Technology enhanced health professions education (TEHPE) in Eastern and Southern Africa: a Needs Assessment.

Background The COVID-19 pandemic escalated the adoption and development of technology-enhanced health professions education during large-scale lockdown mandated in multiple countries. Although the use of technology is a hallmark of the education of healthcare professionals, including clinical education, challenges including poor availability, lack of skills and support for technology-enhanced learning and teaching are reported. This study aimed to assess the needs for technology enhanced health professions education in higher education institutions in Eastern and Southern Africa.

Nurses and emergency nursing care in Botswana.

The emergency nursing role is incredibly challenging in Africa, and Botswana is no exception due to the lack of qualified nursing staff, the lack of specialty training, and the demanding work environment. Botswana's use of the primary healthcare system to provide treatment to all, including those in need of urgent care, demonstrates the necessity of integrating emergency care services into primary healthcare. Our objective with this manuscript is to demonstrate the value of emergency nursing as a specialty in Botswana.

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.

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.

Assessment of Preparedness for Remote Teaching and Learning to Transform Health Professions Education in Sub-Saharan Africa in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Protocol for a Mixed Methods Study With a Case Study Approach.

Background: The current COVID-19 pandemic is affecting all aspects of society worldwide. To combat the pandemic, measures such as face mask-wearing, hand-washing and -sanitizing, movement restrictions, and social distancing have been introduced. These measures have significantly disrupted education, particularly health professions education, which depends on student-patient contact for the development of clinical competence.

Foreign nurse educators' lived experiences of incivility: The case for Botswana.

Background: In light of current economic prosperity and subsequent attainment of upper-middle-income country status, Botswana attracted nurse educators from other African countries. Within this cross-cultural environment, anti-immigrant sentiments have catalysed incidents of incivility, affecting the quality of teaching and learning outcomes.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to explore experiences of incivility amongst foreign nurse educators and how it impacts their work and livelihood.

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.

Perceptions of key participants about Botswana adolescents' risks of unplanned pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV: Qualitative findings.

Aim: The qualitative research findings are reported on the perceptions of key participants in Botswana about adolescent sexuality problems and the feasibility (with suggestions) of an adolescent prevention intervention.

Methods: Twenty adult key participants who were selected through purposive sampling from schools and youth centers responded to open-ended questions during face-to-face individual in-depth interviews that were conducted between December, 2011 and January, 2012 in Gaborone, Botswana.

Results: The data were analyzed by using an inductive content analysis.

Exploring Communication Challenges Between Nurses and Mechanically Ventilated Patients in the Intensive Care Unit: A Structured Review.

Background: Mechanical ventilation is a necessary procedure for patients with a range of illnesses and conditions. Mechanical ventilation affects voice production, leaving patients unable to communicate their needs with nurses and family. The communication difficulty causes distress, frustration, and anger if not attended to.

Bridging nursing practice and education through a strategic global partnership.

To forge strong relationships among nurse scholars from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Philadelphia, PA (USA); University of Botswana School of Nursing, Gaborone, Botswana; the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Princess Marina Hospital (PMH), Gaborone; and the Ministry of Health of Botswana, a strategic global partnership was created to bridge nursing practice and education. This partnership focused on changing practice at PMH through the translation of new knowledge and evidence-based practice. Guided by the National Institutes of Health team science field guide, the conceptual implementation of this highly successful practice change initiative is described in detail, highlighting our strategies, challenges and continued collaboration for nurses to be leaders in improving health in Botswana.

Cross-cultural adaptation of an adolescent HIV prevention program: social validation of social contexts and behavior among Botswana adolescents.

An evidence-based HIV prevention intervention was adapted for Botswana youth with qualitative interviews, input from an adolescent panel, and social validation. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 40 boys and girls ages 13-19. An adolescent panel then drafted scenarios reflecting social situations described in the interviews that posed risk for HIV.

Posttraumatic stress disorder among spouses of patients discharged from the intensive care unit after six months.

The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) can be traumatic, not only for patients, but also their closest relatives, especially spouses. Within Botswana, a developing country with very few ICUs and not so sophisticated machinery or a generalised lack of counselling for relatives, the ICU experience can be more traumatic. This study reports on the proportion of spouses who continued to experience mental distress, including the incidence of posttraumatic stress disorder, at six months after the discharge of their spouse from an intensive care unit.

Unity among nurses: an evasive concept.

The purpose of this paper is to elucidate contributing factors to the disunity in nursing, and argue that if united nursing would be able to achieve harmony, respect, and, above all, recognition. Social and historical identities imperil nurses, make them defenseless, and cause disunity. The relation between nursing and effects of gender discourses in power struggles is also accentuated.

What is in a name: the case of nursing.

The purpose of this paper is to create a debate on whether the name "nursing" has any influence on how the nursing profession is perceived today by other healthcare professionals and the general public the nursing profession serves. A quantum leap is being suggested by the authors, as only a paradigm shift could change the world's mindset on nursing and its recognition as a profession. A change in name is what the authors see as a way of changing the unflattering perception of nurses and enhancing its status to the level of respectability of other healthcare professions.