723 research outputs found
Perceptions of registered nurses in four state health insititutions on continuing formal education
This study investigated registered nurses in four selected state health institutionsā
perceptions with regard to continuing formal education. The relevance of continuing
formal education is being emphasised globally by the increasing quest for quality
assurance and quality management systems within an ethos of continuous improvement.
According to Tlholoe (2006:5), it is important to be committed to continual
learning, as peopleās knowledge become less relevant because skills gained early in
a career are insufficient to avoid costly mistakes made through ignorance. Continuing
formal education in nursing is a key element to the maintenance of quality in
health care delivery. The study described:
ā¢ registered nursesā views on continuing formal education
ā¢ registered nursesā perceived barriers to continuing formal education
A quantitative descriptive survey design was chosen using a questionnaire for data
collection. The sample consisted of 40 registered nurses working at four state health
institutions in the Western Cape Province, South Africa. Convenience sampling was
selected to include registered nurses who were on duty on the days during which the
researcher visited the health institutions to distribute the questionnaires. The questionnaire
contained mainly closed-ended and a few open-ended questions. Content
validity of the instrument was ensured by doing a thorough literature review before
construction of items and a pretest. Reliability was established by the pretest and
providing the same information to all respondents before completion of the questionnaires.
The ethical considerations of informed consent, anonymity and confidentiality
were adhered to and consent to conduct the study was obtained from relevant
authorities. Descriptive statistics, based on calculations using the Microsoft (MS)
Excel (for Windows 2000) programme, were used to summarise and describe the
research results. The research results indicated that most registered nurses perceive
continuing formal education as beneficial to their personal and professional growth
and that it could lead towards improving the quality of patient/client care, but barriers
exist which prevent or deter them from undertaking continuing formal education
programmes. The main structural barriers included lack of funding and lack of coherent
staff development planning and physical barriers including job and family responsibilities.Department of HE and Training approved lis
Compliance with infection control recommendations in South African dental practices: a review of studies published between 1990 and 2007
Published ArticleIn a country where the prevalence of infectious diseases ranks among the highest in the
world, infection control in health care facilities should not be debatable. This unfortunately
does not seem to be the case in South African oral health care facilities. This study is a
systematic review of available literature on the adherence of South African oral health care
professionals to infection control recommendations. Nine focus areas were investigated
with regard to infection control practices: knowledge of infectious occupational hazards;
personal hygiene and care of hands; correct application of personal protective equipment;
use of environmental barriers and disposable items; sterilisation (recirculation) of instruments
and handpieces; disinfection (surfaces) and sound housekeeping; management
of waste disposal; quality control of dental unit waterlines, biofilms and water; as well as
other special considerations. Although South African studies are limited and most of them
relied on self-reports, which could have resulted in a serious overestimation of compliance,
even these studies indicate serious shortcomings with regard to infection control
practices in oral health care facilities in this country. This review highlights opportunity for
improvement. Furthermore, it identifies possibilities for future research in infection control
and also opportunities to improve infection control education for all oral health care workers
in the country
Extent of East African nurse leadersā participation in health policy development
This paper reports part of a bigger study whose aim was to develop an empowerment model that could be used to enhance nurse leadersā participation in health policy development. A Delphi survey was applied which included the following criteria: expert panelists, iterative rounds, statistical analysis, and consensus building. The expert panelists were purposively selected and included national nurse leaders in leadership positions at the nursing professional associations, nursing regulatory bodies, ministries of health, and universities in East Africa. The study was conducted in three iterative rounds. The results reported here were gathered as part of the first round of the study and that examined the extent of nurse leadersā participation in health policy development. Seventy-eight (78) expert panelists were invited to participate in the study, and the response rate was 47%. Data collection was done with the use of a self-report questionnaire. Data analysis was done by use of SPSS and descriptive statistics were examined. The findings indicated that nurse leaders participate in health policy development though participation is limited and not consistent across all the stages of health policy development. The recommendations from the findings are that health policy development process needs to be pluralistic and inclusive of all nurse leaders practicing in positions related to policy development and the process must be open to their ideas and suggestions
Modulation of galactic protons in the heliosphere during the unusual solar minimum of 2006 to 2009
The last solar minimum activity period, and the consequent minimum modulation
conditions for cosmic rays, was unusual. The highest levels of galactic protons
were recorded at Earth in late 2009 in contrast to expectations. Proton spectra
observed for 2006 to 2009 from the PAMELA cosmic ray detector on-board the
Resurs-DK1 satellite are presented together with the solutions of a
comprehensive numerical model for the solar modulation of cosmic rays. The
model is used to determine what mechanisms were mainly responsible for the
modulation of protons during this period, and why the observed spectrum for
2009 was the highest ever recorded. From mid-2006 until December 2009 we find
that the spectra became significantly softer because increasingly more low
energy protons had reached Earth. To simulate this effect, the rigidity
dependence of the diffusion coefficients had to decrease significantly below ~3
GeV. The modulation minimum period of 2009 can thus be described as relatively
more "diffusion dominated" than previous solar minima. However, we illustrate
that drifts still had played a significant role but that the observable
modulation effects were not as well correlated with the waviness of the
heliospheric current sheet as before. Protons still experienced global gradient
and curvature drifts as the heliospheric magnetic field had decreased
significantly until the end of 2009, in contrast to the moderate decreases
observed during previous minimum periods. We conclude that all modulation
processes contributed to the observed increases in the proton spectra for this
period, exhibiting an intriguing interplay of these major mechanisms
On variant discovery in genomes of fungal plant pathogens
Comparative genome analyses of eukaryotic pathogens including fungi and oomycetes have revealed extensive variability in genome composition and structure. The genomes of individuals from the same population can exhibit different numbers of chromosomes and different organization of chromosomal segments, defining so-called accessory compartments that have been shown to be crucial to pathogenicity in plant-infecting fungi. This high level of structural variation confers a methodological challenge for population genomic analyses. Variant discovery from population sequencing data is typically achieved using established pipelines based on the mapping of short reads to a reference genome. These pipelines have been developed, and extensively used, for eukaryote genomes of both plants and animals, to retrieve single nucleotide polymorphisms and short insertions and deletions. However, they do not permit the inference of large-scale genomic structural variation, as this task typically requires the alignment of complete genome sequences. Here, we compare traditional variant discovery approaches to a pipeline based on de novo genome assembly of short read data followed by whole genome alignment, using simulated data sets with properties mimicking that of fungal pathogen genomes. We show that the latter approach exhibits levels of performance comparable to that of read-mapping based methodologies, when used on sequence data with sufficient coverage. We argue that this approach further allows additional types of genomic diversity to be explored, in particular as long-read third-generation sequencing technologies are becoming increasingly available to generate population genomic data
Anorogenic alkaline ring-type complexes of the Damaraland Province, Namibia, and their economic potential
Anorogenic alkaline ring-type complexes form within continental plate settings. Alkaline magmatism is derived from the upper mantle, in which mantle metasomatism plays an important part, as well as from partial melting of the lower crust. Radial and concentric fractures develop during the ascent of alkaline magma. Extrusion of basic and felsic magma takes place along these fractures with felsic volcanics building-up central volcanoes. As a result of emptying of the magma chamber, the superstructure of the volcano collapses and a caldera is formed. During the caldera stage syenitic and granitic material are intruded into ring fractures. Alkaline ring-type complexes may be classified as (i) alkaline qranite and syenite-type and (ii) carbonatite and undersaturated-type. These ring-type complexes occur as distinct igneous provinces. Some major provinces occur in Brazil, Corsica, Namibia, Nigeria, Norway, Saudi-Arabia and Sudan. In Namibia the Damaraland igneous province is of Mesozoic aqe and it contains 15 alkaline ring-type complexes . These complexes are situated along north-eastern trends which correspond to transform directions of the South Atlantic. During the opening of the South Atlantic (Gondwana breakup) Pan-African age lineaments were reactivated which allowed emplacement of anorogenic alkaline magmatism. A zonation of alkaline granite and syenitetype in the west and carbonatite and undersaturated-type ring-complexes in the east correlates with down- and upwarp axes parallel to the line of Gondwana fragmentation. Alkali- and Hāŗ-metasomatism is related to the alkaline and syenite-type whereas alkali metasomatism (fenitization) is associated with carbonatite and undersaturated-type ring-complexes. Sn, W and Ta mineralization is associated with alkaline granites of some of the alkaline granite and syenite-type ring-complexes. Fe, F, POā , Nb, Th, REE, Sr, Zn and Pb mineralization is associated with carbonatite complexes. Potential exists for: (i) porphyry Cu-Mo and epithermal-type (Au, Ag, Pt-metals, base metals) mineralization in the alkaline granite and syenite-type ring-complexes and (ii) disseminated Cu, Au, Aq and Pt-metals in carbonatite and undersaturated-type ring-complexe
Development and Application of Solid Phase Extraction Method for Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Water Samples in Johannesburg Area, South Africa
A solid phase extraction (SPE) technique has been developed for the quantitative determination of polyaromatic hydrocarbonsĀ (PAHs) in aqueous samples. The SPE technique involved extraction of PAHs froma 100 mL sample containing 10 % methanol as aĀ modifier onto C18 cartridges. 40 % methanol in water was used as conditioning solvent, and 3 mL acetone:THF (1:1) as elutingĀ solvent. After eluting, the extract was reduced to 1 mL under nitrogen and then analyzed by GC-MS. The extraction was optimizedĀ for the addition of organic modifier, sample load volume, conditioning solvent, washing solvent and eluting solvent. In order toĀ evaluate the practical applicability of SPE technique, water samples were spiked with the PAHs to give final sample concentrationsbetween 3 and 7 Ī¼g Lā1. Enrichment factors of 81ā135 were achieved with relative standard deviations (RSDs) of less than 6 %.Ā Recoveries obtained ranged from 81 to 135 %. Detection limits ranged from 20.0ā52.0 ng Lā1. The optimized method was validatedĀ by analyzing certified reference materials. The optimized method was then applied to spiked real river samples in and around theĀ Johannesburg area, South Africa. The concentrations obtained varied from 22.0 to 1040.0 ng Lā1. The RSDs were between 2.3 andĀ 13 %. The overall order of PAHs levels was: phenanthrene > acenaphthene > naphthalene > fluoranthene > pyrene.Keywords:Ā Solid phase extraction, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, water samples, Johannesburg, South Afric
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