Curationis provides a forum for cutting-edge theories and research models related to the exploration of issues experienced and the best practices of nurses and midwives so as to improve nursing education, nursing administration and community nursing within Africa.

Needle-stick injuries have the potential to change a student nurse’s life; yet they are dealt with covertly and many go unreported. This could create difficulties when evaluating a curriculum, because potential risk issues in nursing education might go undetected. In addition, needlestick injuries are inherently preventable occupational health hazards. The fact that there has been, until now, no information available on the incidence of, and context in which needlestick injuries occur amongst student nurses in Namibia, is of particular concern for nurse educators in that country. The purpose of this study was therefore to determine the incidence of needle-stick injuries and to describe the context of their occurrences. A framework known as Haddon’s matrix made it possible to approach this survey from both an occupational and a nursing education perspective.The questionnaire was completed by 198 students and it was found that, during 2008 alone, 17% of student nurses sustained needle-stick injuries, but only 55% of these reported it. In addition, in 55% of the occasions on which the student nurses were injured, they were not accompanied by a registered nurse. The recommendations made are based on the three phases of Haddon’s matrix, namely pre-injury, injury and post-injury phases. These recommendations focussed on student accompaniment by registered nurses, the completion of reflective exercises, sensitisation sessions before placement in clinical areas, as well as the utilisation of independent student counsellors.OpsommingEnige naaldprik-insident kan ‘n groot omwenteling in ‘n student-verpleegkundige se lewe te weeg bring. Ten spyte hiervan word sodanige insidente nie openlik hanteer nie, en dikwels word dit nie eers gerapporteer nie. Dit mag egter kurrikulering-evaluerings kompliseer want potensiële risiko-aspekte in verpleegonderwys mag dalk nie geidentifisser word nie. Naaldprik-ongelukke is in wese beroepsgesondheidsaspekte, wat inherent voorkombaar is. Dit was dan ook ‘n bron van kommmer onder verpleegopvoeders in Namibië, aangesien geen inligting beskikbaar was oor die voorkoms en konteks van naaldprik-ongelukke onder student-verpleegkundiges in Namibië nie. Die doel van hierdie studie was dus on die voorkoms en konteks waarbinne naaldprik-ongelukke plaasvind te beskryf. Daar was reeds a raamwerk beskikbaar, naamlik die Haddon-matriks. Diè raamwerk het dit moontlik gemaak om die opname te benader vanuit sowel ‘n beroepsgesondheids-perspektief as ‘n verpleegopvoedkundige perspektief.Die vraelys is voltooi deur 198 studente en van die bevindings was dat gedurende 2008 alleen, 17% van die student-verpleegkundiges naaldprik-insidente gehad het, maar dat slegs 55% van die beseerdes dit aangemeld het. Daar is ook gevind dat in 55% van die gevalle, hulle nie deur ‘n geregistreerde verpleegkundige vergesel was nie. Aanbevelings wat gemaak is, is gebaseer op die drie fases van die Haddon-matriks, naamlik die voor-beserings-fase, die beseringsfase en die na-beserings-fase. Die aanbevelings is gefokus op student-begeleiding, reflektiewe oefeninge, sensitiseringsessies voor die plasings in kliniese areas, asook ondersteuning van ‘n onafhanklike berader.

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. The wide-ranging consequences of the pandemic are immense, and health professions education institutions in sub-Saharan Africa have not been spared. Objective: This paper describes a protocol for assessing the preparedness of selected health professions education institutions in sub-Saharan Africa for remote teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A mixed-methods design with a case study approach will be used. The awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement model of change was selected as the conceptual framework to guide the study. Eight higher education institutions in 6 sub-Saharan countries have participated in this study. Data will be collected through electronic surveys from among whole populations of academic staff, students, and administrators in undergraduate medicine and nursing programs. Qualitative and quantitative data from each institution will be analyzed as a case study, which will yield an inventory of similar cases grouped for comparison. Quantitative data will be analyzed for each institution and then compared to determine associations among variables and differences among programs, institutions, or countries. Results: Our findings will provide information to higher education institutions, particularly those offering health professions education programs, in Africa regarding the preparedness for remote teaching and learning to influence efforts related to web-based teaching and learning, which is envisaged to become the new normal in the future. Conclusions: This study has not received any funding, and any costs involved were borne by individual consortium members at the various institutions. Ethics approval from the institutional review board was obtained at various times across the participating sites, which were free to commence data collection as soon as approval was obtained. Data collection was scheduled to begin on October 1, 2020, and end on February 28, 2021. As of this submission, data collection has been completed, and a total of 1099 participants have been enrolled. Data analysis has not yet commenced.

Among the many actions required to avert further intensification of today’s social, ecological and health crises is also the improvement of healthcare’s environmental sustainability, including in countries particularly vulnerable to such crises. The present study aimed to identify Namibian healthcare professionals’ knowledge, attitudes and practices, along with barriers and educational needs, as a foundation for context-relevant interventions. The study used a non-experimental, descriptive quantitative research design with an existing validated cross-sectional questionnaire as its data collection tool. Both purposive and snowball sampling were used to select healthcare professionals (n = 71) to participate in the quantitative online questionnaire. R (version 4.2.1) software was used to analyse the data from the completed questionnaires. The results showed that the Namibian healthcare professionals participating in this study have basic knowledge of and positive attitudes toward environmental sustainability in healthcare. However, various barriers to implementing strategies towards environmental sustainability exist that currently prevent the implementation of relevant practices. These should be overcome by the Namibian health system by providing the necessary frameworks, policies, measures and resources to drive improvements in environmental sustainability. Additionally, future and current healthcare professionals must receive training across all professional education levels to enable implementation in practice and effective advocacy and planetary health promotion.

While the number of students who choose to enrol in various postgraduate academic programmes continues to increase, the number of postgraduate students who graduate each year remains low. This requires institutions of higher learning to establish which factors and study modes are likely to promote an environment that is conducive to learning for postgraduate students. The experiences of postgraduate students can be used to promote a positive learning environment for postgraduate students. The objective of this study was to explore and describe the experiences of postgraduate nursing students enrolled in postgraduate nursing diploma coursework and research at the University of Namibia with a view to describe what aspects affect their learning. An exploratory, descriptive and qualitative design was used. The study was contextual in nature. A sample of seven students participated in the study. Purposive sampling was used. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews conducted with seven postgraduate diploma nursing students. The data were analysed through qualitative content analysis. The following four themes were identified: individual experiences, academic factors, institutional factors, and suggested improvement measures which included an improved research approval process and institutional support system to enhance postgraduate studies. The findings of this study highlighted the need for well-articulated actions to deal with the negative challenges identified in the study by offering more academic support to the students during their research proposals and research project writing.

This research paper is focuses on describing the paradigmatic perspective used for development of an educational programme to facilitate critical thinking of student nurses. The study of this nature requires a paradigmatic perspective this is a collection of logically linked concepts and propositions that provide a theoretical perspective or orientation that tends to guide the research approach to a specific direction. The study was conducted in four phases, beginning with the needs assessment in phase 1 through which the researcher determine the needs of the students in terms of critical thinking, followed by phase 2 on the development of an educational framework and phase 3 and 4 on implementation and evaluation and this two phases were conducted simultaneously. The positivistic paradigm allows the researcher to be orderly and disciplined in the procedures followed during the study to acquire information. For this study the researcher worked according to a specific and logical plan of action and conducted the research in a series of steps. In this study the paradigm consisted meta-theoretical such as ontological, epistemological, axiological and methodological assumption. The theoretical basis of this study included the principal of adult learning; Model of curriculum development; Nicholas and Nichols; Viedebeck’s model of teaching critical thinking and Theoretical principle of constructivism. These theoretical frameworks were applied in respectively in the phases listed above. This research paper is focuses on describing the paradigmatic perspective used for development of an educational programme to facilitate critical thinking of student nurses. The study of this nature requires a paradigmatic perspective this is a collection of logically linked concepts and propositions that provide a theoretical perspective or orientation that tends to guide the research approach to a specific direction. The study was conducted in four phases, beginning with the needs assessment in phase 1 through which the researcher determine the needs of the students in terms of critical thinking, followed by phase 2 on the development of an educational framework and phase 3 and 4 on implementation and evaluation and this two phases were conducted simultaneously. The positivistic paradigm allows the researcher to be orderly and disciplined in the procedures followed during the study to acquire information. For this study the researcher worked according to a specific and logical plan of action and conducted the research in a series of steps. In this study the paradigm consisted meta-theoretical such as ontological, epistemological, axiological and methodological assumption. The theoretical basis of this study included the principal of adult learning; Model of curriculum development; Nicholas and Nichols; Viedebeck’s model of teaching critical thinking and Theoretical principle of constructivism. These theoretical frameworks were applied in respectively in the phases listed above.