Nurses\u27 preparedness for disaster response in rural and urban primary healthcare settings in Tanzania

Introduction: Nurses are often on the frontline of disaster management, providing care to patients with emerging physical, mental, and emotional turbulence, and acting as educators for health promotion and disaster prevention in both rural and urban contexts. However, the literature suggests that nurses are inadequately prepared for disaster response. This study examined preparedness for disaster response among nurses in rural and urban primary healthcare settings in Tanzania. Methods: This qualitative descriptive study involved purposefully selected qualified nurses and nurse administrators working in rural (n=20) and urban (n=11) primary healthcare facilities in Tanzania. Telephone-based interviews were conducted to gather data that were then analyzed thematically. Results: Five themes emerged from the analysis: previous experiences, technical capacity, current strategies, challenges, and overall preparedness. Previous experiences included personally caring for victims, working in disaster response teams, working in administrative roles during disasters, and conducting community sensitization. Most nurses in rural contexts had not received training on disaster response and relied on past experience, knowledge from nursing school, observing peers, and knowledge from the internet and movies. Current strategies for disaster response included response teams (although these were considered ‘weak’), ensuring the availability of equipment and supplies, and infrastructure for victim management. Challenges in disaster response included inadequate resources, understaffing, lack of expertise at primary healthcare facilities, nurses tasked with multiple responsibilities, inadequate technical capacity, fears of infection, poor interpersonal relationships, inadequate community knowledge, poor reporting systems, delayed healthcare seeking, long distances to facilities, and poor road infrastructure. These challenges were more pronounced in rural settings. Most nurses felt they were well prepared to respond to disasters, although this appeared to be rooted in a willingness to provide care rather than having adequate knowledge, skills, and resources for disaster response. Suggestions for better preparing nurses for disaster response included training, increasing essential equipment and medical supplies, increasing the nursing workforce, improving reporting systems, disseminating local guidelines, strengthening disaster response teams, and improving the nursing training curricula to cover disaster management. Conclusion: A range of institutional, individual, and community challenges affect nurses’ preparedness for disaster response in rural and urban primary healthcare settings. Addressing these challenges requires multiple strategies that extend beyond the capacity building of nurses to strengthen health system disaster preparedness in general, prioritizing rural contexts

Nurses’ preparedness for disaster response in rural and urban primary healthcare settings in Tanzania

Introduction: Nurses are often on the frontline of disaster management, providing care to patients with emerging physical, mental, and emotional turbulence, and acting as educators for health promotion and disaster prevention in both rural and urban contexts. However, the literature suggests that nurses are inadequately prepared for disaster response. This study examined preparedness for disaster response among nurses in rural and urban primary healthcare settings in Tanzania. Methods: This qualitative descriptive study involved purposefully selected qualified nurses and nurse administrators working in rural (n=20) and urban (n=11) primary healthcare facilities in Tanzania. Telephone-based interviews were conducted to gather data that were then analyzed thematically. Results: Five themes emerged from the analysis: previous experiences, technical capacity, current strategies, challenges, and overall preparedness. Previous experiences included personally caring for victims, working in disaster response teams, working in administrative roles during disasters, and conducting community sensitization. Most nurses in rural contexts had not received training on disaster response and relied on past experience, knowledge from nursing school, observing peers, and knowledge from the internet and movies. Current strategies for disaster response included response teams (although these were considered 'weak'), ensuring the availability of equipment and supplies, and infrastructure for victim management. Challenges in disaster response included inadequate resources, understaffing, lack of expertise at primary healthcare facilities, nurses tasked with multiple responsibilities, inadequate technical capacity, fears of infection, poor interpersonal relationships, inadequate community knowledge, poor reporting systems, delayed healthcare seeking, long distances to facilities, and poor road infrastructure. These challenges were more pronounced in rural settings. Most nurses felt they were well prepared to respond to disasters, although this appeared to be rooted in a willingness to provide care rather than having adequate knowledge, skills, and resources for disaster response. Suggestions for better preparing nurses for disaster response included training, increasing essential equipment and medical supplies, increasing the nursing workforce, improving reporting systems, disseminating local guidelines, strengthening disaster response teams, and improving the nursing training curricula to cover disaster management. Conclusion: A range of institutional, individual, and community challenges affect nurses' preparedness for disaster response in rural and urban primary healthcare settings. Addressing these challenges requires multiple strategies that extend beyond the capacity building of nurses to strengthen health system disaster preparedness in general, prioritizing rural contexts

Increased prevalence of depression and anxiety among adults initiating antiretroviral therapy during the COVID-19 pandemic in Shinyanga region, Tanzania.

BackgroundConcerns about the interconnected relationship between HIV and mental health were heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study assessed whether there were temporal changes in the mental health status of people living with HIV presenting for care in Shinyanga region, Tanzania. Specifically, we compared the prevalence of depression and anxiety before and during COVID-19, with the goal of describing the changing needs, if any, to person-centered HIV services.MethodsWe analyzed baseline data from two randomized controlled trials of adults initiating ART in Shinyanga region, Tanzania between April-December 2018 (pre-COVID-19 period, n = 530) and May 2021-March 2022 (COVID-19 period, n = 542), respectively. We compared three mental health indicators that were similarly measured in both surveys: loss of interest in things, hopelessness about the future, and uncontrolled worrying. We also examined depression and anxiety which were measured using the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 in the pre-COVID-19 period and the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 in the COVID-19 period, respectively, and classified as binary indicators per each scale's threshold. We estimated prevalence differences (PD) in adverse mental health status before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, using stabilized inverse probability of treatment weighting to adjust for underlying differences in the two study populations.ResultsWe found significant temporal increases in the prevalence of feeling 'a lot' and 'extreme' loss of interest in things ['a lot' PD: 38, CI 34,41; 'extreme' PD: 9, CI 8,12)], hopelessness about the future [' a lot' PD: 46, CI 43,49; 'extreme' PD: 4, CI 3,6], and uncontrolled worrying [' a lot' PD: 34, CI 31,37; 'extreme' PD: 2, CI 0,4] during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also found substantially higher prevalence of depression [PD: 38, CI 34,42] and anxiety [PD: 41, CI 37,45].ConclusionsAfter applying a quasi-experimental weighting approach, the prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms among those starting ART during COVID-19 was much higher than before the pandemic. Although depression and anxiety were measured using different, validated scales, the concurrent increases in similarly measured mental health indicators lends confidence to these findings and warrants further research to assess the possible influence of COVID-19 on mental health among adults living with HIV. Trial Registration NCT03351556, registered November 24, 2017; NCT04201353, registered December 17, 2019

The shinyanga patient: A patient’s journey through hiv treatment cascade in rural Tanzania

The 2016–2017 Tanzania HIV Impact Survey (THIS) reported the accomplishments towards the 90-90-90 global HIV targets at 61-94-87, affirming the need to focus on the first 90 (i.e., getting 90% of people living with HIV (PLHIV) tested). We conducted a patient-pathway analysis to understand the gap observed, by assessing the alignment between where PLHIV seek healthcare and where HIV services are available in the Shinyanga region, Tanzania. We used existing and pub-licly available data from the National AIDS Control program, national surveys, registries, and rele-vant national reports. Region-wide, the majority (n = 458/722, 64%) of THIS respondents accessed their last HIV test at public sector facilities. There were 65.9%, 45.1%, and 74.1% who could also access antiretroviral therapy (ART), CD4 testing, and HIV viral load testing at the location of their last HIV test, respectively. In 2019, the viral suppression rate estimated among PLHIV on ART in the Shinyanga region was 91.5%. PLHIV access HIV testing mostly in public health facilities; our research shows that synergies can be achieved to improve access to services further down the cascade in this sector. Furthermore, effective engagement with the private sector (not-for-profit and for-profit) will help to achieve the last mile toward ending the HIV epidemic