HEALTH SCIENCE COLLEGES RESEARCH BLOG

WCCN Lecturer Publishes New Nursing Research The WCCN Library is pleased to celebrate the recent publication of research by Mellissa L. Arison, a lecturer at the Western Cape College of Nursing (WCCN). Her article, “Experiences of hospital-based nurses in delivering human immunodeficiency virus self-management discharge information in the Cape Metropole,” was published in Trends in Nursing on 22 September 2026. The study was co-authored by Regis R. Marie Modeste and Tendani Mabuda. The study explores the experiences of hospital-based nurses in providing HIV self-management information to patients at discharge. Effective discharge education can help people living with HIV better understand and manage their health after leaving the hospital. The findings highlight the important role nurses play in patient education and self-management support. The study also identifies the need for ongoing training to strengthen nurses' knowledge and skills in providing HIV self-management informati...

Announcement New Research: Mrs Verinia Titus Publishes in Curationis We are delighted to share an exciting academic achievement from within the WCCN community. Mrs Verinia Titus has published a new scholarly article in the peer‑reviewed journal Curationis, marking another important contribution to nursing research and professional knowledge in South Africa. (Titus, 2026) Her publication highlights the ongoing commitment of WCCN academics to research, evidence‑based practice, and the advancement of nursing education. Scholarly work such as this not only strengthens our institution’s academic profile but also enriches teaching, learning, and professional practice for both students and colleagues. 📄 Read the full article here . We encourage lecturers, students, and staff to explore the publication, incorporate it into discussions, and consider how Mrs Titus’s insights can inform clinical practice and nursing education. Her dedication to research serves as an inspiration to our academic c...

Our Head of Campus, Dr Yolande Magerman,  has recently published an article in the International Journal of Africa Nursing Sciences (IJANS). This achievement not only reflects her personal dedication to advancing nursing knowledge but also highlights the growing research impact of the Western Cape College of Nursing (WCCN). Article Title:  Best-practice guidelines for nurses for the assessment and management of acute trauma-related pain in adult patients: A scoping review Dr Magerman's research highlights a critical gap: while existing guidelines address pain in broader contexts, none are tailored specifically to trauma-related pain in ECs. This underscores the urgent need for the development of context-specific BPGs to support nurses in providing consistent, evidence-based care in these high-pressure environments. Her work reinforces the role of nursing scholarship in improving healthcare outcomes and shaping the future of the profession in South Africa and beyond. At WCCN, w...

The transition from student to professional nurse can be daunting and pose a difficult transition period for newly qualified nurses. The reasons for this difficulty can be poor preparation, unsupervised work, and insufficient guidance. Warriodene Hansen, a newly appointed lecturer at the Western Cape College of Nursing Boland Overberg, recently published an article “The perceptions of newly qualified nurses on the guidance by preceptors towards becoming experts in nursing.”  The study provides valuable information that could help in the promotion of preceptorship. Abstract Background: The new role as professional nurse can be a difficult transition for the new qualified nurses. During this time, factors such as not being well prepared, working without supervision and a lack of guidance can be the result of a difficult transition. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to assess the perceptions of newly qualified nurses on the guidance given by their preceptors towards becoming ...

The article  Experiences of undergraduate nursing students during clinical practice at health facilities in Western Cape, South Africa was recently published in Curationis .  Mrs Fadana, a first-year lecturer is based at our Boland Overberg Campus in Worcester. The abstract reads: Background:   This study explored the experiences of undergraduate nursing students during clinical practice at healthcare facilities in the Boland Overberg area in Western Cape, South Africa. Few studies have been done on experiences of nursing students during clinical practice. However, there are still inadequacies, which lead to the deterioration of clinical practice quality. Objectives:   To explore and describe the experiences of undergraduate student nurses during clinical practice in healthcare facilities in Boland Overberg, in Western Cape, South Africa.  Method:  A qualitative, exploratory descriptive design was applied. Data collection was done using focus-group intervi...

The article "Operational nurse managers’ perceptions on the competence of community service nurses in public settings" is published in Curationis and available on this  link                https://curationis.org.za/index.php/curationis/article/view/2174 Two of the authors (Dr. Vatiswa Maki and Dr Theresa Bock) is affiliated with the Western Cape College of Nursing (WCCN). Having a research article published in an accredited journal such as Curationis , has benefits for the researchers as well as their institutions. Their publication serves as a means to disseminate and make researchers and practitioners of similar interest, aware of new knowledge in their area of interest. Abstract Background: Community service nurses placed in the Western Cape Government public health facilities render essential healthcare to underserved populations. Anecdotal evidence from operational nurse managers indicated concerns that community service nurses may lack ...

Dr. Truter has once again written a chapter in a book for Juta publisher s .   The latest edition of Sellers' Midwifery  has been revised and aligns with international and national public health strategies that aim to improve maternal and antenatal care as a sustainable development goal. Dr. Truter wrote chapter 48 which centres around the role of the midwife in reproductive health care and includes updated information on contraception and fertility planning.  Book Details Truter, A. 2018. Contraception and fertility planning. In Dippennaar, J. & da Serra, D. (eds). 2018. Sellers’ midwifery . 3rd ed. Cape Town: Juta. 728-752. Previously Dr. Truter wrote a chapter on reproductive health for Vlok's community health . 

The 27th International Nursing Research Congress was held in Cape Town South Africa from 21-25 July 2016. Over 700 nurse researchers, students, clinicians, and leaders attended the International Nursing Research Congress to learn from evidence-based research presentations. Amongst the notable presenters were WCCN/CPUT’s Penny Gill and Karien Orton. Penny Gill presented on “From Health Professional to Film Producer in One Easy Workshop: Creating Digital Stories” Click here to access the PowerPoint presentation. The abstract reads: “Digital storytelling is an innovative method of capturing an audience emotionally by telling tales from the heart and soul. It consists of a short, four-to-six minute multi-media presentation which is narrated in the first person. Digital storytelling introduces the storyteller to multiple literacies such as writing, listening, narrating, publishing, presenting, language, acting and communication skills. Various types of multi-media and technological skill...

“This is the first reported study from SA on final year preregistration student nurses‟ self-reported depth of understanding of bioscience subjects and of their perceptions of the relevance of bioscience knowledge to their practice” (Rafferty, Kyriacos, 2016:43). Abstract Student nurses’ competence in applying bioscience to practice is under-researched in South Africa. This paper reports on two objectives of a longer study: (1) to describe final year nursing students’ self-reported depth of understanding of six bioscience subjects; and (2) their perceptions of the relevance of the bioscience subjects to their practice using descriptions of personal critical incidents and picture interpretations of three nursing activities. A descriptive observational survey was employed using a self-administered questionnaire at a one-time point in a classroom in a nursing college in Cape Town, South Africa in 2013. A sample of 76/236 (32.2%) fourth-year students participated. Results showed that ...

Penny Gill and I were honoured to be part of a team that published a book Telling stories differently: engaging 21st-century students through digital storytelling(DST).  Published by Sun Media the book evolved as a collaboration between  Janet Condy, an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), and CPUT academics to capture their research projects using DST.  The purpose of the book is to share a collection of studies using DST as a pedagogical tool in CPUT.  The book was launched on Thursday 3 September 2015 at the International RASA and Pan African Literacy Conference in the Baxter Hall. The team included Daniela Gachago, Eunice Ivala, Agnes Chigona, Franci Cronje, Veronica Barnes, Rajendra Chetty, Subethra Pather, Chantyclaire Tiba, Ignatius Ticha, Anthea Adams, Ayesha Reiners, and Mandie Richards.  I was privileged to have Dr. Agnes Chigona as a co-author as she steered me throug...

Written by Martha M. Leonard and Una Kyriacos was recently published in Nurse Education Today. The article is in Press, meaning that it is accepted, peer reviewed but volume and issue numbers have not been assigned.   Here is the summary as available from Sciencedirect Background There is increasing urgency for nurses to recognize early signs of deterioration in patients and to take appropriate action to prevent serious adverse effects. Objectives to assess respondents’ ability to identify abnormal recordings for respiratory and heart rate, oxygen saturation level, systolic blood pressure, level of consciousness, urinary output and normal temperature. A nursing college in Cape Town, South Africa. A sample of 77/212 (36.3%) fourth year students. A self-administered adapted questionnaire was employed to collect demographic data and respondents’ selections of recorded physiological values for the purpose of deciding when to call for more skilled help. The median age fo...

Recent Masters in Nursing Graduate, Shahnaaz Mia together with Karien Jooste authored an article   "Self-Leadership of Male Learner Nurses During a Four-Year Program at a College in the Western Cape, South Africa" in the   Journal of Psychological Issues in Organizational Culture,  Volume 5, Issue 4. The abstract reads "Self-leadership is an enabling process during which a male student nurse learns to know himself better. This enriched self-awareness enables him to steer his work life. Male learners in the nursing profession could face gender-based challenges during their training that requires self-leadership. The study described the best experiences of self-leadership by male learner nurses during their four-year training programme at a nursing college in the Western Cape Province. A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive, and contextual design, incorporating the philosophy of the Appreciative Inquiry paradigm, was used. Purposive sampling was applied and 12 i...

View the following DVDs at the library Steps in Planning and Conducting a Research Study This DVD  explores the steps for planning and carrying out a research study. It explains how to choose a topic; establish a hypothesis; select dependent and independent variables; choose a research design; select participants; and collect data, analyze results, and share the findings of the study. Qualitative Research: Methods in the Social Sciences This DVD examines the types of questions addressed through qualitative research, considers problems of research validity, examines qualitative textual analysis, and looks at the primary methods of qualitative research. Research Ethics This DVD explores ethical issues in reporting and conducting research and teaches how to avoid breaches in research ethics.

In August 2014 Reinette Roziers presented at the Western Cape Nursing Research Forum.  Amongst the noted presenters were Associate  Prof Sinegugu Duma and Professor Karien Jooste(guest speakers), Charlene Esau, Karien Orton, Suveena Singh, Debbie Ockhuis, and Nandipha Roji. Find Ms. Rozier's abstract below PURPOSE: The research inquiry explored the lived experience of role transition of newly qualified nurses undertaking compulsory community service in health facilities in the Western Cape in 2011. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of the inquiry were: a) to describe newly qualified nurses’ feelings and thoughts about their preparedness for role transition from student to community service nurse; and b) to describe their experience of role transition. METHODS: Husserlian descriptive phenomenology, characterized by inductive extraction of units of meaning, was employed to establish ‘essences’ of the lived experience of role transition. Data were collected from eight ...

The number of articles published each year is rising, so it’s vital that as a researcher you need to develop ways to make your article get noticed. To draw more readers, increase visibility in the academic community and potentially gain more citations,   Elsevier produced a brochure to ensure that your article gets the attention it deserves.     Get Noticed: Promoting your article for maximum impact

Curationis has published another article by Dr E. Van Wijk titled, ‘Environmental and nursing-staff factors contributing to the aggressive and violent behaviour of patients in mental health facilities' co-authors: Annalene Traut, & Hester Julie Full text: PDF Metrics- Published on 14 August 2014 the article has already garnered several views Total abstract views: 40 Total article views: 13 Abstract- from Curationis: http://curationis.org.za/index.php/curationis/article/view/1122 Background : Aggressive and violent behaviour of inpatients in mental health facilities disrupts the therapeutic alliance and hampers treatment. Objectives : The aim of the study was to describe patients’ perceptions of the possible environmental and staff factors that might contribute to their aggressive and violent behaviour after admission to a mental health facility; and to propose strategies to prevent and manage such behaviour. Research design : A qualitative, phenomenological study wa...

Congratulations    Dr. E. Van Wijk on the publication of two articles Recruitment and Retention of Vulnerable Populations: Lessons Learned from a Longitudinal Qualitative Study   by Evalina van Wijk  Western Cape College of Nursing, Athlone, Cape Town, South Africa  In The Qualitative Report A weekly online journal dedicated to qualitative research since 1990 ISSN 1052-0147, Volume 19(28) - July 14, 2014 Abstract: The main focus of the researcher’s study was to examine the lived experiences of intimate partners of female rape victims within the first six months post-rape. Yet, many publications describing longitudinal qualitative studies of sexual assault fail to provide a detailed report on the processes followed, the difficulties experienced, as well as the reasons for such difficulties. To fill these gaps, in this paper, the researcher describes the strategies applied to recruit and retain the participants for the entire six-month period pos...

e/merge Africa is offering a free seminar From the Website: Online interviews can be used to collect data for qualitative studies, but their use is not limited to empirical research. E-interviews are also valuable as collaborative e-learning exercises that bring real-world expertise into the classroom and develop digital literacy. Even though we may feel comfortable communicating online, doing interviews requires another level of thinking and planning, questioning, and listening. How do we learn such skills? This seminar led by Dr. Janet Salmons from Capella University and Vision2Lead will focus on two related areas: designing research studies based on data collected through online interviews and teaching students how to plan and conduct interviews online. We will consider ways to use free, cheap, available communications technologies. Resources and sample exercises will be offered that you can adapt for your own classes. In addition to an asynchronous discussion forum, Dr...

I came across some interesting websites whilst perusing Prof Johannes Cronje's google site . One of his favourite websites is  http://www.surveysystem.com/sdesign.htm .  Although aimed at the business environment it provides comprehensive information on key aspects of survey design such as sample selection, advantages, and disadvantages of interview methods   and   questionnaire desi gn . Research Aids available on the website Sample size calculator Sample size formula Significance Survey Design Correlation Survey Templates   that you can modify

New Book available for loan:   Becoming an Academic Writer  " helps academic writers by providing the tools they need to gain control over writing and publishing, master specific aspects of academic writing, and improve their productivity. Author Patricia Goodson offers weekly exercises and tools to achieve these goals. The exercises are grounded in a theoretically sound and empirically based model comprising a set of behavioral principles (e.g., writing regularly, separating generating from editing) and specific practices (weekly exercises) that ensure success." Shelf No: 808.42 GOO Available in our research section