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Background:  Living with or managing an adolescent suffering from depression predisposes the adolescent and parents to various experiences, considering the multifactorial nature of depression and associated symptoms.

Objective:  This study explored and described the experiences of adolescents and their parents on the mental health management of depression in the North West province (NWP), South Africa.

Method:  A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive, contextual research design was adopted. Data was collect from two mental health care institutions and two mental health care units attached to two general hospitals in the NWP, SA. Thirty-two participants (18 adolescents and 14 parents) were purposefully selected for the study. Data were collected through individual interviews and analysed using Tesch's open-coding method to generate themes and categories which were presented with the concurrent support of participants direct quotations.

Results:  The study revealed that the experiences of adolescents with depression and their parents taking care of them at homes include the following: emotional distress, poor coping mechanisms, financial burden, repeated suicidal attempts, negative attitudes from support systems and withdrawal behaviours. Appropriate therapeutic environments, ongoing monitoring by mental healthcare practitioners and adequate support systems were suggested by participants as management approaches that could enhance the recovery of adolescents from depression.

Conclusion:  The findings revealed the devastating experiences of adolescents with depression and their parents taking care of them in their various homes which confirms the dire need for attention on the plights of these groups in order to facilitate adolescents' recovery and strengthen the adolescents' and parents' coping mechanisms for a healthier family.

Background:  Missed appointments for medicine pick-ups are regarded as a predictor of poor adherence, and should trigger immediate questions about issues that may affect follow-up visits to healthcare settings.

Objectives:  The study explored and described professional nurses' perspectives about the factors that contribute to missing appointments by people living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (PLWHIV) on antiretroviral therapy (ART) at Mopani and Vhembe district in Limpopo Province.

Method:  A qualitative explorative contextual approach was used for the study. Non-probability, purposive sampling was used to select 14 professional nurses who met the inclusion criteria. Data were collected through face-to-face unstructured interviews. One central question was asked and probing questions were based on the participants' responses to the central question. Thematic analysis of the findings was carried out. Trustworthiness was ensured through intercoder agreement, audio recording, triangulation, bracketing, and member checking. Required permission, approval, and ethical clearance were also ensured.

Results:  Organisational health system and management of the healthcare facility were found to be the barriers that negatively impacted on the ability of the PLWHIV on ART to maintain clinic visits appointments. Lack of patient involvement, stereotyped appointment dates selection, poor patient-provider relationships, errors of recording appointment dates and long waiting times came up as sub-themes derived from the main theme.

Conclusion:  The results suggest that there is a need to increase and improve mutual trust in patient-provider relationships, improve nurses working conditions, develop proper booking systems and reduce clinic waiting hours.

Background:  The contemporary healthcare environment is an authentic, demanding, challenging and ever-changing environment that requires learners to possess good self skills when they need to engage in meaningful, critical discourse in order to solve authentic problems. However, nurse educators assume that learners already have well-developed self skills at the commencement of their nursing training and as a result do not explicitly teach and develop such skills in the learners.

Objectives:  The objectives of this research were to explore and describe nurse educators' views on how learners' self skills can be developed within an authentic learning (AL) environment, and to formulate recommendations based on the findings.

Method:  A qualitative and contextual research design was used to seek rich, in-depth data from 20 nurse educators who were purposively sampled. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted, and the data were analysed using Miles, Huberman and Saldaña method.

Results:  The three themes that emerged were that nurse educators should (1) ensure an AL environment that promotes self skills, (2) engage learners in activities that will consciously evoke authentic self and (3) evaluate the developed self skills and metacognition.

Conclusion:  By developing good self skills, learners should be able to deliver quality patient care, find solutions to complex problems and handle cognitive complexity and authentic conditions whilst creating their own identity.

Background: Whilst the number of students who choose to enrol at institutions of higher education continues to increase, class size remains a challenge. Therefore, institutions of higher education should continuously explore the challenges experienced by students regarding learning in large classes and devise strategies to address such challenges. The experiences of nursing students regarding learning in large classes and its effects on teaching and learning at the University of Namibia (UNAM) and in Namibia are not extensively researched.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to explore and describe the experiences of nursing students regarding learning in large classes and its effects on teaching and learning at the UNAM.

Methods: A qualitative explorative, descriptive and contextual research design was employed. Data collection was conducted using semi-structured interviews to ascertain the experiences of nursing students regarding learning in large classes and its effects on teaching and learning at the UNAM. Fifteen undergraduate nursing students from the Rundu campus participated in the study using a purposive sampling technique.

Results: The analysis of data led to the emergence of the following themes namely: negative learning experiences, positive learning experiences and mechanisms for improvement. The findings had a negative effect on participants' learning outcomes.

Conclusion: Findings from this study indicated that participants were dissatisfied with the size of their classes as the learning environment was not conducive for teaching and learning.

Background: Caring is described as the innermost core of nursing which occurs in a relationship between the patient and the care provider. Although caring in nursing is associated with maintaining and strengthening of the patient's sense of dignity and being a person, there seems to be a gap between caring theories in nursing, healthcare policies and caring for patients by professional nurses in primary health care clinics. Developing strategies that will facilitate effective caring for patients by professional nurses in primary health care clinics within an ethical and mindful manner became an area of focus in this study.

Objectives: To develop strategies to facilitate effective caring for patients by professional nurses in primary health care clinics in South Africa.

Method: Strategies were developed based on the conceptual framework developed in Phase 2, which was derived from synthesis of the results of Phase 1 of the previously conducted study and supported by literature. The conceptual framework reflects the survey list of Dickoff, James and Wiedenbach's practice theory.

Results: Three strategies were developed: 1) facilitating maintaining of the empowering experiences; 2) facilitating addressing the disempowering experiences by professional nurses, and 3) facilitating addressing of the disempowering primary health care clinic systems.

Conclusion: The developed strategies, being the proposed actions, procedures and behaviours, could facilitate effective caring for patients by professional nurses in primary health care clinics.

Background: The new role as professional nurse can be a difficult transition for the new qualified nurses. During this time, factors such as not being well prepared, working without supervision and a lack of guidance can be the result of a difficult transition.

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to assess the perceptions of newly qualified nurses on the guidance given by their preceptors towards becoming experts in practice at a Level II regional hospital in the Western Cape.

Method: A non-experimental quantitative descriptive design was followed. Collection of data was done by means of a questionnaire, designed by the researcher, using a cross-sectional research method. Non-probability sampling produced a sample of 162 nurses comprising registered nurses (48.2%), enrolled nurses (32.7%), and enrolled nursing auxiliaries (19.1%). Statistical analysis was performed using the Statistical Analysis System (SAS), version 9.3.

Results: The results of the research study indicated that respondents had more positive experiences than negative ones. The respondents indicated that for the role and characteristics of the preceptor, expectations were met for knowledgeability, professionalism and contribution to team work. Furthermore, the results indicated that the respondents would recommend preceptorship.

Conclusion: Preceptorship is one of the major interventions available to support newly qualified nurses by easing the transition from student to practicing nurse and reducing the theory-practice gap. The findings emphasised the importance of ongoing support programmes for nurses after obtaining a new qualification or/and being a new nurse.

Background: Culture plays a vital role in resolving grief in African communities. However, women who terminate a pregnancy in adolescence are typically not exposed to cultural rituals that could ease their grief.

Objectives: The purpose of this article is to explore the interaction of culture and grief amongst women who terminated a pregnancy in adolescence.

Method: A qualitative exploratory study was undertaken using a narrative approach. Unstructured interviews were conducted to solicit narratives from 11 women who terminated a pregnancy in adolescence.

Results: Data were analysed through narrative, thematic data analysis. Three themes emerged from the findings: delayed post-traumatic growth, low body esteem and an alteration in the development of maternal identity.

Conclusion: The study intended to explore the interaction of culture and grief amongst women who terminated a pregnancy in adolescence. The researcher determined that women who had not honoured their culture because of the secrecy surrounding the termination of pregnancy had delayed healing and an altered self-image.

Background: The primary purpose of screening is to detect individuals in danger of cervical cancer so as to prevent further progression of the disease. Cervical cancer remains a global concern, as it ranks as the fourth most commonly diagnosed female malignancy worldwide. It is the commonest female cancer in Zimbabwe. Women living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have a disproportionate risk of invasive cervical cancer, as they are 2-12 times more likely to develop pre-cancerous lesions. As a result of the increased risk, routine screenings are suggested. Few women are screened for cervical cancer in Zimbabwe.

Objectives: This study aimed at describing the experiences of screening for cervical cancer and motivation behind screening.

Method: The study employed a qualitative research approach. In-depth one to one interviews and focus group discussions were conducted using interview and focus group guides. The study was conducted at an opportunistic infections clinic in Mpilo Central Hospital. Data analysis was performed by using Giorgi's descriptive method of data analysis.

Results: The themes that emerged from data analysis were facilitators to screening for cervical cancer, community awareness of cervical cancer screening, free cervical cancer treatment and more screening centres and integrating cervical cancer screening with HIV care.

Conclusion: In-depth understanding of the factors that enable women to take part in cervical cancer screening is essential so that these factors can be strengthened to improve uptake of cervical cancer screening services.

Background: The South African department of health recently introduced subdermal Implanon contraceptive implant with the aim to reduce teenage pregnancy and maternal mortality. First used in all public healthcare facilities across the country since early 2014, this method of contraception has been described as highly effective. However, some women have reported unbearable side effects, forcing them to remove the contraceptive implant early before its expiry date. Negligible emphasis has been placed on staff training and development to equip the nurses with new protocol and policies on Implanon.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to explore experiences of women using Implanon as method of contraception at a selected primary healthcare facility in KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa.

Methods: A qualitative, descriptive and exploratory study design was used. A purposive sampling technique was used and a sample of seven women aged between 15 and 50 years was selected for this study. Semi-structured interviews were used in the data collection process. The Tesch's method for data coding and data analysis was utilised. Necessary ethical measures were taken to ensure that the study is trustworthy. The study was conducted at Community Health Centre, KwaZulu-Natal between June 2017 and December 2018.

Results: The findings showed that some participants were still willing to continue using this method of contraception regardless of the unwanted side effects. Major side effects reported were heavy menstrual bleeding, pain and discomfort, weight loss, insomnia and decreased sexual interest, which resulted in most participants stopping the use of Implanon.

Conclusion: Most of the participants' experience unwanted side effects because of poor screening, counselling and support. There is a clear demand to develop a screening tool and facilitate training of healthcare workers when initiating the use of Implanon.

Background: Integrating the use of information communication technology (ICT) in nursing curricula when preparing student nurses for the digital health future such as the sudden online learning as a result of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is vital. However, when student nurses in a South African private nursing education institution, struggled to complete obligatory online learning courses, nurse educators had to search for solutions.

Objectives: To explore the barriers and enablers for ICT adoption by a diverse group of student nurses in a private nursing education institution in the Free State Province.

Method: Following a qualitative, explorative, interpretive-descriptive design, student nurses were invited to participate. Based on all-inclusive, purposive sampling with inclusion criteria enabled selecting, a total of 17 participants who took part in three focus groups and written narratives. Transcribed interviews underwent thematic analysis with co-coder consensus. The study adhered to strategies to enhance trustworthiness.

Results: Students shared their views related to ICT and online learning within their theory and practice training. Student nurses held positive, negative and contrasting views of ICT adoption and online learning. Actions to master ICT adoption and online learning are highlighted. Information communication technology brings a challenging interdependence between nurses and technology.

Conclusion: Integration of ICT into nursing programmes is important. The enablers and barriers to ICT are described. Expose students to different technologies, especially using smart phones to search for (academic/non-academic) information. The adoption of ICT should enhance the learning process and facilitate deep learning. Students preferred online learning for self-assessment and described how they tried to master ICT and online learning. Information communication technologies in the clinical setting highlight the challenged interdependence between nurses and technology. Context-specific recommendations are proposed.