Patricia Mcinerney

• PhD
• University of the Witwatersrand

Background: The prehospital field of Emergency Medical Care urgently requires a generation of practitioners capable of engaging in research and advancing the profession through evidence-based practice. The paucity of prehospital-specific research necessitates a deeper understanding of the factors that influence agency in Emergency Care Practitioner...

Background: The paucity of research from low- and middle-income countries, particularly in the field of prehospital emergency care, highlights the need for healthcare professionals in these regions to contribute to the global knowledge economy. Accordingly, prehospital providers must engage in postgraduate education to develop research skills. Howe...

Objective This paper describes several automation tools and software that can be considered during evidence synthesis projects and provides guidance for their integration in the conduct of scoping reviews. Study Design and Setting The guidance presented in this work is adapted from the results of a scoping review and consultations with the JBI Sco...

Objective The aim of this review is to compare the effectiveness of intrathecal dexmedetomidine to fentanyl as additives to hyperbaric bupivacaine in providing postoperative analgesia in patients undergoing cesarean section. Introduction Pain following cesarean section remains a challenge, with limited treatment options due to potential undesirabl...

Scoping reviewers often face challenges in the extraction, analysis, and presentation of scoping review results. Using best-practice examples and drawing on the expertise of the JBI Scoping Review Methodology Group and an editor of a journal that publishes scoping reviews, this paper expands on existing JBI scoping review guidance. The aim of this...

Absract Objective Scoping reviews and evidence map methodologies are increasingly being used by researchers. The objective of this article is to examine how scoping reviews can reduce research waste. Study design and setting This article summarises the key issues facing the research community regarding research waste and how scoping reviews can m...

Background Nursing education involves a number of stakeholders in the teaching and learning process, and these are student nurses, lecturers, clinical instructors and nurses. The role that each of these parties play in the teaching and learning process is dependent on each other and is key to the development of competence among student nurses. Howe...

Evidence-based healthcare is a worldwide movement with hundreds of organisations and thousands of individuals working to ensure that healthcare practice, policy, and decision-making is informed by rigorous research evidence, to improve health outcomes. The success of this global agenda however depends on individuals and organisations working togeth...

Knowledge user consultation is often limited or omitted in the conduct of scoping reviews. Not including knowledge users within the conduct and reporting of scoping reviews could be due to a lack of guidance or understanding about what consultation requires and the subsequent benefits. Knowledge user engagement in evidence synthesis, including cons...

Evidence synthesis encompasses a broad range of review types, and scoping reviews are an increasingly popular approach to synthesizing evidence in a number of fields. They sit alongside other evidence synthesis methodologies, such as systematic reviews, qualitative evidence synthesis, realist synthesis, and many more. Until now, scoping reviews hav...

The demand for rapid reviews has exploded in recent years. A rapid review is an approach to evidence synthesis that provides timely information to decision-makers (eg, health care planners, providers, policymakers, and patients) by simplifying the evidence synthesis process. A rapid review is particularly appealing for urgent decisions.JBI is a wor...

Objective: The purpose of this article is to clearly describe how to develop a robust and detailed scoping review protocol, which is the first stage of the scoping review process. This paper provides detailed guidance and a checklist for prospective authors to ensure that their protocols adequately inform both the conduct of the ensuing review and...

What is known and Objective Scoping reviews are a valuable evidence synthesis methodology. They can be used to map the evidence related to any topic to allow examination of practice, methods, policy and where (and how) future research could be undertaken. As such, they are a useful form of evidence synthesis for pharmacy clinicians, researchers and...

Objective: The objective of this scoping review is to identify and report upon evidence (such as guidance) or tools regarding methodological quality or risk of bias of scoping reviews. Introduction: Scoping reviews have gained popularity in recent years but have been criticized for variations in their approaches. This scoping review will examine...

Objective: The objective of this scoping review was to identify the available evidence on antimicrobial stewardship programs for teaching medical students about rational antimicrobial use, including the content taught and the method of instruction used. Introduction: Antibiotics are a precious resource whose discovery have saved millions of live...

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to assess the knowledge and perceptions of final year medical students about antibiotic resistance and antibiotic use to assist in the development of an antibiotic stewardship curriculum for teaching medical students in South Africa and Nigeria and the principles of prudent antibiotic prescribing. Met...

The development of competence among student nurses is important to nurse educators, nursing regulatory bodies, employers and patients. Several teaching and learning strategies support the development of competence among student nurses, but the level of competence at the point of graduation remains below expected standards. Therefore, more research...

Objective: The objective of this paper is to describe the updated methodological guidance for conducting a JBI scoping review, with a focus on new updates to the approach and development of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (the PRISMA-ScR). Introduction: Scoping reviews are an i...

Aim The aim of this study is to discuss the available methodological resources and best‐practice guidelines for the development and completion of scoping reviews relevant to nursing and midwifery policy, practice, and research. Design Discussion Paper. Data Sources Scoping reviews that exemplify best practice are explored with reference to the re...

Objectives Scoping reviews are being increasingly used by researchers. The objective of this article was to outline some challenges and potential solutions to improve the conduct and reporting of scoping reviews. Study Design and Setting The JBI scoping review methodology group consists of 9 experts in the field of scoping reviews. This article su...

Objective: The objective of this paper is to describe the updated methodological guidance for conducting a JBI scoping review, with a focus on new updates to the approach and development of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (the PRISMA-ScR). Introduction: Scoping reviews are an i...

Background: Trinity Health Services (THS) is a free clinic that serves the homeless community of Braamfontein. The clinic is run by pharmacy and medical students registered in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, assisted by academic staff. This setting provided an ideal space to document the interprofessional exp...

Background: Mental and physical health problems are both contributory factors and drivers of homelessness. Adding to this, the homeless encounter numerous barriers when accessing healthcare services. Aim: The aim was to determine the experiences of the homeless when accessing healthcare services and the reason why they visit Trinity Health Servi...

BACKGROUND: In 2015, a medical curriculum review at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, identified too large a gap between the medical school-based teaching in the fourth year of the course and the hospital-based teaching in the fifth year, when students begin their clinical clerkships. A number of changes were made to...

Background: Those who are homeless are more prone to communicable, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and are less likely to access healthcare services. In South Africa there are no specific public healthcare services tailored to the needs of these communities, particularly if they are immigrants. Trinity Health Services is a student-run inne...

Objective: The objective of this scoping review is to identify the available evidence on antimicrobial stewardship programs for teaching medical students about rational antimicrobial use, including the content taught and the method of instruction used. Introduction: Antibiotics are life-saving drugs and their discovery is one of the most importa...

Background: In 2014, the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) published a comprehensive methodology for the conduct and reporting of scoping reviews based on previous frameworks and guidance. Further work on scoping review methodology and particularly reporting is needed. To assist with refinements to the methodology, this survey was undertaken to evalua...

Objective: The objective of this scoping review was to determine the theories of learning and methods used in teaching in postgraduate education in the health sciences. The longer term objective was to use the information gathered to design a workshop for teachers of postgraduate students. Introduction: Whilst undergraduate teaching in the healt...

People who are homeless present for care with poor health status, influenced by their physical and social environment. Trinity Health Services is an interprofessional student-run clinic providing free health care to the inner city homeless of Johannesburg, South Africa. This descriptive survey profiled the disease conditions of the homeless through...

The Catholic Church played a significant role in healthcare within South Africa through the establishment of 73 hospitals by the 1950s. However, the majority of these had been taken over by the state by 1970. Trinity Health Services (THS), a student-run clinic providing free healthcare to the homeless and operating from a Catholic Church in Johanne...

This article was migrated. The article was not marked as recommended. Background: An increasing number of interventions have been reported over the last ten years in the area of faculty development. We define faculty development as a series of planned activities aimed at preparing individuals for their teaching role. The planned activities include...

Fourth year occupational therapy students at the University of the Witwatersrand attend a three-week rural fieldwork placement. During this time, they are in a resource-limited environment with limited access to their usual Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in a blended learning curriculum, thereby contributing to ‘digital apartheid’ between stude...

First-year students present with diverse digital literacy skills. Orientation to online tools and resources via a WebQuest was introduced as a novel modality to allow students to work at their own pace. Occupational therapy and physiotherapy students (N=383) over three consecutive academic years completed the WebQuest. A descriptive survey design w...

Fourth year occupational therapy students at the University of the Witwatersrand attend a three-week rural fieldwork placement. During this time, they are in a resource-limited environment with limited access to their usual Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in a blended learning curriculum, thereby contributing to 'digital apartheid' between stude...

Fourth year occupational therapy students at the University of the Witwatersrand attend a three-week rural fieldwork placement. During this time, they are in a resource-limited environment with limited access to their usual Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in a blended learning curriculum, thereby contributing to 'digital apartheid' between stude...

First-year students present with diverse digital literacy skills. Orientation to online tools and resources via a WebQuest was introduced as a novel modality to allow students to work at their own pace. Occupational therapy and physiotherapy students (N=383) over three consecutive academic years completed the WebQuest. A descriptive survey design w...

First-year students present with diverse digital literacy skills. Orientation to online tools and resources via a WebQuest was introduced as a novel modality to allow students to work at their own pace. Occupational therapy and physiotherapy students (N=383) over three consecutive academic years completed the WebQuest. A descriptive survey design w...

First-year students present with diverse digital literacy skills. Orientation to online tools and resources via a WebQuest was introduced as a novel modality to allow students to work at their own pace. Occupational therapy and physiotherapy students (N=383) over three consecutive academic years completed the WebQuest. A descriptive survey design w...

Social accountability in health professions education is important for the reduction of health disparities. There is a need for the development of curricula which begin to produce graduates who are responsive to community needs. These curricula need to include dialogues with communities, deep reflection and a transformative perspective. This study...

The Chapter is freely available at: https://reviewersmanual.joannabriggs.org/display/MANUAL/Chapter+11%3A+Scoping+reviews Evidence-based practice is an expanding field and together with a rapid increase in the availability of primary research, the conduct of reviews has also escalated. Different forms of evidence and different kinds of review ob...

Background This paper presents a critical reflection of the integration of Blended Learning (BL) into an undergraduate occupational therapy curriculum which was delivered through Problem Based Learning (PBL). Method This is a qualitative reflection of a Participatory Action Research (PAR) study using Brookfield’s model for critical reflection of an...

Background: An increasing number of interventions have been reported over the last ten years in the area of faculty development. We define faculty development as a planned series of activities aimed at preparing individuals for their teaching role. In 2014 we commenced a postgraduate diploma in health science education in a Faculty of Health Scienc...

Background Social accountability is defined as the responsibility of institutions to respond to the health priorities of a community. There is an international movement towards the education of health professionals who are accountable to communities. There is little evidence of how communities experience or articulate this accountability. Methods...

Review objectives/questions: The objective of this scoping review is to determine the theories of teaching and learning, and/or models and/or methods used in teaching in postgraduate education in the health sciences. The longer term objective is to use the information gathered to design a workshop for teachers of postgraduate students.The question...

Objective: The aim of this review was to examine studies for evidence of the effects of problem-based learning on the competence of nurses in clinical practice. Methods: A 5-step systematic review was undertaken as follows: defining the review question, setting the review objectives, searching databases to identify relevant studies between 1999-200...

Background. The didactic approach to teaching physiology in our university has traditionally included the delivery of lectures to large groups, illustrating concepts and referencing recommended textbooks. Importantly, at undergraduate level, our assessments demand a level of application of physiological mechanisms to recognised pathophysiological c...

Objective: Scoping reviews are used to assess the extent of a body of literature on a particular topic, and often to ensure that further research in that area is a beneficial addition to world knowledge. The aim of this paper reports upon the development of a methodology for scoping reviews based upon the Arksey and O'Malley framework, the Levac,...

Background. Patient care is significantly affected by doctors and pharmacists, who have specialised knowledge and skills. In establishing an interprofessional undergraduate learning environment, medical and pharmacy students have the opportunity to start working in a collaborative manner early on in their careers. Objectives. To implement combined...

Background: Over the last 20 years, quality improvement in health has become an important strategy in health services in many countries. With the emphasis on quality health care, there has been a shift in social paradigms towards including service users in their own health on different levels. There is growing evidence in literature on the positiv...

Reviews of primary research are becoming more common as evidence-based practice gains recognition as the benchmark for care, and the number of, and access to, primary research sources has grown. One of the newer review types is the 'scoping review'. In general, scoping reviews are commonly used for 'reconnaissance' - to clarify working definitions...

Background In South Africa the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act (Act 92 of 1996) replaced the Abortion and Sterilization Act (Act No 2 of 1975). The Abortion and Sterilization Act allowed for termination of pregnancy for specific reasons and conditions. The current Act of 1996 allows for termination of pregnancy at the mother's request up unt...

Background. The University of the Witwatersrand introduced a new curriculum in 2003 where students could gain admission to the medical programme at two levels: directly as school leavers or following a degree as graduate entrants at the third year of study. From this point both groups of students continue in a combined class in a single curriculum....

The six year medical programme at the University of the Witwatersrand admits students into the programme through two routes - school entrants and graduate entrants. Graduates join the school entrants in the third year of study in a transformed curriculum called the Graduate Entry Medical Programme (GEMP). In years I and 2 of the GEMP, the curriculu...

Background Historically the quality improvement movement in health started in the early 1990’s although industry had already been using many of the concepts earlier. Patient-centeredness is a concept coined in the 1960’s, which predated the QI movement. I will concentrate on all reports from 1990 in order not to exclude the earlier work regarding Q...

If institutions of higher education are to produce health professionals whose practice is research based, then students need to be exposed to learning opportunities that include searching for information and critical appraisal. This requires teachers to incorporate the latest research in their teaching. One of the identified strategic goals of a So...

Background. Bedside teaching is the core teaching strategy in the clinical study years of the medical undergraduate degree at the University of the Witwatersrand. The quality of this teaching strategy has not been formally evaluated by students as other teaching strategies have been. Method. A quantitative, descriptive study was undertaken in the f...

Given that antiretroviral (ARV) medication adherence has been shown to be high in resource-limited countries, the question remains as to whether adherence will remain at that level as medications become more widely available. Comparing adherence to tuberculosis (TB) medications, which have been readily available, and ARV medications may help to ind...

Symptom management in HIV/AIDS is a critical issue that influences the quality of life of those living with the disease. Although the goals of treating the numbers living with HIV/AIDS have not yet been achieved, availability of antiretroviral therapies (ARVs) has been expanded to many clinical settings in KwaZulu-Natal, the epicenter of HIV infect...

Objectives: The broad objective of this review was to describe the experiences of caregivers of people living with HIV/AIDS, in home-based settings in Africa, including the challenges and difficulties of caring as well as the positive aspects. Inclusion criteria: This review considered studies in which family members were the primary informal ca...

The National Plan for Higher Education (2001) mooted funding as a lever to engender equitable student access, quality teaching and research, improved student retention and throughput and the production of graduates responsive to the country's social and economic needs. Maximizing income via the teaching input and output grants, the research output...

A supportive social environment is critical for those with HIV/AIDS. In KwaZulu-Natal, in South Africa, antiretroviral therapy is available to some HIV-positive individuals. Antiretroviral adherence is an important issue for limiting HIV infection. Adherence to therapy may be linked to social support, particularly amidst the stigma prevalent in HIV...

KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa, accounts for 28.7% of the HIV infection total and one-third of infections among youth and children in South Africa. The purpose of this study was to examine the variables of HIV/AIDS symptoms, social support, influence of comorbid medical problems, length of time adhering to antiretroviral therapy medications,...

Language provides an important means by which humans communicate with one another, and communication plays a pivotal role in the health professions in developing trust and co-operation between the carer and the one being cared for. Little has been written about the importance of language barriers in nursing, although much has been written about the...

Adherence to anti-tuberculosis (TB) medications is a critical issue in limiting the spread of the disease throughout the world. In South Africa, medications to treat TB are available at no cost. The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics of medication adherence in a sample of patients diagnosed with TB (N = 159). The relationships...

Background: The School of Nursing at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) offers five programmes through a decentralised mode of delivery. The programme coordinator visits the centres two to three times per year, but the groups of students in the various centres do not interact with each other. The University's School of Medicine has a Department...

Hospital workplace experiences of registered nurses that have contributed to their resignation in the Durban Metropolitan Area. The purpose of this research was to explore and describe the hospital workplace experiences that had contributed to the resignations of Registered Nurses in the Durban Metropolitan Area. The broad perspective governing thi...

Breast cancer has been described as one of the life-threatening diseases affecting women and is a major problem in women's health issues. The unrecorded number of cases of breast lumps and breast cancer observed in women in Sierra Leone prompted the researcher to organize a "Breast Week" during which 1,200 women were educated on breast cancer and t...

This paper reports a study describing and evaluating the outcomes of problem-based learning (PBL) programmes in nursing schools in South Africa in terms of the competence of graduates to solve problem in actual clinical settings, and comparing this competence with that of graduates from non-PBL programmes. The nursing literature tends to equate pro...

Aim. This paper reports a study describing and evaluating the outcomes of problem-based learning (PBL) programmes in nursing schools in South Africa in terms of the competence of graduates to solve problem in actual clinical settings, and comparing this competence with that of graduates from non-PBL programmes. Background. The nursing literature te...

The aim of this study was to investigate the registered nurses abilities to cope with the death of their clients and to determine if there was any improvement after attending a workshop designed to address this issue. NULL HYPOTHESIS: Using the Coping with Death Scale by Bugen (1980--1981) cited in Neimeyer (1994), respondents' pre-test scores are...

Although a significant body of research regarding problem-based learning (PBL) programs has been conducted during the past 2 decades, most of it relates to medical students and their curricula. There has also been very little research in the context of developing countries. In South Africa, most of the students who are admitted into nursing program...

Whilst there is a significant body of research on the outcomes of problem-based learning (PBL) programmes (Albanese and Mitchell, 1993; Vernon and Blake, 1993), there is little information regarding the outcomes of community-oriented programmes (COL) for nursing students. Between 1994 and 1997, four university schools of nursing implemented problem...

Problem-based Learning is a learner-centered approach to education which encourages student participation and group work in the learning process. This method of self-directed learning is facilitated by the use of small-group discussions. This being the case, it is important for groups to function effectively in order for this learning to occur. The...

Knowledge is one of the major factors that promotes adherence to treatment regimens. With the current trends worldwide of home and community-based services for the management of HIV/AIDS patients, knowledge of care givers about the home care of these patients will determine the success of the programs. The purpose of this descriptive study was to e...

The reasons for changing from a traditional curriculum to a problem-based learning curriculum are outlined. The process used in preparing for this change is described. The planning phase made use of workshops, core committees and international workshops and visits. Preparation of the necessary resources are enumerated, as are the preparation of the...