The University of Zambia Journals
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Sustainability Awareness for Architectural, Engineering, and Construction Professionals in Zimbabwe
Get PDFSustainability-related challenges, are evident in the construction industries. Therefore, a contextual interrogation of sustainability awareness for the determination of knowledge-based improvement strategies is supported. This article pursued the sustainability awareness needs for construction professionals and evaluated statistically significant variances due to gender, designation, educational levels, and experience of respondents. A web-based questionnaire survey was administered to built environment professionals, and the collected numerical data was analysed through descriptive and non-parametric statistical methods. Factor analysis determined six significant components, with the most important being cultural diversity and evolution and futures thinking. These were the broad learning objectives within which sustainability instruction should be implemented. Significant variances, due to the selected demographic variables, were non-existent, indicating consensus on the required sustainability learning objectives. However, a few individual sustainability learning objectives had statistically significant differences that required intervention for Architects and Engineers as well as for those with degrees and MSc educational levels. The determination of sustainability learning objectives established the knowledge for curriculum re-design, continuous professional development, and improvement for built environment professionals. However, due to the exploratory nature of the study, the insights of clients were not considered. Further studies should aim to establish the context-specific sustainability learning objectives for each designation. The derivation of sustainability awareness needs for architectural, engineering and construction professionals enabled operationalisation of remedial strategies within the construction companies and professionals’ bodie
Handling Financial Implementation Challenges of Public-Private Partnerships (Ppps) In Zambia
Get PDFGovernments in developing countries face considerable challenges in single-handedly delivering development to their people. Modality of involving the private sector in closing the development gap has been a significant vision for governing authorities. In a bid to reverse Zambia’s stifled growth, the country enacted the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Act No. 14 of 2009. An array of critical success factors (CSFs) underlies decisions by countries for adopting the PPP model of development. The establishment of PPPs as the ‘new normal’ for development has revealed insufficient knowledge among building industry technocrats regarding the operability of such schemes. Further, implementation challenges have mainly affected financial, technical entities of valuation decisions over the main stages of the project, namely the proposal submission, negotiation, construction, and operation phases. This paper aims to highlight two knowledge gaps relating to the governance of PPPs. Firstly, there is a need to know the extent of built environment professionals’ knowledge of the ‘PPP new normal’ for development. And secondly, there is a need to verify the scope of its transforming effects on Zambia’s growth trajectory because of CSFs used for its introduction. To ascertain these objectives, a mixed research approach was used consisting of interviews, the administration of a questionnaire, and two case studies. Findings from this research revealed that this mode of development remains misunderstood by professionals owing to PPP complexities. Principal Component Analysis in SPSS showed that PPPs have had little transformative effect regarding CSFs used to establish them. Transformative prospects lie in industry professionals’ acquaintance with potential risk factors affecting prudent fiscal management of projects
Healthcare Providers’ Perspective on Barriers to Patient Safety Incident Reporting in Lusaka District
Get PDFBackground: Many studies from a number of different nations around the world have consistently demonstrated unacceptably high rates of medical injury and preventable deaths. However, research shows that patient safety from developing countries is still infrequent and that frontline healthcare practitioners have concerns about patient safety which are yet to be looked at. Therefore, this study aimed at exploring concerns related to safety of patients receiving clinical care.
Methods: In-depth, face to face interviews with 33 frontline healthcare practitioners and managers were conducted. The sample was collected at two largest hospitals in Lusaka, one offering mental health and the other one acute health services.
Results: The findings were broadly categorized into staff-related and institutional-related challenges. Most incidents committed by them were going unreported. Challenges in maintaining patient safety were also attributed to lack of guidelines, standardized reporting system, patient overcrowding, poor hospital building design and staff shortages. These make it challenging in maintaining patient safety measures.
Conclusion: In as much as patient safety is one of the priority areas in most healthcare systems of developing countries, incident reporting is not being done across the board. A number of factors are acting as barriers. There is a lot more that need to be done in order to improve the safety of patients in most developing countries and thus, with the current trend, patient safety incidents will continue harming patients receiving clinical care as long as these barriers exist
Impact of COVID-19 on the Demand and Utilization of Physiotherapy Services Among Stroke Patients
Get PDFBackground: While it has been reported that the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the world’s health care systems including rehabilitation services, little was known about its impact on the demand and utilization of physiotherapy services on stroke survivors in Zambia. This study investigated the demand for and use of physiotherapy among stroke survivors at a tertiary hospital in Zambia during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Method: We carried out a cross sectional study on stroke patients who were referred for Physiotherapy between January 2019 and December 2020. Of the 185 stroke patients booked for Physiotherapy, 86 commenced Physiotherapy sessions while the rest did not show up for their appointments. We collected data on age, gender, year Physiotherapy was attended and frequency of sessions for the 86 stroke patients from the out-patient attendance register using a check list. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 16 with descriptive frequencies and histograms used to summaries data while associations between categorical variables were done using Chi-square tests.
Results: Of the 185 stroke patients who were referred for Physiotherapy between January 2019 and December, 2020, only 86 (46.49%) utilized physiotherapy services. Majority of stroke patients who utilized Physiotherapy services in 2019 attended two or more Physiotherapy sessions per week compared to those in 2020 who attended at least one session in two to four weeks (p< 0.001).
Conclusion: The number of treatment sessions in 2020 dropped significantly for physiotherapy services. This implies that outcomes could have been negatively affected. It would therefore be important to explore other evidence-based strategies such as telerehabilitation and task-shifting using caregivers
THE IMPINGEMENTS OF AGE AND PARENT’S SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS ON THE EFFICACY OF SOLUTION-FOCUSED BRIEF THERAPY IN MANAGING SOCIALLY MALADJUSTED SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN BENIN METROPOLIS
Get PDFThis study investigated the impingements of age and parent’s socioeconomic status on the efficacy of solution-focused brief therapy in managing socially maladjusted senior secondary school students in Benin metropolis. Two (2) research questions and corresponding hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha level. A quasi-experimental design using pre-test, post-test, non-equivalent control group was adopted. The study had a sample of seventy two (72) students in SSII class was drawn from two (2) selected schools. The multi-stage sampling technique was adopted to draw samples across four stages and two (2) schools emerged as the treatment and control group with thirty eight (38) and thirty four (34) participants respectively. The School Social Maladjustment Questionnaire (SSMQ) was the instrument used for both the pre-test and post-test. The reliability coefficient index of 0.85 was obtained. The data collected were analysed, using mean, standard deviation and two way ANOVA statistics. The findings showed that there are no treatment interaction effects by age and parents socio-economic status of social maladjustment mean scores of adolescents in public senior secondary schools (p>0.05). Based on the findings, the study concluded that solution-focused brief therapy was effective in managing socially maladjusted secondary school adolescents, but there was no interaction effect of age and parent’s socioeconomic status on the treatment outcome. The study recommended that the therapy should be used on larger population of participants and academic class level for a re-validation of its effective outcom
PRE-SERVICE TEACHER QUALITY AND ATTAINMENT OF TEACHER EDUCATION GOALS IN NIGERIA
Get PDFThis study investigated the Pre-service teacher quality and attainment of teacher education goals in Nigeria with particular focus on Osun state colleges of education. Descriptive survey research design was used for sample of 62 student teachers randomly selected from Osun state colleges of education. The face and content validity was determined. Four hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed the following results: There is significant relationship between pre-service teacher production quality and attainment of teacher education goals in Osun State Colleges of Education. There is no significant relationship between challenges of teacher education and quality of pre-service student but challenges of teacher education has significant influence on the attainment of teacher education goals. Moreso, there is no significant gender difference on pre-service teacher production quality in Osun State Colleges of Education. In the light of the study`s results, the researchers presented a number of recommendations and proposals the most important of which are: The curriculum content for teacher education has to be readjusted so that it fits into the allocated time more practically than theoretically. Conducting in-service training for teacher educators: The changes in the approach content/teacher-centred approach to competency/learner-centred approach needs in-service training for the teacher educators to be able to manage classes in the new approach. Since the approach is new, it is inevitable that new and old teacher educators get trained on the new skills. The training will facilitate teacher educators into skills on how to manage large classes under the new approach. If this is done on a regular basis, teacher educators will be capable of facilitating the learning tasks more easily and with confidence
Influence of Seconded Teachers on Learner and School Achievements: A Case of an Upgraded Combined Secondary School in Choma District in Zambia
Get PDFThis paper details findings of a study which investigated emerging issues from teacher secondment on learner and school performance. The study used qualitative research, employing a case study research design. The sample consisted of 32 participants who were purposefully and randomly sampled. Interviews, Focus Group Discussions (FDGs) and observations were used to collect data which was analysed thematically. It was revealed that most of the teachers that taught the senior classes at the school where the study was conducted from were underqualified. In addition, the school administrators, that is, the head teacher and the deputy head teacher, were also found to have held low qualifications for their respective jobs. In terms of the learner performance, it was revealed that the learner performance both in the ECZ grade nine examinations and the end of term examinations were low. The study recommended that the Ministry of General Education should employ qualified administrators (utmost, first degree level qualification) and should be assigned to secondary or combined Schools; qualified teachers (utmost, first degree level qualification) should be deployed to teach secondary school classes in secondary or combined (secondary section) Schools; the Ministry of General Education should equip upgraded secondary or combined schools with adequate learning and teaching materials in order to improve performance
Tonga Funeral Songs: A Path to understanding the Tonga People of Southern Zambia
Get PDFThe focus of this article is on the Tonga funeral songs as a path to understanding the Tonga people of southern Zambia. A funeral song also known as dirge is ‘a highly stylistic form of expression that is governed by specific poetic recitative conventions used to express the feelings of the mourners in a determinate form and performance procedure’ (Akporobaro, 2001: 66). Funeral songs (dirges) are ubiquitous in Africa and indeed in the Tongaland when death strikes in the community. There are a number of activities that take place during and after the mourning period and these include song performances, cleansing, animal sacrifices, burial, memorial ceremonies and many others. This article however concerned with the funeral songs that are performed during the funeral among the Tongas. Being a qualitative study, ten informants were purposively selected from Gwembe, Choma, Namwala, Mazabuka and Kabwe districts respectively. Thematic analysis was employed during data analysis as it was found befitting of the qualitative research being undertaken. The article restricted itself to songs such as Kuzemba, Kuyabila, Bukonkoolo, Zitengulo, Buntibe and Nyeele songs as conduits through which one can understand the Tonga people since music is an expression of the social fabric of the culture
Peculiarity of Retirement Adjustment: A Study of Selected Retired Military Officers in Nigeria
Get PDFRetirement is a normal and ubiquitous phenomenon in the world of work. Every worker must retire owing to the fact that retirement is inevitable and no individual can work for eternity due to senescence. However, retirement comes with adjustment and adaptation in relation to different professions and skills or vocations. This study adopted a survey research method; using accidental and snowballing sampling technique with key informant interview (KII) and focus group discussion (FGD) as research instruments. The analysis was done using a qualitative method of content analysis to present the peculiarity of retirement adjustment among selected retired military officers in Nigeria. From the analysis, the adjustment is divided into two namely: social and economy retirement. The social adjustment includes changes in lifestyle in general. It includes but is not limited to changes in the living environment that warrants adapting to the lack of appropriate space to exercise and other recreational facilities such as visit to Officers’ Mess and complying with community security instructions amongst others. Economy retirement adjustment is characterised by less income, gratuity (less than salary) and increased spending owing to the need to budget for payment of bills such as security, electricity, transportation and even accommodation in some instances. Meanwhile, officers become more frugal and thus, have to reduce financial commitment to family and friends resulting from less income. Financial adjustment has been found to affect social adjustment as finance is a major factor that determines social involvement, especially in relation to financial commitment to family and friends. Recommendations such as the need for retirement education and training of officers in choiced occupation before and after retirement becomes imperative among others
A Study of Cardiovascular Autonomic Neuropathy in Adult Patients with Diabetes Mellitus at Levy Mwanawasa University Teaching Hospital
Get PDFCardiac autonomic neuropathy (CAN) is the diminished capacity of autonomic regulation of the cardiovascular system occurring in the presence of diabetes mellitus (DM) and in the absence of other aetiologies. Diabetes mellitus is a well-known cause of peripheral neuropathy. However, in comparison to somatic neuropathy, autonomic neuropathy is an under-diagnosed and under-treated chronic complication of diabetes mellitus despite its serious and significant contribution to morbidity and mortality in the diabetes mellitus population. A variety of tests, based on evaluation of the cardiovascular reflexes triggered by performing specific provocative manoeuvres, have been proposed to measure autonomic function. This study used four cardiovascular reflex tests to estimate appropriate autonomic function by examining heart rate, heart rate variation and the baroreceptor reflex. The aim of this study was to determine the presence of cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy in adult patients with diabetes mellitus at Levy Mwanawasa University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka, Zambia. Adult patients with diabetes mellitus, aged between 21 and 70 years, participated in this cross-sectional study. Four, non-invasive, cardiac autonomic reflex tests to assess for cardiac autonomic neuropathy were employed according to Ewing’s method. The parasympathetic function was analysed based on the heart rate response to paced deep breathing and to Valsalva manoeuvring. The sympathetic function was assessed by measuring heart rate and blood pressure response to postural change. Ewing`s criteria was used for the categorisation of cardiac autonomic neuropathy. Data were analysed using SPSS version 20. Continuous data were presented as means and standard deviation. Categorical data were analysed using a Fishers’ Exact Test (χ2) and a logistic regression was performed to verify the effects of diabetes mellitus’ duration, sex and age on the probability that the participants have cardiac autonomic neuropathy. A total of 52 patients participated in the study. The prevalence of Cardiac autonomic neuropathy was 48.1%. Out of 52 patients, 42.3% had definite cardiac autonomic neuropathy and 5.8% had severe cardiac autonomic neuropathy. Early cardiac autonomic neuropathy was observed in 34.6% of patients while 17.3% had no signs of cardiac autonomic neuropathy. The mean age of patients with cardiac autonomic neuropathy was 54.44 ± 10.90 years and the mean duration of diabetes mellitus from diagnosis was 5.36 ± 6.78 years. The probability of developing cardiac autonomic neuropathy increased with increasing age and hypertensive participants were more likely develop cardiac autonomic neuropathy (ѵ = 5.82, p = .001).
In conclusion, cardiac autonomic neuropathy was present in a significant proportion of adult patients with diabetes mellitus at Levy Mwanawasa University Teaching Hospital, reflecting the increased morbidity encountered by this population. In order to improve patient quality of life and reduce disease burden, screening for cardiac autonomic neuropathy should be implemented using cardiovascular autonomic reflex tests which are relatively simple, safe and affordable