The use of religion and spirituality in psychotherapy has been a contentious issue for decades. This paper explores and describes whether psychologists would use religion and spirituality in psychotherapy as well as enablers and barriers in this regard. A qualitative exploratory descriptive method was followed using purposive sampling to obtain a sample of clinical and counselling psychologists. The focus group strategy was used to collect the data, and Tesch's model of content analysis was used to analyse the qualitative findings. Most participants expressed a willingness to discuss religion and spirituality with their clients. Participants also highlighted specific enablers and barriers to incorporating religion and spirituality in psychotherapy. This article has the potential to influence professional training in psychology and psychotherapy.

The professional category of Bachelor of Psychology (B.Psych.) Registered Counsellor was created in order to deliver psychological services at a primary health care level to previously disadvantaged communities. Between 2002 and 2004 the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, in the Eastern Cape, produced 84 graduates in this category. In an attempt to follow the career paths of these graduates, a survey was undertaken to determine how many graduates had progressed to the stage of professional registration and were working as Registered Counsellors, and to explore their present status and employment experiences. It was found that very few had registered with the Professional Board for Psychology and that most were continuing postgraduate studies or had moved into alternate career fields. Themes that emerged from the survey concern difficulty with registration, difficulty with employment, and lack of public and professional knowledge of the scope of practice of the Registered Counsellor. There were also some positive perceptions regarding the value of the Registered Counsellor category and the quality of training.

No abstract

Intensive care nursing is a stressful occupation and nurses are continually subjected to both primary and secondary trauma. Responses may be positive in the form of compassion satisfaction, or negative in the form of compassion fatigue. However, nurses tend to deny the negative impact of secondary trauma which leads to the silencing response and subsequent burnout. This article explores and describes the presence of these emotions and the relationships between them. A quantitative approach with a non-probability sampling method was used. The sample consisted of 30 registered nurses working in private health care intensive care units in East London, Eastern Cape. Data were gathered via the Professional Quality of Life Scale: Compassion Satisfaction and Fatigue Subscales – Revision IV (ProQOL – R-IV) and the Silencing Response Scale and were analysed according to descriptive statistics and correlation coefficients. Findings suggest a high risk for compassion fatigue, a moderate risk for burnout and the silencing response and moderate potential for compassion satisfaction. A marked negative relationship was found between compassion satisfaction and burnout and a substantial positive relationship between compassion fatigue and burnout, as well as compassion fatigue and the silencing response.<p><strong>Opsomming</strong></p><p>Intensiewesorgverpleging is ‘n stresvolle beroep en verpleegsters word gedurig aan beide primêre en sekondêre trauma blootgestel. Reaksie hierop kan óf positief wees, in die vorm van empatie-tevredenheid, óf negatief, in die vorm van empatie-uitputting. Verpleegsters is egter geneig om die negatiewe impak van sekondêre trauma te ontken,wat gevolglik tot stilswye en uitbranding kan lei. Hierdie artikel ondersoek en beskryf die teenwoordigheid en verwantskap tussen hierdie emosies. ‘n Kwantitatiewe benadering met ‘n nie-waarskynlikheidsteekproefmetode is gebruik. Die steekproef het bestaan uit 30 geregistreerde verpleegsters wat in privaat-intensiewesorgeenhede in Oos-Londen in die Oos-Kaap werk. Data is met behulp van die vierde hersiening van die ’Professional Quality of Life Scale: Compassion Satisfaction and Fatigue Subscales’ en die ’Silencing Response Scale’ingevorder en verwerk met verwysing na beskrywende statistieke en korrelasiekoëffisiente. Die resultate dui op ‘n hoë risiko vir empatie-uitputting, ‘n matige risiko vir uitbranding en die stilswye-reaksie, sowel as ‘n matige potensiaal vir empatie-tevredenheid. ‘n Beduidende negatiewe verwantskap blyk tussen empatie-tevredenheid en uitbranding te bestaan, terwyl ‘n aansienlik positiewe verwantskap tussen empatie-uitputting en uitbranding en empatieuitputting en die stilswye-reaksie bestaan.</p><p><strong>How to cite this article:</strong> Elkonin, D.&amp; Van der Vyver, L., 2011, ‘Positive and negative emotional responses to work-related trauma of intensive care nurses in private health care facilities’, <em>Health SA Gesondheid</em> 16(1), Art. #436, 8 pages. doi:10....

HIV and AIDS has serious repercussions on psychological, social and physical well-being, and the assessment of Quality of Life (QoL) of people living with HIV and AIDS is essential to gauge how these challenges are met. The WHOQoL-HIV Bref forms part of a suite of instruments developed by the World Health Organisation. The purpose of this paper is to describe the quality of life of a sample of HIV-infected students at a South African university, as well as explain the internal consistency between questions within each of the QoL domains. A descriptive, cross-sectional study design using a quantitative approach was applied. A non-probability, purposive sampling approach was utilized and students enrolled in the antiretroviral therapy or wellness programme were invited to voluntarily participate in this study. The WHOQOL-HIV Bref was self-administered after explanation of the questions by a registered, trained health care professional. A total of 63 students returned completed questionnaires that were included in the analysis. Acceptable to good reliability scores were established for the following domains: Level of Independence; Social Relations; Environment and Spiritual or Personal Beliefs. Assessing QoL in the sample, the lowest score was for "Spirituality" and the highest "Social Relations". The "Physical" and "Psychological" domain scores for females were significantly lower than the score for males. There was no significant difference between any of the domain scores among participants with CD4 cell counts above or below 350 cells/mm. In general the performance of this sample is encouraging and it is recommended that the measure be utilized for QoL screening, and further research. The WHOQOL-HIV Bref for students does not contain an academic wellness component which should be added considering the significant effects of HIV on neuropsychological functioning. Also further investigation into the reasons for poor scores obtained in physical and psychological well-being in females should be encouraged.