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, 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 practice. Preventive systems and precautionary measures should be put in place to reduce drug administration errors

Staging of breast cancer with PET/CT

No abstact available

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

A genomic database of all Earth’s eukaryotic species could contribute to many scientific discoveries; however, only a tiny fraction of species have genomic information available. In 2018, scientists across the world united under the Earth BioGenome Project (EBP), aiming to produce a database of high-quality reference genomes containing all ~1.5 million recognized eukaryotic species. As the European node of the EBP, the European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA) sought to implement a new decentralised, equitable and inclusive model for producing reference genomes. For this, ERGA launched a Pilot Project establishing the first distributed reference genome production infrastructure and testing it on 98 eukaryotic species from 33 European countries. Here we outline the infrastructure and explore its effectiveness for scaling high-quality reference genome production, whilst considering equity and inclusion. The outcomes and lessons learned provide a solid foundation for ERGA while offering key learnings to other transnational, national genomic resource projects and the EBP.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

South African Paediatric Surgical Outcomes Study : a 14-day prospective, observational cohort study of paediatric surgical patients

BACKGROUND : Children comprise a large proportion of the population in sub-Saharan Africa. The burden of paediatric surgical disease exceeds available resources in Africa, potentially increasing morbidity and mortality. There are few prospective paediatric perioperative outcomes studies, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). METHODS : We conducted a 14-day multicentre, prospective, observational cohort study of paediatric patients (aged <16 yrs) undergoing surgery in 43 government-funded hospitals in South Africa. The primary outcome was the incidence of in-hospital postoperative complications. RESULTS : We recruited 2024 patients at 43 hospitals. The overall incidence of postoperative complications was 9.7% [95% confidence interval (CI): 8.4–11.0]. The most common postoperative complications were infective (7.3%; 95% CI: 6.2–8.4%). In-hospital mortality rate was 1.1% (95% CI: 0.6–1.5), of which nine of the deaths (41%) were in ASA physical status 1 and 2 patients. The preoperative risk factors independently associated with postoperative complications were ASA physcial status, urgency of surgery, severity of surgery, and an infective indication for surgery. CONCLUSIONS : The risk factors, frequency, and type of complications after paediatric surgery differ between LMICs and high-income countries. The in-hospital mortality is 10 times greater than in high-income countries. These findings should be used to develop strategies to improve paediatric surgical outcomes in LMICs, and support the need for larger prospective, observational paediatric surgical outcomes research in LMICs. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION : NCT03367832.Jan Pretorius Research Fund; Discipline of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal; Department of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, Groote Schuur Hospital and University of Cape Town; Department of Anaesthesia, University of the Witwatersrand; and the Paediatric Anaesthesia Community of South Africa (PACSA).https://bjanaesthesia.org2020-02-01gl2019Anaesthesiolog

Proactive behaviour towards strength use and deficit improvement, hope and efficacy as predictors of life satisfaction amongst first-year university students

Orientation: The orientation of this study is towards proactive behaviour towards strength use (PBSU) and proactive behaviour towards deficit improvement (PBDI) and their relationship with hope, efficacy and life satisfaction of first-year university students. Research purpose: To (1) determine whether PBSU and PBDI predict life satisfaction, (2) determine whether PBSU and PBDI predict hope and efficacy and (3) investigate a structural model where hope and efficacy mediate the relationship between PBSU and PBDI and life satisfaction. Motivation for the study: To validate the use of PBSU and PBDI as resources that will assist first-year university student to attain life satisfaction and to delineate the need for universities to incorporate interventions that promote PBSU and PBDI amongst these students. This supports the case for positive organisational behaviour. Research design, approach and method: A convenience sample of 566 first-year students from a university in Gauteng was used with a cross-sectional research design. Structural equation modelling was used to establish the validity of the measurement model, fit for the structural model and to test the mediating effects. Main findings: The results indicated that PBSU was a significant predictor of hope, efficacy and life satisfaction and that PBDI was a significant predictor of hope and efficacy. Hope mediated the relationship between PBSU, PBDI and life satisfaction. Efficacy mediated the relationship between PBSU and life satisfaction. Practical/managerial implications: Evidence suggests that PBSU was a predictor of life satisfaction. This was not the case with PBDI, which in fact negatively correlated with life satisfaction. Both PBSU and PBDI, however, predicted hope and efficacy. On a practical level this reveals that universities should, in line with positive organisational behaviour, introduce interventions that develop PBSU and PBDI amongst first-year students. It further suggests that, as is postulated by positive psychology, universities should focus more particularly on developing the ability of strength use amongst students, as opposed to deficit improvement. Contributions/value-add: This research proposes a strong case for the introduction of interventions that promote first-year university students’ ability for strength use, in particular, but also for deficit improvement, in line with positive organisational behaviour. Further, it validates for strength use as a stronger value proposition in achieving life satisfaction, supporting the philosophy of positive psychology.http://www.sajip.co.za/index.php/sajip/article/view/1248http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v41i1.124

Evaluation of steam-treated giant bamboo for production of fermentable sugars

Giant bamboo plantations are currently being established in the Southern Africa region and can be considered as potential lignocellulosic feedstock for the production of second generation bioethanol. In this study, giant bamboo internodal material was subjected to sulphur dioxide (SO2) impregnated steam pretreatment prior to enzymatic hydrolysis. The effect of temperature, residence time, and acidity on the overall sugar recovery and byproduct formation was studied using response surface response technology according to a central composite experimental design (CCD) at a fixed SO2 concentration of 2.5% (w/w liquid) after impregnation. The results showed that pretreatment conditions with combined severity factor (CSF) values and enzyme dosages greater than 1.72 and 30 FPU/g water insoluble solid, respectively, were required to obtain an efficient glucan digestibility and a good overall glucose recovery. Up to 81.2% of the sugar in the raw material was recovered for a CSF of 2.25. However, considering overall sugar yield and byproducts concentration, the pretreated material obtained with a CSF of 1.62 can be considered as the most appropriate for SSF experiments using a xylose-utilizing yeast. At these conditions, it could be possible to obtain up to 247 L of ethanol per dry ton of giant bamboo considering hexose and pentose sugars fermentation. This amount could be increased up to 292 L of ethanol per dry ton of giant bamboo with the maximum sugar yield obtained (CSF = 2.25) if the microorganism possesses robust fermentative characteristics as well as a high resistance to pretreatment by-products. © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).Articl

Psychological ownership in relation to workplace trust and turnover intent

The study investigated the relationship between workplace trust, psychological ownership and turnover intent within a South African professional services organisation. The measurements used were the Psychological Ownership Questionnaire, Workplace Trust Survey, and Turnover Intentions Scale. A cross-sectional quantitative survey design was used to collect data from a purposive sample (N = 302) of skilled, highly skilled and professional employees in a professional services industry. Pearson product-moment correlations and structural equation modeling (SEM) results confirmed that psychological ownership was significantly related to workplace trust (positively) and turnover intent (negatively). In addition, the study showed that psychological ownership fully mediated (large effect) the relationship between workplace trust and turnover intent. By implication, work environments that fostered workplace trust would increase the level of psychological ownership that employees’ experienced, which, in turn, would reduce employees’ intent to leave their workplace. The research contributes to new knowledge about the way contextual factors could influence employees’ psychological ownership.http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rpia202017-04-30hb2016Human Resource Managemen