Nurse and midwife researcher collaboration in eastern sub-Saharan Africa: a social network analysis

AIM

To investigate the collaborative networks among expert clinical nurse and midwifery researchers in eastern and southern Africa.

METHODS

Thirty-eight clinical nurse and midwifery researchers completed an online survey to analyse collaboration between respondents. Data were analysed using social network analysis, generating a network map and associated measurements.

RESULTS

Regional collaboration was poor. Those links that did exist centred on geographic proximity and participation in regional and international organizations.

CONCLUSION

These results help us to understand better ways to strengthen and support nursing and midwifery clinical research in eastern and southern Africa.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING POLICY

Clinical nursing and midwifery research capacity building efforts should focus on supporting collaboration networks among individuals and institutions in the region.

Constructivist strategy for health science education

The aim of this paper was to explore and describe a constructivist strategy for Health Science Educators. Changes in the higher education field in South Africa have impacted on the practice of health science educators. In the past, health science educators often envisaged their teaching task as  the transmission of content. This however no longer meets the needs of our practices.  In order to describe the strategy, the survey list of Dickoff, James and Wiedenbach (1968) was used to identify the core concepts. Each of the identified concepts was then described based on a literature review. The strategy advocates that health science  educators should shift from being lecturers to being learning facilitators based on the principles of constructivist learning, in order to create a context conducive to learning.

[Expectations of the doctor in a private hospital--phase 2]

The purpose of this phase of the study was to explore and describe the expectations of the doctor in a private hospital with regard to the registered nurse's practice (phase 2). The expectations of the doctor were explored by means of a explorative and descriptive design. A questionnaire was designed as a data-gathering instrument, based on the scope of practice of the registered nurse (described in the conceptual framework). Through the use of descriptive statistics, a frequency-analysis was done and reflected through the use of percentages. The results were discussed in detail and presented in tables. To summarize the results, fifteen conclusion statements were described, out of which data for the orientation programme was inferred (phase 3).