Patients' informational needs while undergoing brachytherapy for cervical cancer.

Objective: To identify informational needs of South African women receiving intracavitary brachytherapy for locally advanced cervical cancer as part of a process to develop guidelines for quality patient-centred care.

Design: A prospective, qualitative study with a phenomenological approach.

Setting: Brachytherapy Unit, Department Oncology, Universitas Hospital, Bloemfontein, South Africa.

Interest in and willingness to use complementary, alternative and traditional medicine among academic and administrative university staff in Bloemfontein, South Africa.

Background: Healthcare systems worldwide are changing and the use of complementary, alternative and traditional medicine (CAM) form part of this transformation. South Africa has a large number of CAM practitioners, but they are not included in the official healthcare system. The aim of this study was to determine the perception and usage of CAM among the academic and administrative staff of the University of the Free State (UFS) in Bloemfontein, South Africa.

The profile of adult nephrology patients admitted to the Renal Unit of the Universitas Tertiary Hospital in Bloemfontein, South Africa from 1997 to 2006.

Background: This paper reports a retrospective audit of new patients referred to the Renal Unit at Universitas Academic Hospital in Bloemfontein, South Africa for the decade 1997-2006.

Methods: All the files kept in the Renal Unit were reviewed for the main clinical presentation, a definitive pathological diagnosis (if obtained), age, race and gender of the patients. No consultations from other disciplines were included.

Development of a framework with specific reference to exit-level outcomes for the education and training of South African undergraduate physiotherapy students.

The aim of the study was to develop a framework for undergraduate programmes for the education and training of physiotherapists in South Africa. The research comprised a literature survey, interviews with United Kingdom physiotherapy educators and departmental workshops in South Africa. The Delphi technique was employed as research method to evaluate the proposed framework.