, nous avons voulu voir comment se présente la situation dans la province du Nord-Rwanda. Objectifs : 1) Évaluer les connaissances des étudiantes et étudiants du Ruli Higher Institute of Health (RHIH) et de l’Institut d’enseignement supérieur de Ruhengeri (INES-Ruhengeri) en rapport avec le VIH-sida; 2) Mesurer les attitudes et pratiques des étudiantes et étudiants de ces deux universités en rapport avec le VIH-sida. Méthode : La collecte des données a été réalisée avec le questionnaire Brief HIV Knowledge HIV-KQ-18, adapté par l’équipe de recherche de Labra et Ependa (2018), dans sa version originale anglaise et celle en français, qui était autoadministrée par les étudiantes et étudiants. Pour analyser les données, les statistiques descriptives et inférentielles ont été calculées, ainsi que l’analyse en composante principale pour les attitudes et la perception des droits des PVVIH-sida. Résultats : 56,8 % des enquêtés ont des connaissances faibles selon HIV-K-Q-18 (note inférieure à 13/18). Cette faiblesse est liée à cinq des dix variables sociodémographiques de ces étudiantes et étudiants (le groupe d’âge, l’emploi, le statut matrimonial, la faculté et l’université). Le test de Kruskal-Wallis s’est avéré significatif, valeurs p ˂ 0,05. En effet, les étudiantes et étudiants de moins de 30 ans ont de bonnes connaissances sur le VIH-sida par rapport à d’autres groupes d’âge (valeur p du test de Kruskal-Wallis : 0,006). Les bonnes connaissances sur le VIH-sida sont liées au fait de ne pas travailler. Selon le test de Man-Withney, la valeur p est de 0,009 entre les étudiantes et étudiants qui travaillent à temps plein et les sans-emploi et de 0,024 entre ceux qui travaillent à temps partiel et les sans-emploi. Le test de Kruskal-Wallis a révélé une association significative entre le statut matrimonial et le niveau de connaissances sur le VIH-sida (valeur p : 0,020), et cela en faveur des célibataires. Une différence significative (valeur p : 0,003) a été relevée entre les étudiantes et étudiants en sciences infirmières et ceux des autres facultés (valeur p : 0,003), les bonnes connaissances sur le VIH-sida ont été trouvées en sciences infirmières. La tolérance et l’acceptabilité sociale envers les PVVIH-sida ont été trouvées chez plusieurs étudiantes et étudiants. Une association significative entre les attitudes et perceptions des droits et le niveau de connaissances sur cette maladie a été trouvée (khi carré ˂ 0,05). Les étudiantes et étudiants des catégories de moyennes/bonnes connaissances sur le VIH-sida présentent des attitudes positives. Les pratiques à risque envers le VIH-sida sont la consommation de drogues (6,7 %), le multipartenariat sexuel (10,7 %), le non-dépistage au VIH (53,5 % testés/3 mois précédant l’étude). Conclusion : Cette étude a été une occasion d’avoir les renseignements sur le niveau de connaissances des étudiants envers le VIH-sida, une pandémie sans traitement qui persiste dans le monde et qui s’attaque surtout aux jeunes. Nous pensons que nos résultats vont être utiles pour renforcer les stratégies de prévention de cette maladie chez les jeunes rwandais, en particulier les étudiantes et étudiants

Knowledge, attitude and practice towards malaria prevention among school children aged 5 -14 years in sub-saharan Africa - a review of literature

Background: More than 500 million school children around the world are at risk of malaria infection and 200 million live in sub-Saharan Africa. One of the methods of prevention of malaria is increasing knowledge, attitude and practice of schoolchildren about malaria.Objective: The objective of this paper is to review the knowledge, attitude and practice of malaria prevention among schoolchildren in the age group of 5 to 14 years in sub-Saharan Africa.Methods: The search engines which were used to obtain the literature include databases such as PubMed, Hinari, Cinhal, Google scholar, grey literature, and manual search. The articles published between 2010 and 2016 which assessed the knowledge, attitude and/ or practice of malaria among school children were searched using the following key words: knowledge, attitude, practice, insecticide treated net, malaria, schoolchildren, sub-Saharan Africa. 14 articles were obtained.Results: Knowledge of malaria cause and transmission was ranging from 19.2% in Zimbabwe to 85% in Nigeria and the attitude was low. However the age group of the schoolchildren in two countries were different. There are still misconception of malaria cause and transmission in schoolchildren in many countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Studies showed low to moderate level of practice of malaria prevention ranging from 32.4% in Malawi to 67.9% in Kenyan schoolchildren.Conclusion: Knowledge, attitude and practice of malaria remain a problem in schoolchildren of sub-Saharan Africa. There is need for implementation of interventions that will focus on increasing the knowledge levels of malaria among schoolchildren. Altering the perceptions and attitude of schoolchildren in a positive way will enhance best practices towards malaria prevention among schoolchildren.Keywords: Knowledge, Attitude, Practice, Malaria, Prevention, Schoolchildren, sub-Saharan Afric

Anxiety and depression among cancer patients: prevalence and associated factors at a Rwandan referral hospital

Background: Cancer patients frequently experience psychological problems related to reactions of cancer diagnosis, cancer type, treatment effects, recurrence, fear of end-of-life, survivorship, and financial burden. Psychological assessment has been integrated into cancer care in some countries, but there is limited knowledge about the practice in Rwanda.Objective: To assess the prevalence and associated factors of anxiety and depression among patients with cancer attending a private referral hospital in Rwanda.Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) instrument to assess cancer patients. A probability systematic random sampling technique was used to recruit 96 patients. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics to determine the association of variables with anxiety and depression.Results: The majority of cancer patients had depression (67.7%) and anxiety (52.1%). Anxiety was associated with employment status (p=0.02), cancer stage (p=0.02), weight loss (p=0.00) and depression (p=0.00). Depression was associated with cancer stage (p=0.02), pain (p=0.03), weight loss (p= 0.03), cancer treatment (p=0.02) and anxiety (p=0.001).Conclusion: Anxiety and depression were reported in over half of the study population indicating a need to create and integrate psycho-oncology into standard oncology care.Keywords: Cancer, anxiety, depression, prevalence, associated factor