The Nursing Documentation Dilemma in Uganda: Neglected but Necessary. A Case Study at Mulago National Referral Hospital

In Uganda, nursing documentation still remains a challenge, in most of the government hospitals and some private hospitals, it remains at a manual (non-technology driven) level and omissions have been observed. Nurses continue to capture standard elements in their documentation. A mixed methods intervention study was conducted to determine knowledge and attitudes of nurses towards documentation, including an evaluation of nurses’ response to a designed nursing documentation form. Forty participants were selected through convenience sampling from six wards of a Ugandan health institution. The study intervention involved teaching nurses the importance of documentation and using of the trial documentation tool. Pre- and post-testing and open-ended questionnaires were used in data collection. The results from the close-ended questions were presented in the previous publication;the responses from the open-ended questions would then be presented. The open-ended questions regarding comments about the nursing documentation process and suggestions about the process of implementing the nursing documentation system in the ward units were considered. All participants were provided the opportunity to provide personal comments, reflections, or stories of their experiences with documentation in patient care. A thematic analysis approach was used during data analysis. The results showed that the participants had positive attitude towards documentation of patient care, but they had constraints limiting them to document, they reflected issues concerning the perceived pressure from the administrations and support to document. The study findings have implication that there is need for organizational support and to have multisite studies and extension of the documentation tool.

Prioritizing Strategies for Building the Resilience of Public Health Systems to Disasters Across Multiple Communities and Countries

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the urgent need to strengthen public health systems.In response,the United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction(UNDRR) Public Health System Resilience Scorecard(Scorecard) was applied in workshops across multiple countries.The aim of our research was to explore the workshop findings to develop priority strategies for strengthening public health system resilience.We conducted a workshop from 14 to 16 March 2023,at the UNDRR Global Education and Training Institute in Incheon,Republic of Korea.A sequential modified Delphi method was utilized to develop a set of prioritized resilience strategies.These were drawn from 70 strategies identified from 13 distinct workshops in eight countries.After two surveys,23 strategies were finalized.Ten received ratings of "High" or Very High" from89% of participants.These related to the inclusion of public health risks in emergency plans,integrating multidisciplinary teams into public health,enabling local transport mechanisms,and improving the ability to manage an influx of patients.The Scorecard provides an adaptable framework to identify and prioritize strategies for strengthening public health system resilience.By leveraging this methodology,our study demonstrated how resilience strategies could inform disaster risk reduction funding,policies,and actions.

Steve Coutinho, An Introduction to Daoist Philosophies. New York, NY：Columbia University Press, 2013, 248pp., ISBN： 9780231143394.

Steve Coutinho has provided us with a new introduction to Daoism. The scope of ＂Daoist Philosophies＂ covered by this introduction is the Laozi, the Zhuangzi, and the Liezi. The author makes no use of the materials of the Daoist canon, considering them to be ＂folk beliefs, rituals, spiritual practices, and sacred texts...a pluralistic amalgamation of rival sects and teachings that have developed in lineages over the centuries...＂ （7）. The overriding approach taken in this work is to relate Daoist thought to contemporary philosophical issues, and the author does not hesitate to make use of Western ideas and categories to structure his interpretations. The goal of this introduction is to show how Daoism can be embraced as a living philosophy, rather than to offer the history of the tradition.