Background: Despite the advancement in malaria treatments and management; malaria morbidity and mortality is still on the increase. This phenomenon has been mostly attributed to the emergence and transmission resistance of the plasmodium parasite to drugs; which is as a result of non-adherence to anti-malaria medication. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess patients’ adherence to anti-malarial medications and the factors influencing their adherence in the Volta regional hospital.Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was employed. Convenience sampling technique was used in recruiting respondents. Data were collected within a period of 8 weeks from April to May 2017. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics in the form of frequencies, percentages, mean and standard deviations which was generated by the use of IBM statistical package for social sciences version 23.Results: The average age of respondents surveyed for this study was 32.27±11.09 ranging from of 19 to 68 years. Majority (51.7%) of respondents were females and 76.7% of them being Christians. The study findings revealed that 36.6% of patient were completely adherent to anti-malarial medication. Over 90% of respondents agreed that the malarial medication had bad taste and it was an unpleasant feeling for them taking it.Conclusions: Poor adherence to antimalaria medications could play a role in the future development of drug resistance. As such, identifying ways to improve anti-malarial compliance will help mitigate drug resistance. Therefore, further studies should be carried out on ways to improve patients’ adherence to antimalarial medication.

Introduction: Community psychiatric nurses work in extremely stressful environments with intense patient relationships as they try to prevent self-harm and manage aggressive behaviors. In order to improve their ability to manage the stressful work environments, community psychiatric nurses need to incorporate formal coping strategies into their daily work routines. With evidence-based coping strategies, community psychiatric nurses can effectively manage the stressful situations in their work environment to increase their work longevity. The purpose of this study was to explore the individual coping strategies currently used by community psychiatric nurses in practice in order to develop an intervention strategy for future implementation. Methods: This was an exploratory qualitative study using an interpretative approach. A purposive sampling method was used to identify participants from the community psychiatric nurses in a region of Ghana. Participants were recruited and interviewed, guided by semi-structured questions, until saturation was reached. The interviews were audio-taped, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed thematically. Results: A total of 13 participants, 10 women and 3 men ages 26 to 60 years, were interviewed for this study. From the inductive analysis, four coping themes emerged from the data including: 1) self-disguise, 2) reliance on religious faith, 3) self-motivation, and 4) reduction in the number of home visits. The participants described their work environment as stressful, almost to the point of overwhelming. In this regard, they identified the individual coping strategies as critical daily practices for self care to manage their high stress levels. Conclusion: Individual coping strategies are often used by community psychiatric nurses in daily practice. The participants identified personal coping strategies as critical interventions to manage stress and to decrease their risk for burnout. However, community psychiatric nurses must develop. personal-mastery in various coping strategies to care for themselves, as well as motivate them despite the challenging working environment. The individual coping strategies adopted by community psychiatric nurses was not only helped them deliver care, but also protected their clients so people would not label them as 'mental patients.' Collectively, the four strategies reported in this study need to be developed into a cohesive and comprehensive intervention.

Introduction Addressing strategies of coping among community psychiatric nurses (CPNs) could help increase an individual’s ability to cope effectively and as a result, reduce experienced levels of stress. It is known that the level of work stress experienced by CPNs is remarkably high, because psychiatric nurses face more intense relationships with their patients, trying to prevent self-harm, and most at times face challenging situations with aggressive patient behaviors in the working environment. Therefore, the study aimed to explore the coping strategies employed by CPNs during healthcare delivery in the community. Methods An exploratory qualitative study design using an interpretative approach was employed. A total of 13 CPNs were purposively sampled, and data gathered through individual interviews using an interview guide. The interviews were audio-taped, transcribed verbatim and analyzed thematically, describing some of the coping strategies employed by CPNs in Ghana. Results Participants’ ages ranged from 26-60years. They comprised 3 males and 10 females. An inductive thematic analysis identified the following major coping strategies of community psychiatric nurses; self-disguise (wearing of mufti), reliance on religious faith, self-motivation and reduction in the number of home visits. Conclusion Coping strategies among community psychiatric nurses are essential for both individuals and organisations. Thus, community psychiatric nurses must acquire personal-mastery coping strategies such as the reduction in the number of home visits, self-disguise (wearing mufti) the use of faith to motivate themselves in the face the challenging working environment. The coping strategies adopted by community psychiatric nurses was not to only help them deliver care, but also as a way of protecting the clients so that people would not tag them as ‘mental patients’