Tracking the Trauma Epidemic in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

BACKGROUND: Trauma remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality in South Africa, but attempts to track the epidemic are often based on mortality data, or derived from individual health facilities. This project is based on the routine collection of trauma data from all public health facilities in the province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), between 2012 and 2022. METHODS: Hospital level data on trauma over the past ten years was drawn from the district health information system (DHIS). Data relating to assaults, gunshots and motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) were recorded in the emergency rooms, whilst data on admissions are recorded in the wards and intensive care units. RESULTS: There were 1,263,847 emergency room visits for assaults, gunshots and MVCs over the ten-year period and trauma admissions ranged between four and five percent of the total number of hospital admissions annually. There was a dramatic decrease in trauma presentations and admissions over 2020/2021 as a result of the COVID lockdowns. Over the entire period, intentional injury was roughly twice as frequent as non-intentional injury. Intentional trauma had an almost equal ratio of blunt assault to penetrating assault. Gunshot-related assault increased dramatically over the 2021/2022 collecting period. CONCLUSIONS: The burden of trauma in KZN remains high. The unique feature of this burden is the excessively high rate of intentional trauma in the form of both blunt and penetrating mechanisms. Developing injury-prevention strategies to reduce the burden of interpersonal violence is more difficult than for unintentional trauma.

Understanding COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy among Healthcare Workers in South Africa.

Healthcare workers (HCWs) were the first population group offered coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines in South Africa because they were considered to be at higher risk of infection and required protecting as they were a critical resource to the health system. In some contexts, vaccine uptake among HCWs has been slow, with several studies citing persistent concerns about vaccine safety and effectiveness. This study aimed to determine vaccine uptake among HCWs in South Africa whilst identifying what drives vaccine hesitancy among HCWs. We adopted a multimethod approach, utilising both a survey and in-depth interviews amongst a sample of HCWs in South Africa. In a sample of 7763 HCWS, 89% were vaccinated, with hesitancy highest among younger HCWs, males, and those working in the private sector. Among those who were hesitant, consistent with the literature, HCWs raised concerns about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine. Examining this further, our data revealed that safety and effectiveness concerns were formed due to first-hand witnessing of patients presenting with side-effects, concern over perceived lack of scientific rigor in developing the vaccine, confidence in the body's immune system to stave off serious illness, and both a general lack of information and distrust in the available sources of information. This study, through discursive narratives, provides evidence elucidating what drives safety and effectiveness concerns raised by HCWs. These concerns will need to be addressed if HCWs are to effectively communicate and influence public behaviour. HCWs are key role players in the national COVID-19 vaccination programme, making it critical for this workforce to be well trained, knowledgeable, and confident if they are going to improve the uptake of vaccines among the general population in South Africa, which currently remains suboptimal.

Out of Chaos Leaders Emerged.

COVID-19 had a major influence on nursing with the pandemic resulting in changes in the work environment while experiencing physical and emotional challenges such as moral distress, fear for self and family and dealing with the unknown. However, during this period, nurses demonstrated extraordinary resilience, crafted innovations in clinical practice, communication and support, providing leadership in the health service and in the nursing profession.

Public perceptions on Twitter of nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: The use of social media platforms to convey public opinions and attitudes has exponentially increased over the last decade on topics related to health. In all these social media postings related to the pandemic, specific attention has been focused on healthcare professionals, specifically nurses. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore how the keyword 'nurse' is located in COVID-19 pandemic-related tweets during a selected period of the pandemic in order to assess public perception. METHODS: Tweets related to COVID-19 were downloaded from Twitter for the period January 1st, 2020, to November 11th, 2021. Sentiment analysis was used to identify opinions, emotions, and approaches expressed in tweet which included 'nurse', 'COVID-19', and 'pandemic' as either keyword or hashtags. RESULTS: A total of 2,440,696 most used unique words in the downloaded 582,399 tweets were included and the sentiment analysis indicated that 24.4% (n = 595,530) of the tweets demonstrated positive sentiment while 14.1% (n = 343,433) of the tweets demonstrated negative sentiment during COVID-19. Within these results, 17% (n = 416,366) of the tweets included positive basic emotion words of trust and 4.9% (n = 120,654) of joy. In terms of negative basic emotion words, 9.9% (n = 241,758) of the tweets included the word fear, 8.3% (n = 202,179) anticipation, 7.9% (n = 193,145) sadness, 5.7% (n = 139,791) anger, 4.2% (n = 103,936) disgust, and 3.6% (n = 88,338) of the tweets included the word surprised. CONCLUSIONS: It is encouraging to note that with the advent of major health crises, public perceptions on social media, appears to portray an image of nurses which reflects the professionalism and values of the profession.