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Induction of labour (IOL) is defined as an artificial stimulation administered to initiate the delivery process before the onset of spontaneous labour. Setting-adapted guidelines need to be developed to promote safe maternal and neonatal care in line with the needs of a specific institution. This study aimed to describe and assess the current IOL practices at Botshabelo District Hospital, focusing on incidence, indications, induction methods, complications, and outcomes. A retrospective-descriptive study included all relevant data from IOL cases over six months between July and December 2017. From 168 attempted inductions of labour, 153 files were retrieved. The majority of cases (69.7%) were for post-dates. Normal vaginal delivery (NVD) was achieved in most patients (69.3%), while one patient had an assisted delivery. Thus, 30.1% of inductions failed and required caesarean sections. The incidence, indications, methods of induction, complications, and outcomes of IOL in BDH are in line with international guidelines; however, including the sweeping of membranes at term and balloon catheters as methods could improve the current guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Workplace-based assessment (WPBA) is becoming part of high-stake assessments in specialist training. Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) are a recent addition to WPBA. This is the first South African publication on developing EPAs for postgraduate family medicine training. An EPA is a unit of practice, observable in the workplace, constituting several tasks with underlying knowledge, skills and professional behaviours. Entrustable professional activities allow for entrustable decisions regarding competence in a described work context. A national workgroup representing all nine postgraduate training programmes in South Africa has developed 19 EPAs. This new concept needs change management to understand the theory and practice of EPAs. Family medicine departments with large clinical workloads are small, necessitating navigating logistical issues to develop EPAs. It has unmasked existing workplace learning and assessment challenges. Contribution: This article contributes new thinking to developing EPAs for family medicine in an effort to understand more authentic WPBA nationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Medical grade oxygen is classified as a drug and needs to be prescribed by a qualified healthcare professional. Oxygen therapy is prescribed to people who cannot maintain normal blood oxygen saturation while breathing atmospheric air. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic highlighted the importance of the rational use of this scarce commodity. This study investigated oxygen therapy practices in adult ward patients. Methods: A cross-sectional study design with an analytical component was used in the adults wards at a National District Hospital and the Pelonomi Academic Hospital in Bloemfontein. Data were collected from patient files, interviews and oxygen measurements of adult patients that received oxygen. Results: One hundred and fifteen patients were included in the study, of whom 47.0% received oxygen without an oxygen prescription. Around 62.3% of the patients with prescriptions did not receive oxygen as prescribed. The prescriptions and oxygen administration for COVID-19 patients were better than for non--COVID-19 patients. A quarter of the patients possibly received oxygen therapy unnecessarily. Conclusion: Poor oxygen therapy practices were identified, including prescription errors, oxygen administration errors and oxygen wastage. A protocol should be developed and implemented for the prescription and administration of oxygen therapy. Training should occur to prevent oxygen wastage. Contribution: This study highlighted poor oxygen practices and prescriptions, as well as oxygen wastage in the absence of local oxygen therapy guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Basic palliative care teaching should be included in training curricula for health care providers (HCPs) at all levels of the health service to ensure that the goal set by the South African (SA) National Policy Framework and Strategy for Palliative Care, to have an adequate number of appropriately trained HCPs in South Africa, is achieved. Furthermore, palliative learning objectives for nurses and doctors should be standardised. Many SA medical schools have integrated elements of Palliative Medicine (PM) teaching into undergraduate medical training programmes for doctors; however, the degree of integration varies widely, and consensus and standardisation of the content, structure and delivery of such PM training programmes are not yet a reality. Aim: This joint position paper aims to describe the current state of undergraduate medical PM teaching in South Africa and define the PM competencies required for an SA generalist doctor. Setting: Palliative Medicine programme leads and teachers from eight medical schools in South Africa. Methods: A survey exploring the structure, organisation and content of the respective medical undergraduate PM programmes was distributed to PM programme leads and teachers. Results: Responses were received from seven medical schools. Through a process of iterative review, competencies were defined and further grouped according to suitability for the preclinical and clinical components of the curriculum. Conclusion: Through mapping out these competencies in a spiralled medical curriculum, the authors hope to provide guidance to medical curriculum designers to effectively integrate PM teaching and learning into current curricula in line with the goals of the SA National Policy Framework and Strategy on Palliative Care (NPFSPC). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]