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01 March 2023
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Story Alicia Pienaar
Prof Mathys Labuschagne is the Head of the Clinical Simulation and Skills Unit within the School of Biomedical Sciences in the Faculty of Health Sciences
The Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Prof Gert van Zyl, invites you to the inaugural lecture of Prof Mathys Labuschagne, Head of the Clinical Simulation and Skills Unit within the School of Biomedical Sciences in the Faculty of Health Sciences.
Subject: Clinical Simulation: Quo Vadis?
Venue: Auditorium, Equitas Building, Bloemfontein Campus
Date: 8 March 2023
Time: 17:30
RSVP on or before Friday 3 March 2023
Light refreshments will be served after the inaugural lecture.
About Prof M Labuschagne
Prof Mathys Labuschagne is the Head of the Clinical Simulation and Skills Unit within the School of Biomedical Sciences in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Free State. He completed his MB ChB degree and qualified as an ophthalmologist in 2006.
He developed an interest in health professions education and obtained a PhD in Health Professions Education in June 2012. The title of his thesis was: Clinical Simulation to enhance undergraduate medical education and training at the University of the Free State.
Prof Labuschagne was appointed Head of the Clinical Simulation and Skills Unit at the University of the Free State. The facility is utilised for undergraduate and postgraduate clinical simulation training, as well as interprofessional training and research. He has a special interest in simulation as training tool, precision skills training, and mastery of learning and simulation as tool to prepare students for interprofessional education and collaborative practice.
Prof Labuschagne is part of a multi-institutional consortium that developed the MySkills Medic app. It is a clinical procedural skills application aimed at graduating medical students, interns, and community-service doctors. He was appointed as a member of the Ophthalmology Foundation Education Simulation Subcommittee (affiliate of the International Council of Ophthalmology) tasked with developing a white paper to guide simulation training for ophthalmologists. He is involved in postgraduate supervision for master’s and PhD students in HPE.
Fighting the tuberculosis battle as a collective
2015-09-28
The team hard at work making South Africa a
healthier place |
Tuberculosis (TB) is second only to HIV/AIDS as the greatest killer worldwide due to a single infectious agent. More than 95% of TB deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. Despite being more prevalent among men than women, TB remains one of the top five causes of death amongst women between the ages of 15 and 44 years. While everyone is at risk for contracting TB, those most at risk include children under the age of five and the elderly. In addition, research indicates that individuals with compromised immune systems, household contacts with pulmonary TB patients, and healthcare workers are also at increased risk for contracting TB.
According to the Deputy Director of the Centre for Health Systems Research and Development (CHSR&D) at the UFS, Dr Michelle Engelbrecht, research has found that healthcare workers may be three times more likely to be infected by TB than the general population.
The unsettling fact
“Research done in health facilities in South Africa has found that nurses do not often participate in basic prevention acts, such as opening windows and wearing respirators when attending to infectious TB patients,” she explained.
In response to this concern, CHSR&D, which operates within the Faculty of Humanities at the the University of the Free State (UFS) Bloemfontein Campus has developed a research project to investigate TB prevention and infection control in primary healthcare facilities and households in Mangaung Metropolitan.
Action to counter the statistics
A team of four researchers and eight field workers from CHSR&D are in the process of gathering baseline data from the 41 primary healthcare facilities in Mangaung. The baseline comprises a facility assessment conducted with the TB nurse, and observations at each of the facilities. Individual interviews are also conducted with community caregivers, as well as TB and general patients. Self-administered questionnaires on knowledge, attitudes, and practices about TB infection control are completed by all nurses and facility-based community caregivers.
Healthcare workers are the main focus of this research, given their increased risk of acquiring TB in healthcare settings. At clinics, interventions will be developed to improve infection control practices by both healthcare workers and patients. TB patients’ households are also visited to screen household contacts for TB. Those found to have symptoms suggesting TB infection are referred to the clinics for further assessment and treatment.
The findings of this study will serve to inform the development of an intervention to address TB prevention and infection control in primary healthcare facilities. Further funding will be sought to implement and evaluate the intervention.
Curbing future infections and subsequent deaths as a result of TB is the priority for the UFS. The cooperation and collaboration of the community, government, and sponsors will ensure that this project is a success, hence prolonging life expectancy.