Caring for the Patient Comes First

By: Prof. Petra Brysiewicz As someone involved in acute/emergency care taking place in hospital, I spend little time interacting with rural health. However, the Rural Health Conference 2019 served as a reminder of the important role that we all play in the healthcare system. The central theme, which started from the very first keynote address, was focused around paying attention to the patients...
read more

Getting to Grips with AEFI on Our Continent

This Spring Graduation, Dr Bangalee graduated her first PhD student, Peter Yamoah, on a project entitled Knowledge, Perceptions, Practice and Pattern of Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) Reporting in Africa, which she co-supervised with Dr Frasia Oosthuizen, Discipline of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Dr Peter Yamoah, who resides in Ghana, is a principal clinical pharmacist at Komfo Anokye...
read more

The National Palliative Care Policy for South Africa and Pain Management – The Rural Health Conference 2019, Kapenta Bay

By: Dr Thilo Govender South Africa is a country of duality, differences and diversity. The Rural Health Conference is an important reflection of these themes in the health system of our country. The theme this year was “The rural voice – Hear our voices!” While South Africa embarks on major health sector reforms aimed at improving equity, redressing the funding envelope for health services...
read more

Highlighting Platelets in Prediabetes

Zibusiso Mkandla is a young academic who was born in a small district hospital in Murewa, Zimbabwe. Through a scholarship, he was fortunate enough to study for a Biomedical Technology degree in South Africa. He then furthered his studies with an MSc of the same name, and recently completed a PhD in Physiology, supervised by Dr Bongani Nkambule (DRILL Fellow). This study was part of a larger...
read more

Finding the Perfect Dose

Yasmin Malik was born in Tzaneen, Limpopo and moved to Durban in 2017 to start her honours degree in Medical Science with supervisor Dr Lihle Qulu (DRILL Fellow). She expanded on her honours work in 2018 with Dr Qulu, by doing a master’s in Medical Science, Human Physiology stream, specializing in neuroscience. For her study, she aimed to determine the most effective dose of lipopolysaccharide...
read more

Scrutinising the Effectiveness of Ward-Based Outreach Teams

Dr Landiwe Khuzwayo graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy in Health Sciences (Public Health) degree. She was supervised by Professor Mosa Moshabela, Dean and Head of School of Nursing and Public Health. The study aimed to explore the user perception of primary healthcare (PHC) services provided by the ward-based outreach teams (WBOTs), and the effectiveness of these WBOTs in rural households....
read more

Making Space for Mental Health

Dr Winnie Baphumelele Cele is a Mental Health lecturer in the Nursing discipline. She lectures Bachelor of Nursing students and supervises research for postgraduate students. She recently obtained her Doctorate (PhD) in Mental Health Nursing. Her study was titled Analyzing the Implementation of National Mental Health Policy Framework on the Integration of Mental Health into HIV Services in...
read more

Reflections on the 2019 Rural Health Conference

A Summary from the Conference Organising Chair In September 2018, I found out that I had been elected (in my absence) onto the 2019 Rural Health Conference (RHC) organising committee – this is a lesson to all readers never to miss a meeting that you are meant to be at! The next thing I knew – because it was decided that the 2019 conference should be in KwaZulu-Natal – my DRILL supervisor, Prof....
read more