IntroductionCancer contributes to a significant proportion of morbidity and mortality globally. Low-income and middle-income countries such as South Africa tend to be characterised by poor and inequitable access to cancer services. Cancer resources are more likely to be found in urban areas, tertiary centres and quaternary hospitals. However, little is known about the linkages to care, continuity of care and packages of cancer care in rural South African settings. This study describes cancer service delivery for South Africa’s Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga provinces.Methods and analysisA mixed-methods qualitative and quantitative research methods of three substudies which include semistructured interviews with patients, focus group discussions with health providers and a quantitative record review that will be carried out at both Rob Ferreira hospital, Witbank hospital and Nelson Mandela Academic hospital in Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape province, respectively. Instruments assess demographic characteristics, explore packages of cancer care, explore challenges experienced by health professionals, and maps out the referral pathway of patients with a cancer diagnosis in the study sites. Numerical, quantitative data will be explored for normality using the Shapiro-Wilk test and reported using either the mean, SD and range or the median and IQR depending on the normality of the distribution. Qualitative data will be analysed using the phenomenological approach.Ethics and disseminationEthics approval was obtained from the Human Research Ethics Committee of Walter Sisulu University (040/2020) and the University of the Witwatersrand (M210211), South Africa. To the research team’s knowledge, this is the first study presenting the model of cancer delivery in South Africa’s Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga province. This will thus provide better understanding of cancer service delivery systems, packages of cancer care from primary care to quaternary care.

Background Cervical cancer is a preventable but highly prevalent cancer in many low -and middle-income countries including South Africa. Cervical cancer outcomes can be improved with improved vaccination, a well-coordinated and efficient screening programme, increased community awareness and uptake, and increased knowledge and advocacy of health professionals. This study therefore aimed to ascertain the knowledge, attitudes, practices and barriers of cervical cancer screening among nurses of selected rural hospitals in South Africa. Methods A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted in five hospitals in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa between October and December 2021. A self-administered questionnaire was used to assess demographic characteristics of nurses and cervical cancer knowledge, attitudes, barriers and practices. A knowledge score of 65% was deemed adequate. Data were captured in Microsoft Excel Office 2016 and exported to STATA version 17.0 for analysis. Descriptive data analyses were used to report the results. Results A total of 119 nurses participated in the study with just under two thirds (77/119, 64.7%) being professional nurses. Only 15.1% (18/119) of participants were assessed as having obtained a good knowledge score of ≥ 65%. The majority of these (16/18, 88.9%) were professional nurses. Of the participants with a good knowledge score, 61.1% (11/18) were from Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital, the only teaching hospital studied. Cervical cancer was deemed to be a disease of public health importance by 74.0% (88/119). However, only 27.7% (33/119) performed cervical cancer screening. Most of the participants (116/119, 97.5%) had an interest of attending more cervical cancer training. Conclusion The majority of nurse participants did not have adequate knowledge about cervical cancer and screening, and few performed screening tests. Despite this, there is a high level of interest in being trained. Meeting these training needs is of utmost importance to implementing a comprehensive cervical cancer screening programme in South Africa.

IntroductionInformation is a prerequisite for quality healthcare service. Health professionals play a key role in the health system as they jointly have the responsibility of looking after patients everyday. Failure to use evidence in medicine may lead to medical errors such as incorrect diagnosis and/or mismanagement. Health professionals with access to quality health information can improve health services. This study focuses on the information behaviour of doctors and nurses whose role involves direct patient care.Methods and analysisThis study will employ a quantitative approach using a cross-sectional survey design. Simple random sampling will be used to identify the provinces and hospitals. Stratified random sampling will be used to select doctors and nurses to whom a validated questionnaire will be administered. The study will use a structured self-administered questionnaire. Data collection will be carried out at Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital, Witbank Hospital, Pietersburg Hospital and Robert Mangaliso Hospital, respectively. Questionnaires are distributed to health professionals in one of two ways. First, by emailing an editable Microsoft word document (questionnaire) to the health professionals to complete and send back. Second, by sharing with the health professionals through WhatsApp or email, an online version of the questionnaire that has been created on Google Forms. Data collection process is scheduled to commence on 14 March 2022 and is expected to end on the 15 September 2022.Ethics and disseminationEthical approval was obtained from the University of the Witwatersrand Human Research Ethics Committee (reference: M211013) and Walter Sisulu University Human Research Ethics and Biosafety Committee (reference: 099/2021). Permission to access the health facilities was approved by the Provincial Health Research Committees of the Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Northern Cape. Finally, results will be shared with all key stakeholders, including hospital management, clinical staff, through public presentation and direct engagements with stakeholders.

IntroductionCancer is the second leading cause of death globally. However, cancer care services are often concentrated in urban centres. Two of South Africa’s hospitals have decentralised cancer care delivery since February 2018 and August 2019, respectively. This study aims to describe the demographic, epidemiological and clinical profile of various cancers at Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital (NMAH) and Rob Ferreira Hospital (RFH), in South Africa’s Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga provinces, respectively.Methods and analysisThis study will be conducted in the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga provinces. A mixed-methods study design will be undertaken to gain insight on the characteristics of randomly sampled patients who are treated for cancer at NMAH and RFH between 1 March 2018 and 28 February 2022. A validated, researcher-administered survey questionnaire will be used to assess demographic characteristics, and prevalence of different cancers among patients. Concurrently, a document review will be undertaken on patients with cancer using a patient registry to ascertain the duration of diagnosis, type of cancer(s), management plan and patient survival time. STATA V.17 will be used for data analysis. The Shapiro-Wilk test will be used to explore the distribution of numerical variables. The χ2 or Fisher’s exact tests will be used depending on the value of the expected frequencies to compare categorical variables. Kaplan-Meier survival estimates will be used to determine the survival time. Hazard ratios will be used to determine the predictors of death. The level of statistical significance will be set at p value ≤0.05. The 95% CI will be used for the precision of estimates.Ethics and disseminationEthics approval was obtained from the Human Research Ethics Committees of the University of the Witwatersrand (M210211) and Walter Sisulu University, South Africa (Ref: 040/2020). Findings will be reported through peer-reviewed journal(s), presentations at conferences and at partner meetings.