Afr J Prim Health Care Fam Med
March 2022
Background: Clinical associates (ClinAs) were introduced into South Africa as part of the remedy for the severe shortage of healthcare workers in rural areas. Walter Sisulu University (WSU) graduated 100 ClinAs between 2011 and 2014. These ClinAs were expected to be based at district hospitals where they would work under the supervision of doctors, reduce the workload of doctors and increase access to healthcare in the Eastern Cape.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecent proposals for re-defining the roles Africa's health workforce are a continuation of the discussions that have been held since colonial times. The proposals have centred on basing the continent's healthcare delivery on non-physician clinicians (NPCs) who can be quickly trained and widely distributed to treat majority of the common diseases. Whilst seemingly logical, the success of these proposals will depend on the development of clearly defined professional duties for each cadre of healthcare workers (HCW) taking the peculiarities of each country into consideration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Metabolic syndrome (MetS), defined as the clustering of three of five risk factors (hypertension, obesity, triglyceridemia, dyslipidemia and hyperglycemia), is being increasingly mentioned among children and adolescents despite there being no consensus on how it should be defined in this set of population. Furthermore, very few studies have focused on MetS in children and adolescents in sub-Saharan populations. This study, therefore, aimed at determining the prevalence of the MetS and contributing risk in adolescents living in Mthatha, South Africa.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFINTRODUCTION Problem-based learning harmonized with education in and for the community is the cornerstone of the curriculum for the undergraduate medical degree at Walter Sisulu University, Mthatha, South Africa. In tutorials, students construct knowledge and learn to work collaboratively while interacting with one another in their search for solutions to a pedagogically modeled health issue based on a patient. Problems cover students' needs defined by the learning cycle of the second year medical curriculum, organized into four learning blocks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Hypertension is one of the most common risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), yet not much effort is being invested in early diagnosis and control of the condition in susceptible children. The aim of this study was to,investigate the prevalence of pre-hypertension and hypertension in peri-urban school-attending adolescents and explore the relationship between blood pressure and selected anthropometric measurements.
Methods: A cross-sectional study of adolescents aged 13-17 years was performed.
Background. Previous studies have established norms of 24-hour gastric pH profiles for western countries. This study was designed to establish the pattern for a rural African population with a high incidence of oesophageal cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIndigenous sub-Saharan societies have, over the millennia, lived and socialised within the unwritten 'rules' of the 'Ubuntu' or similar philosophies that emphasises holistic 'humanness', and which is a form of 'social responsibility'. This article looks into some relevant social responsibility aspects of medical education in the South African context, with particular emphasis on how these aspects have been addressed. Apartheid was, by its very nature, incompatible with social responsibility for the majority of South Africans, but one medical school that was a non-complicit product of apartheid succeeded in fulfilling a socially responsible mission.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe incidence of squamous cancer of the esophagus varies up to a hundredfold in different regions of the world. In Transkei, South Africa, a particularly high incidence of the disease is observed. We have previously proposed an association between a maize-rich diet and elevated levels of intragastric prostaglandin E2 production (PGE(2)).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHeteromorpha arborescens belongs to the family Apiaceae. It is commonly known as the parsley tree. One of its uses in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa is for the treatment of abdominal pains.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction The South African health system has disturbing inequalities, namely few black doctors, a wide divide between urban and rural sectors, and also between private and public services. Most medical training programs in the country consider only applicants with higher-grade preparation in mathematics and physical science, while most secondary schools in black communities have limited capacity to teach these subjects and offer them at standard grade level. The Faculty of Health Sciences at Walter Sisulu University (WSU) was established in 1985 to help address these inequities and to produce physicians capable of providing quality health care in rural South African communities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFContext: The Unitra (now Walter Sisulu University) medical programme is problem- and community-based, offered in a small-group tutorial setting under a tutor. The first 3 years of the programme are integrated horizontally and vertically. The hypothetico-deductive format, with progressive disclosure, is utilised in the tutorial process.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To compare the academic performance of students on the previous, classical, discipline- and lecture-based, traditional curriculum with that of subsequent students who followed an innovative, problem- and community-based curriculum.
Methods: This was a retrospective study that analysed the records of students who enrolled on the doctor training programme between 1985 and 1995, and the records of students who graduated from the programme between 1989 and 2002.
Outcomes: The educational outcomes assessed were the attrition and graduation rates on the traditional curriculum and those on the innovative curriculum.