Background Providing optimal care to critically ill patients poses challenges in resource-poor settings because of the lack of equipment, inadequately trained personnel and limited infrastructure. Objectives This study explored challenges experienced by health care professionals working in resource-poor intensive care units. Method A qualitative, explorative, descriptive design was used. The population comprised nurses and doctors working in an intensive care unit of one hospital in the Limpopo province of South Africa. A purposive sample was selected and 17 semi-structured interviews were conducted. Data were analysed using Tesch’s method. Ethical considerations were adhered to. Results Participants experienced challenges related to provision of suboptimal patient care, the challenge of non-adherence to protocols and/or instructions and the challenge of practising beyond the scope of practice. Conclusion Lack of resources resulted in providing suboptimal intensive patient care. Patients were prone to infections and their safety might be compromised. Keywords health care professionals; intensive care units; critically ill patients; resource-poor intensive care units.

BackgroundThe implementation of community service for nurses commenced in January 2008 (Department of Health 2007) and was regulated by the South African Nursing Council (SANC) Regulation 765 of 24 August 2007 (SANC 2010). All nurses completed the 4-year nursing diploma or degree for registration as a nurse (General Community and Psychiatry) and as a midwife to 'practice a profession in a prescribed category' and to carry out 1 year of remunerated compulsory community service (Department of Health 2006). When placed in clinical environments, new midwifery graduates are expected to work autonomously and cope with increasingly high acuity patient workloads and major advances in technology (Morrow 2009). According to the SANC, community service must be performed for a period of 12 months. The aim of the community service strategy of the National Department of Health was to retain professional nurses through community service, with graduates obtaining clinical experience under the supervision of experienced professional nurses (Department of Health 2011). During this period, the new graduates must apply their learning from the academic setting into the clinical environment immediately upon entry into practice (Hickey 2009; Meechan, Jones & Valler-Jones 2011).The hospital managers and experienced midwives expect new midwife graduates to be job ready, demonstrate competence in the provision of evidence-based care, practise independently and assume accountability and responsibility for their own actions (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia 2006;Romyn et al. 2009; Wolff, Pesut & Regan 2010a). Although newly Background: Community service nurses are placed in a hospital within the first year after qualifying to obtain clinical experience under the supervision of experienced professional nurses. When placed in clinical environments, new midwifery graduates are expected to be job ready, demonstrate competence in the provision of evidence-based care, practise independently and assume accountability and responsibility for their own actions. Aim:The study aimed at exploring the expectations of experienced midwives of clinical competence of newly graduated midwives during transition. Setting:The study was conducted at the training hospitals of the five districts in Limpopo province. Method:The researcher used a qualitative approach which is explorative and descriptive in nature. The population comprised all the professional midwives with experience of 5 years and above working at the selected hospitals in Vhembe, Mopani, Capricorn, Waterberg and Sekhukhune districts of Limpopo province, South Africa. From each selected hospital, five experienced midwives were selected using non-probability, purposive sampling method. An in-depth individual face-to-face interview was used to collect data from the participants, until saturation was reached. The open-coding, Tesch's eight-step process was used to analyse data.Results: Results revealed that newly graduated midwives failed to meet the perceived expectations by experienced midw...

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Background: Effective communication between health care professionals, admitted patients, and their families is crucial to improving the health care outcomes and patient satisfaction. Hence, barriers to effective communication cause a lot of confusion, frustration, and misunderstanding. The study aimed to identify the perceived barriers to effective communication between patients, their families, and health care professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic in public hospitals in Limpopo Province. The study was conducted in rural areas of Vhembe District, Limpopo Province. Methodology: A qualitative exploratory descriptive method was adopted to explore and describe the barriers of effective communication among patients, relatives, and health care professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic in public hospitals in the Vhembe District. Eleven (11) participants were purposively selected. Unstructured in-depth individual interviews were used to collect data and analyzed using thematic analysis following Tesch’s eight steps. Results: The study findings revealed that there was ineffective communication by health care professionals. This was discussed under three themes that emerged: poor communication of diagnosis and prognosis and treatment outcomes; lack of accurate knowledge regarding the virus morphology, variant, and treatment protocols; and the inconsistencies in the dissemination of COVID-19 protocols. Conclusions: Full communication benefits both patients, relatives, and health care professionals as knowledge and understanding are enhanced through communication. Therefore, health care professionals should provide the patients and their relatives with full information about the disease and the visitation protocols to be followed. The study contribution was to explore barriers to effective communication to the patients and relatives by the health care professionals.

Background/Aims Most African states are faced with challenges in the healthcare sector, such as the lack of skilled healthcare professionals, materials and supplies and inadequate infrastructure. These challenges lead to an increased rate of preterm births. The aim of this study was to explore and describe barriers to the prevention of preterm births in the obstetric units of Limpopo Province. Methods An explorative, descriptive design was used to obtain primary data, which were used to develop guidelines to assist resource-limited obstetric units. Purposive sampling was used to select 10 managers and 15 midwives, making a total of 25 participants. In-depth individual interviews were used to collect data that were analysed using Tesch's open coding approach. Results The barriers to the prevention of preterm births in Limpopo Province, South Africa were a shortage of healthcare professionals, a lack of emotional and psychological support and poor communication. Conclusions The successful prevention of preterm births in Limpopo Province is not possible because of structural and psychosocial barriers alluded to by midwives and managers at obstetric units. It is recommended that the Maternal, Women and Child Health Directorate in Limpopo implement the standards of care as stipulated in the national maternity guidelines of South Africa, to address the quality and quantity of human resources and equipment.