Background: Theory practice gap is the discrepancies found between what students learn in the formal classroom setting and what they experience in the clinical settings.  Observations reveal that nursing as practised is task-centred and students rarely get involved in anything approaching the total care of individual patients, thus leading to theory-practice gap.Objectives: The study explored and described the challenges faced by Bachelor of Nursing (clinical) honours students when integrating theory into practice in the clinical settings.Method: The study, which was granted ethical clearances from two institutions, drew on an exploratory phenomenology methodology to gather data from ten nursing students registered at a satellite campus. The participants were purposively selected with data collected via focus group interviews. Thereafter, data were transcribed verbatim and analysed using content analysis. The study data collection and analysis adhered to ethical principles and quality measures in order to ensure credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability. Results: Nursing students experience challenges in integrating theory and practice. These challenges are grouped into four themes; theory verses practice, limited resources in clinical settings, discriminatory attitudes and communication barriers.Conclusion:  Nursing students appreciated accompaniment and supervision by nurse educators. However, the accompaniment’s impact on learning may be undermined through the students’ limited exposure to clinical cases. Therefore, long-term strategies are recommended for effective integration of theory with practice.

Simulation training refines skills needed to correct mistakes by allowing trainees to fine tune their skills.  To improve the knowledge and skills of the midwifery educators, a simulation training has been organised for them so that they are able to provide simulation to the students. This was in part necessitated by the understanding/observation that students tend to be less anxious at the clinical practice after they had simulation training. A quantitative, cross-sectional study design was employed. Data was collected with structured self-administered questionnaires among 10 midwifery trainers who attended a simulation training workshop. This workshop was conducted by trainers from Cardiff University under the Phoenix project in June 2016. Due to the limited number of trained educators, census sampling method was used and data was analysed using SPSS version 25. The study results indicated that most midwifery educators are female within middle age category. Most participants have attended simulation training before and have been conducting simulation to students. Furthermore, most participants indicated that they were satisfied with the training and that they gained knowledge and skills on simulation that they can utilize during student training. The researchers recommend further research on evaluation of knowledge and skills such as evaluating participants on simulating procedures.

Background:A caesarean section is a life saving procedure for both the mother and the baby. However, the fact that caesarean section rates are increasing worldwide, in both the developed and developing countries is becoming an issue of increasing concern, which raised a concern. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the indications for a caesarean section in the Rundu State Hospital. Methods:A cross sectional retrospective study was conducted.The study population comprised the records of women who had undergone caesarean section between 1 January 2017 to 31 March 2017. After conducting a sample size calculation the delivery, records of 149 women who had undergone a caesarean section during the study period were reviewed. The required data was collected using individual data collection sheets and then analysed using SPSS version 24. Results:The age of participants ranged between 20 and 50 years. The mean age for the study group was 25.1 years. The overall leading indications for a caesarean section included foetal distress (25.6%), previous uterine scar (18.1%) and Cephalopelvic disproportion (16.1%) while other major contributing indications were eclampsia (16.1%), mal-presentation (8.1%), prolonged labour (6.7%, ante partum haemorrhage (3.4%), failed vaginal birth after caesarean section (2.0%), cord prolapse (1.3%) and severe vaginal warts (0.6%). In addition, the study found that a primary caesarean section was more common at 81.9% as compared to previous uterine scar at 18.1 % while maternal indications contributed to 61% of caesarean sections while foetal indications constituted 39%. Conclusion:Overall, the study found that the leading indications for caesarean section were foetal distress and previous uterine scar. It was recommended that foetal distress, as the main indicator for a primary caesarean section, should be further confirmed with a printed cardiotocograph. Training health workers on the interpretation of cardiotocograph and the importance of the use of other methods, such as the fetoscope and doptone, may help to reduce the incidence of unnecessary primary caesarean section due to foetal distress. In addition, previous uterine scar cases should be embark on labour before a decision is made.

The increased neonatal mortality rate in a regional hospital in Namibia is a concern. According to the 2013 records of the hospital, there were 333 neonatal deaths from 1 January to 31 December 2013. The aim of the study was to investigate the causes of the increased neonatal deaths at this regional hospital in Namibia. A retrospective descriptive survey design was employed to conduct the study. Data were collected from 231 record files of neonates that died from 1 January to 31 December 2013 while admitted at the regional hospital before 28 completed days of life. The results shows that 67.1 per cent (n = 155) neonates that died in the regional hospital were during the first 7 days of life, and 32.9 per cent (n = 76) died after 7 days of life but before 28 completed days of life. Five causes accounted for the early neonatal deaths: respiratory distress syndrome, congenital abnormalities, neonatal sepsis, birth asphyxia, and haemorrhagic diseases of newborns. The late neonatal deaths were mainly caused by neonatal sepsis, followed by respiratory distress syndrome, congenital abnormalities, and birth asphyxia. The results also indicated poor record-keeping as an associated factor in this regional hospital. The study finally concluded that the majority of neonatal deaths that occurred in 2013 at the regional hospital were associated with multiple factors such as respiratory distress syndrome, neonatal sepsis, asphyxia, and congenital abnormalities. However, the majority of these factors could have been avoided.