Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the most common noncommunicable diseases and among the leading causes of disability, morbidity and mortality globally. The study assessed adherence to treatment by type 2 DM patients aged 20 years and above at Monze Mission Hospital in Monze district, Zambia. Research questions: 1) What is the level of adherence to treatment by type 2 DM patients receiving care from Monze Mission Hospital? 2) What factors influence adherence to treatment by type 2 DM patients? Methods: The study was conducted in 2017. It was a cross-sectional design. Simple random sampling method was used to select respondents and data was collected using a structured interview schedule. Data was entered and analyzed using the modified self-reported Morisky Medication Adherence Scale with six scores, modified self-care management questionnaire and IBM® Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Chi-Square was used to test associations between variables and binary logistic regression was used for multivariate analysis. The Morisky Medication Adherence scale was interpreted as follows: patients who scored between 4 -6 points on knowledge had high knowledge while those who scored between 1 -3 points had low knowledge about the disease. Results: The sample size of the study was 138 respondents. The study showed, only 44.2% of respondents had good adherence to treatment as they scored above 4 using the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale. Majority of the patients (55.6%) had knowledge about treatment despite 65.2% of respondents reported distance and financial challenges as hindrances to adherence. The study revealed a statistical association between adherence and knowledge of type 2 DM treatment. Conclusion: The study showed that poor adherence to treatment reduced as knowledge about DM

Background: Globally, 830 women die every day from pregnancyor childbirth-related complications, 99% of whom are in developing regions. In Zambia, the maternal mortality ratio is 398 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births, yet the majority of these deaths could have been prevented by using the partograph to detect abnormal progress of labour. Aim: To determine the use, practices, and level of knowledge among midwives on the labour ward at the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka. Methods: A cross-sectional design was implemented to determine the use of the partograph among 110 skilled birth attendants. This involved a self-administered, semi-structured questionnaire and a checklist, which was used to assess the completion of 370 partographs from the records. Findings: In the initial audit 40 (36%) of 110 skilled birth attendants who worked in labour ward completed the questionnaire. Of these, 35 (87.5%) used the partograph all the time. When asked for the reasons why the partograph was not used, 3 (7.5%) cited non-availability; 4 (10%) said lack of knowledge and 6 (15%) said emergencies. In the initial audit, only 7.5% of the midwives were knowledgeable on use of the partograph, but this improved to 95.5% in the re-audit. Conclusions: The study revealed low knowledge and under use of the partograph among skilled birth attendants at the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka.

The Cancer Diseases Hospital (CDH) 2019 annual report revealed an upsurge in the number of new cancer patients accessing services from 35 patients in 2006 to 3,008 in 2019. This study explored the experiences and coping strategies of women caring for their husbands with cancer attending the CDH. A phenomenological research design was used with stratified purposeful sampling. Data were collected using an interview schedule and analysed using thematic analysis. The women’s challenges included mobility difficulties and hospital admissions/problems; socio-economic problems, psychological and emotional distress; and caregiving liability and spiritual anguish. The benefits that female spouses experienced during caring for their loved ones included knowledge about cancer and infection prevention, a strong marital relationship, tolerance and perseverance, resilience and hope and good relationship with other caregivers. The women’s needs included financial support, physical needs, psychosocial counselling, caregiver accommodation, time off from caregiving, information needs and sexual intimacy and contact. Their coping strategies included spiritual support from spiritual carers, prayer and meditation, music and storytelling, social support and a good marital relationship. The findings demonstrate that wives of patients with cancer experience many challenges in their caring journey. Nurses must anticipate and/or intervene as part of their nursing practice to reduce the negative impact on female caretakers in this situation. Hospital standard operating procedures must be developed to put both the patients and their caregivers at the centre of oncology nursing care, particularly in settings with limited allied professional support, e.g., psychologists. Caretaker coping strategies highlighted in this study must be made available for both the patients and their wives, e.g., linking wives to trained spiritual carers upon their husband’s admission to the hospital, to aid a smooth caregiving experience.

Background: Vaginal stenosis is an important adverse effect of brachytherapy for cervicalcancer. This study aimed to determine attitudes and practices contributing to vaginal stenosis following brachytherapy at the Cancer Diseases Hospital in Lusaka-Zambia. Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study design was employed, where 163 respondents were randomly selected after meeting inclusion criteria. A researcher-administered questionnaire was used to collect data and SPSS version 25 was used for data analysis. Results: Out of the 163 women enrolled in this study, 42.3% had developed vaginal stenosis while 57.7% did not with age range 15 -60+ years. 76% exhibited good practices to measures against vaginal stenosis while majority (93.9%) of the respondents demonstrated poor attitudes towards measures to prevent the condition. Women with poor practices versus good practices (OR = 1.07, CI = 0.52 -2.21, p = 0.855), poor attitudes versus good attitudes (aOR = 1.28, CI = 0.29 -5.71, p = 0.746) and those employed versus unemployed (aOR = 1.76, CI = 0.73 -4.27, p = 0.210) had increased odds of vaginal stenosis. However, these increasing effects were not significant at 5% level of significance. Although length of brachytherapy showed no significant effect independently, the odds of

Introduction: There is a significant shortage of medical subspecialists in Zambia. The government of Zambia, through programmes at the Ministry ofHealth, spends considerable resources to send patients outside the country for subspecialist medical treatment. The objective of this analysis was to evaluate the current situation pertaining to medical subspecialty training at the University of Zambia School of Medicine (UNZASOM) and to illustrate the new programmes that are to be introduced.  Methods: We collected data from formal desk reviews on the state of medical specialisation in Zambia, the UNZASOM graduation archives and patient referral records at the Ministry of Health (MoH). In addition, information on planned subspecialist programmes is presented. Results: From the first graduates in 1986up to 2019, UNZASOM produced 3 51 medical specialists, 63 (18%) in Internal Medicine, 77 (22%) in Obstetrics & Gynaecology, 82 (23%) in Paediatrics&Child Health, 68 (19%) in General Surgery, 17 (5%) in Anaesthesia & Critical Care, 20 (6%) in Orthopaedics &Trauma and 8 (2%) in Urology. The remaining graduates were in Ophthalmology, Psychiatry, Infectious Diseases, Paediatric Surgery and Pathology contributing 1% each. To enhance medical subspecialist training at UNZASOM, new curricula for Breast Surgery, Urology, Glaucoma, Vitreo-retinalSurgery, Adult Gastroentero logy, Forensic Pathology, Dermatology & Venereology, Ophthalmology, Gynaecological Oncology and Paediatric anaesthesia, Infectious Diseases, and Gastroenterology were developed. Since 2013, only 44 % of patients requiring subspecialist treatment out of Zambia got assisted with the remainder still on the waiting list or having had bad outcomes.