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Background: South Africa was caught off guard by the student unrest in 2015 and 2016. This unrest was named the #fees must fall campaign. During this campaign, students raised the issue of decolonisation of the curriculum, challenging the higher education fraternity and the academic community. This was based on the fact that the existing curriculum has inadequate content on African traditional indigenous knowledge (ATIK), and continues to use the Western approach to address the needs of a multicultural, multiracial and multi-ethnic societies. Institutions responded by initiating dialogues regarding decolonisation of the curriculum in senates, scholars and between different health professional bodies., Aim: This article aimed to explore and describe the perspectives of nursing students regarding incorporating ATIK into the curriculum., Methods: Using a participatory transformative approach, researchers and participants worked collaboratively to inform social change. Participants comprised nursing students. The academics, traditional health practitioners, indigenous knowledge holders and primary health care nurses formed the panellists. Data were collected through one communal dialogue workshop, which lasted for 8 hours, tea and lunch included. Data were analysed thematically., Results: Students' perspectives emerged strongly as four themes, namely, politics of identity, displacement and distortion, curriculum content and institutional resistance. Students expressed that the current education system results in an identity crisis. The existing curriculum does not adequately convey an understanding of ATIK; it is displaced and distorted., Conclusion: Nursing science has great potential to incorporate the wealth of ATIK into its curriculum. In spite of a vibrant and rich cultural heritage, the ATIK specific to nursing sciences still needs to be incorporated into the existing curriculum in a responsive and relevant manner.

Healthcare professionals require adequate knowledge of genetics to be able to assess, diagnose, manage and prevent in good time genetic-related diseases. Healthcare professionals empowered in this field are able to differentiate at an early stage between genetic and genomic components of diseases. Advanced midwifery learners are trained to provide specialist holistic care that includes genetics upon course completion. Their genetic knowledge is crucial for them to provide genetic services in clinical- and in primary health care (PHC) settings. This study explores perceptions of advanced midwifery educators regarding genetics knowledge of their learners. A qualitative, explorative and descriptive design was employed. A total of 19 participants took part in this study. Data were collected through focus group discussions, individual face-to-face and telephone interviews. Thematic analysis was used for data analysis. Genetic knowledge emerged as a major theme under which genetic concepts, genetic history taking, common genetic disorders, genetic counselling, identification and management of genetic disorders were identified as sub-themes. At present, genetics education is addressed at the discretion of the individual advanced midwifery educators during training. This random kind of teaching is attributed to the lack of a curriculum framework that standardises genetics education at nursing education institutions (NEIs) in South Africa. The importance of genetics education is underrated in advanced midwifery courses, contributing to learners lacking adequate knowledge of genetics. Advanced midwifery learners need a sufficient knowledge of genetics to provide holistic care in clinical and PHC settings upon course completion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]