Background: Patients’ records provide a trace of care processes that have occurred and are further used as communication amongst nurses for continued management of patients. Nurses have the responsibility to ensure that records are accurate and complete in order to effectively manage their patients. In hospitals, nurses have to record a wide range of information in the patient’s records and this leads to increased workload on the part of nurses that compromises accurate record-keeping.Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the challenges experienced by nurses with regard to record-keeping at selected public hospitals in the Vhembe district, Limpopo Province, South Africa.Method: A qualitative, explorative and descriptive research design was used. Nurses working in selected public hospitals were purposively selected and semi-structured interviews were conducted until data saturation was reached. Data were analysed using the Tesch’s open-coding method.Results: Nurses working in public hospitals experience record-keeping as a challenging activity owing to a variety of challenges which include lack of time to complete the records, increased patients’ admission and shortage of recording material.Conclusion: Record-keeping is not done properly which is problematic, and it is recommended that there should be continuous training, monitoring and evaluation of nurses on record-keeping issues, supply of adequate recording materials and proper time management amongst nurses to improve record-keeping challenges. The need for comprehensive record-keeping remains fundamental in public hospitals in order to improve patient care.

A crucial aspect of delivering healthcare is infection prevention and control (IPC), especially in public hospitals where the high volume of patients and limited resources can heighten the risk of healthcare-associated infections. This qualitative study explores IPC nurses’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices in public hospitals within the Limpopo province of South Africa. The study adopted a qualitative descriptive design. This qualitative study utilized self-developed validated semi-structured interviews with IPC nurses from 12 public hospitals (4 tertiary, 4 regional, and 4 district). The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis to identify key themes related to knowledge, attitudes, and practices in IPC. Each interview lasted approximately 15 to 20 min. Themes and subthemes that emerged provided a structured overview of the key aspects discussed. Each theme captures a different facet of the experiences, perceptions, and challenges faced by IPC nurses in their role. The subthemes further break down these views into specific areas of focus, offering deeper insights into the nurses’ experiences of their professional responsibilities. This study shows that, although IPC nurses have a good understanding of infection control and a positive attitude toward it, systemic problems and resource constraints make it difficult to consistently implement optimal practices. Affective mood, opportunity cost, coherence of the intervention, burden, perceived efficacy, self-efficacy, and ethics are among the major themes that were found. To improve IPC efforts, there is a clear need for more focused training, resources, and managerial support.

The nursing process is regarded as a systematic approach in which professional nurses use problem-solving to identify, plan and implement nursing interventions to enhance quality patient care. The steps of the nursing process include assessment, nursing diagnosis, planning, implementation and evaluation. However, nurses’ effective and efficient use of the nursing process steps in public hospitals still poses a challenge due to several factors. The current study is significant to nursing practice as the nursing process remains a standard of nursing practice for hospitals to provide quality patient care. The purpose of the study was to explore professional nurses’ use of the assessment and implementation steps of the nursing process at selected public hospitals in the Vhembe District, Limpopo, South Africa. A qualitative, phenomenological, descriptive, explorative and contextual research design was used. Non-probability purposive sampling was used to select professional nurses who were using the nursing process in the nursing care units until data saturation was reached with 13 participants. The data was collected using semi-structured one-on-one interviews using an interview guide, and then analysed using Tesch’s open-coding method where themes and sub-themes emerged. The study found that the participants’ initial assessment of patients during admission is an achievable performance, while implementation of the set nursing intervention is still a challenge on different levels. It is recommended that a problem-based learning approach be made a compulsory practical teaching method in order to equip nurses with the knowledge of the nursing process at all nursing education institutions.

Background: Caregivers are confronted with difficulties in determining the ideal period to initiate HIV disclosure to the child infected with HIV. Moreover, caregivers are uncertain about how to facilitate the HIV disclosure process, and opportunities to start the discussion are frequently missed until a later stage. Caregivers often fear that the child will be affected psychologically and have poor cognitive ability to comprehend the nature of the illness. Objective: The objective of the study is to explore and describe the experiences of primary caregivers regarding HIV disclosure to children infected with HIV. Methods: A qualitative, explorative, and descriptive study was conducted at 4 selected ART facilities in the Mopani district. Where face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted until data saturation with 16 primary caregivers. Data was analysed and coded using the ATLAS.ti 9 program, according to the thematic method of analysis. Results: Analysis of data identified three main themes that described the experience of caregivers regarding HIV disclosure in children, which are cues to disclose HIV status to children, experiences of the event of HIV status disclosure to children, and caregiver’s experiences of healthcare providers’ role in HIV disclosure process. Conclusion: Caregivers revealed that they initiated the HIV disclosure process to the children because of their personal and child-related factors. However, they perceived HIV disclosure as a difficult process to initiate, because of lack of skills, knowledge, and support from healthcare providers. Caregivers perceived children as too young to receive HIV disclosure information and they feared that the child would react negatively.

Infection prevention and control (IPC) is imperative to ensuring patient safety; however, public hospitals in Limpopo Province suffer from poor infrastructure, lack of education, and lack of surveillance. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the performance of IPC programs within Limpopo Province and develop an evidence-based improvement strategy using the WHO Multimodal Framework. A mixed-methods research approach was used over three different phases. In Phase I, retrospective data on IPCAF were collected on all 41 public hospitals. In Phase II, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six IPC nurses. Descriptive statistics (medians and interquartile ranges) were used for quantitative analysis, while qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis in ATLAS.ti. An evidence-informed strategy was formulated in Phase III. Overall IPC program performance was moderate (median IPCAF score: 618.0/800), with 58.5% of hospitals having advanced status, 39.0% intermediate status, and 2.4% basic status. The most poorly performing component was workload/staffing (CC7: 60.0). Districts scored between 576.2 (Capricorn) and 636.0 (Mopani). Lack of standardized education, understaffing, and role ambiguity were the main barriers identified. The strategy uses the “Build It, Teach It, Check It, Sell It, Live It” framework.

Background: Mobile health clinic services are free primary healthcare services for sections of the population living in disadvantaged communities