Development and psychometric testing of a scale to measure effective rural emergency transfer (RET).

Background: The process of transferring patients from small rural primary care facilities to referral facilities impacts the quality of care and effectiveness of the referral healthcare system. The study aimed to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of a scale measuring requirements for effective rural emergency transfer.

Methods: An exploratory sequential design was utilized to develop a scale designed to measure requirements for effective emergency transport.

Experiences of rural nurses with emergency patient transport in a resource limited setting.

Background: Registered nurses are primary care providers during most patient transfers from rural areas. Various local conditions and circumstances impact the provision of nursing care prior to and during transportation. These include clinic staffing, uneven access to functioning equipment and other necessary infrastructure across settings, the wide-ranging clinical need for specialty care, and complex social and interpersonal circumstances that play a role in care-seeking and transport decision-making.

Batswana Adolescents' Attitudes Toward Sex With Older Adults: Psychometric Properties of the Attitudes Toward Transactional Sex Scale.

A programmatic series of studies developed and evaluated the Attitudes toward Transactional Sex Scale (ATTS) to measure adolescents' attitudes toward engaging in a sexual encounter initiated by an older adult offering desired objects such as cell phone, clothes, cash, or car rides in exchange for sex. Qualitative interviews informed the initial item generation followed by a series of studies assessing the psychometric properties of the measure. Study 1 evaluated the ATTS in a sample of 186 Batswana adolescents and assessed the factor structure, item-to-whole correlations, internal consistency, and convergent validity.

Nurses and COVID-19 response in Botswana.

Introduction: The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the Botswana Presidential Task Force, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Wellness (MoHW), to devise strategies to utilize the already overburdened health personnel to combat the spread of the coronavirus. This descriptive case study aimed to describe nurses' role during COVID-19 in Botswana.

Design And Methods: A case study analysis was used to describe nurses' roles during COVID-19.

Substantial Increase in Transactional Sex and HIV Risk Among Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Results From a Repeated Cross-Sectional Study in Botswana.

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting public health response has disrupted the lives of adolescents and their families worldwide. We evaluated the impact of the pandemic on attitudes, beliefs, and sexual risk behavior among adolescents in Botswana. Participants were recruited using household-based sampling across residential districts (blocks) in and around Gaborone, Botswana, and completed surveys on laptop computers at a private, central location.

Gender Differences in Sexual and Reproductive Health Protective and Risk Factors of Batswana Adolescents: Implications for Parent and Adolescent Interventions.

Adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa and in Botswana in particular continue to bear the brunt of the HIV epidemic. This analysis assessed gender differences among theory-based sexual and reproductive health protective and risk factors in a cross-sectional sample of 228 Batswana adolescents. Incongruence between preferred and actual sources of sexual information and several important gender differences in parent-adolescent relationships, psychosocial influences, and adolescent sexual behaviors were identified.

Estimating the cost of care giving on caregivers for people living with HIV and AIDS in Botswana: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Community home-based care is the Botswana Government's preferred means of providing care for people living with HIV (PLHIV). However, primary (family members) or volunteer (community members) caregivers experience poverty, are socially isolated, endure stigma and psychological distress, and lack basic care-giving education. Community home-based care also imposes considerable costs on patients, their caregivers and families in terms of time, effort and commitment.

Emotional violence among women in intimate relationships in Botswana.

A Heideggerian hermeneutic phenomenological approach was used to investigate the lived experience of women in Botswana who had experienced emotional abuse in intimate relationships. Hermeneutic phenomenology is concerned with the human experience as it is lived. Ten educated Botswana women who had formal employment and have been in intimate relationships for longer than ten years, narrated their life experiences with abusive men.

Sexual abuse and violence among adolescent girls in Botswana: a mental health perspective.

The presence of sexual abuse among societies in Botswana is a phenomenon whose occurrence is usually denied albeit the police report on it and legal frameworks have been established to combat it. Several factors influence the concealment of sexual abuse among adolescent girls, which includes cultural factors and social status of the perpetrators. This paper espouses the concept of sexual abuse among adolescent girls, the existence of the problem, its magnitude, the factors that increase vulnerability to violence and abuse, and how these factors intersect with HIV and AIDS.

Risks and protective behaviors of adolescents living with HIV/AIDS in Botswana.

HIV and AIDS are a major problem in Botswana. Studies have revealed that they have mostly affected young people, most of whom will have been infected with HIV during their teenage years. The prevalence among young people aged 15-24 is 16.

Voices from the frontlines: the epidemics of HIV/AIDS and violence among women and girls.

The papers in this special issue focus on the topic of violence against women. This group of scholarly works explores theoretical issues, context and health care interventions pertaining to violence in women’s lives. In conjunction with this special issue, this editorial provides a synopsis of presentations and discussions about the topic of the intersections of gender-based violence, HIV and the girl child that took place in July 2008 as part of the 17th conference of International Council of Women’s Health Issues (ICOWHI) held in Gaborone, Botswana, focusing on the Girl Child.

Experiences and demands of families with mentally ill people at home in Botswana.

Purpose: To describe the experiences and demands of families who care for their mentally ill relatives at home in Botswana.

Design: Grounded theory design with triangulated data sources.

Methods: A convenience sample was drawn from both urban and rural areas and composed of both men and women.

Factors that influence the spread of HIV/AIDS among students of the University of Botswana.

The results discussed in this report are part of a larger study conducted among the students of the University of Botswana regarding their knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to HIV/AIDS. The study triangulated survey methods and focus group discussions. Five main areas were investigated: knowledge and personal experiences of HIV/AIDS, sexual behavior and practices, perceptions about risky sexual behavior on campus, and factors that influence the spread of HIV.

Knowledge and perceptions of parents regarding child sexual abuse in Botswana and Swaziland.

This study sought to explore the phenomenon of child sexual abuse by investigating the knowledge and perceptions of parents regarding this problem in Botswana and Swaziland. Although there are no published studies on child sexual abuse in Botswana and Swaziland, literature elsewhere has indicated that child abuse and prostitution prevail in Southern African Development Community countries and that children still continue to be rape victims within and outside the family structure [Muwanigwa, V. (1996).