Reliability and validity of the Readiness for Hospital Discharge Scale in patients with spinal cord injury.

Background: Measuring rehabilitation outcomes in patients with spinal cord injury (PWSCI) requires measurement tools that are valid and reliable and have been psychometrically tested in the population with spinal cord injury (SCI). The Readiness for Hospital Discharge Scale (RHDS) has been found to be reliable and valid in adult surgical patients, post-partum mothers, parents of hospitalised children and geriatrics. However, the psychometric properties have not yet been tested in the population with SCI, furthermore, in a South African context.

Living with HIV: the psychological relevance of meaning making.

A qualitative study was carried out in Namibia to explore how people infected with HIV cope psychologically with this life-threatening virus. The study was based on the theoretical concept of meaning making as developed by Park and Folkman (1997; Review of General Psychology, 1, 115-44) within the framework of Lazarus' stress and coping theory (e.g.

A combined orbital and antral approach to surgical decompression of the orbit.

A combined orbital decompression procedure has been found effective in treating proptosis. The procedure includes a lower eyelid incision by an ophthalmologist to expose the floor of the orbit, while a Caldwell-Luc antrotomy is performed simultaneously by an otolaryngologist. The ophthalmologist has a better view of the contents of the orbit and the anterior orbital floor.