Use of home remedies for the treatment and prevention of coronavirus disease: An integrative review.

Background and Aims: Home remedies are understood to mean medications or tonics prepared at home to treat certain ailments without any prescription or professional supervision. Reliance on home remedies increased during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The aim of this integrative review was to identify home remedies used to treat and prevent COVID-19 and discuss implications for nursing practice and health related to the safety and efficacy of home remedies. Methods: Cooper's integrative review method guided this study to identify home remedies used to prevent and treat COVID-19. Google Scholar, BMC, EBSCOhost, Medline, Academic Search Ultimate, Web of Science Core Collections, Science Direct and Global Health were used to search for relevant information on the use of COVID-19 home remedies from 2019 to 2022. The Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP) checklist was used to select studies that had to be included. The eligibility criteria included studies on home remedies, written in English from 2019 to 2022. Findings of qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods research were extracted, and narrative thematic data synthesis was applied. Results: Eleven articles which met the inclusion criteria were found in nine countries: Ghana (1), South Africa (1), Tanzania (1), Togo (1) and Zimbabwe (1), Bangladesh (1), Hong Kong (1), India (2), Iran (1), and Pakistan (1). Findings showed that home remedies are used for the prevention of COVID-19 infection, treatment of COVID-19, and boosting immunity. Conclusions: Home remedies have been found to be more pronounced across all sectors and social strata. More research is needed on the use of home remedies for life-threatening outbreaks. Policymakers and healthcare workers are challenged to encourage the use of home remedies in the prevention of other ailments and epidemics that might occur in the future.

Experiences of accessing healthcare services by people with hearing loss/impairment (deaf) in sub-Saharan Africa: An integrative review.

PURPOSE: The aim was to review published articles to identify experiences of people with hearing loss/impairment accessing healthcare services in sub-Saharan Africa. DESIGN AND METHOD: The study was guided by Cooper's integrative review methodology. Articles published between 2010 and 2020 were identified through electronic databases. The search included: Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), PubMed, EBSCOHOST, MEDLINE, and Psyc INFO and using specific search terms. Ninety-one (91) articles were identified and screened for eligibility, and only seven articles were appraised using relevant tools for qualitative and quantitative designs. FINDINGS: The articles that met the inclusion criteria were from the following sub-Saharan countries: Ghana (n = 2) South Africa (n = 3) Uganda (n = 1) and Zimbabwe (n = 1). Review analysis revealed seven (7) major themes categorized as: communication, lack of knowledge, discrimination, financial problem, healthcare workers' attitudes, and a lack of autonomy, security and privacy issues. CONCLUSION: The review provides evidence that indicate the challenges faced by people with hearing loss/impairment in sub-Saharan Africa. Studies suggest that communication, lack of knowledge; financial problems, lack of autonomy and privacy, and a perception of being discriminated against were major impediments in accessing healthcare service. Undesirable attitudes were also a hindrance for healthcare access. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Communication is a major impediment in accessing healthcare for the hearing impaired people residing in sub-Saharan Africa.

Foreign nurse educators' lived experiences of incivility: The case for Botswana.

BACKGROUND: In light of current economic prosperity and subsequent attainment of upper-middle-income country status, Botswana attracted nurse educators from other African countries. Within this cross-cultural environment, anti-immigrant sentiments have catalysed incidents of incivility, affecting the quality of teaching and learning outcomes. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to explore experiences of incivility amongst foreign nurse educators and how it impacts their work and livelihood. METHOD: This study employed a qualitative approach, using interpretive phenomenology. In-depth interviews using a developed guide were conducted with 13 foreign nurse educators working as nurse educators in Botswana. Thematic analysis was conducted in accordance with interpretive phenomenology, where transcriptions were drafted after each interview. RESULTS: Three themes emerged from the study findings: hostile behaviour, discrimination and inequitable application of procedures and processes. Discrimination as a theme has two sub-themes, namely, workplace injustice and individual injustice. CONCLUSION: The study found that foreign nurse educators working in Botswana experience incivility. From the findings, the study strongly recommends application of equitable job opportunities to all employees, including foreign nurse educators who are employed to meet the shortage of nurse educators in Botswana. The researchers are of the opinion that the nurse educator shortage will persist in Botswana, partly because of the nursing profession rendered unattractive by hostile social interactions amongst nurse educators' exclusion of foreign nurses from benefits enjoyed by local nurse educators, workplace injustice targeting foreign nurse educators, as well as inequitable application of policies and processes that affect foreign nurse educators.

Barriers to Prostate Cancer Screening by Men in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Integrated Review.

PURPOSE: The aim of this integrative review was to synthesize findings of the published studies on barriers to prostate cancer screening by men in sub-Saharan Africa. DESIGN AND METHOD: Five-step Cooper integrative methodology guided this review. Electronic databases, including the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), PubMed, EBSCOHOST, MEDLINE, ProQuest, and PsycINFO, were searched using specific search terms in combinations to identify relevant articles for the review. Through this process, 83 articles were retrieved and evaluated for duplications and relevance of titles, abstracts, and content. Seventeen articles met the inclusion criteria and were judged to be methodologically adequate. These articles were published between 2008 and 2018. FINDINGS: Studies that met the inclusion criteria were from seven sub-Saharan countries, including Burkina Faso (n = 1), Ghana (n = 1), Kenya (n = 2), Namibia (n = 1), Nigeria (n = 8), South Africa (n = 3), and Uganda (n = 1). The most common barrier was lack of knowledge, followed by perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs that hindered screening and testing for prostate cancer. CONCLUSIONS: The findings from the integrative review suggest that individuals with low levels of education tend to lack knowledge, cannot comprehend information, and are mistrustful about prostate cancer screening. Low socio-economic status was also associated with poor prostate screening and testing uptake. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Evidence from this review demonstrates that lack of knowledge is a major barrier for prostate screening among men in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa.