Browsing by Author "Mthembu, Thuli G."
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Item Educators’ and students’ needs regarding teaching and learning strategies for integrating spirituality and spiritual care in occupational therapy education(Sabinet, 2018) Mthembu, Thuli G.; Wegner, Lisa; Roman, Nicolette V.Spirituality and spiritual care are both generating considerable interest as part of holistic and client-centred approaches of the profession of Occupational Therapy. Concerns have been raised regarding the teaching and learning needs of occupational therapy educators and students regarding spirituality and spiritual care. The aim of this study was to explore educators’ and students’ needs regarding teaching and learning strategies for integrating spirituality and spiritual care in the South African occupational therapy education. An interpretive, qualitative exploratory-descriptive approach was used with nine educators and 29 students who were purposively recruited from a university in the Western Cape Province, South Africa. Four focus group discussions were used for data collection and thematically analysed and managed in Atlas.ti 7. Two themes emerged: “We actually use transformative learning as a pedagogical approach,” and “We need philosophical guidelines for integrating spirituality”. These results imply that the transformative learning theories could contribute significantly to the integration of spirituality and spiritual care in occupational therapy education. Additionally, the findings support the use of critical reflection and consciousness-raising as teaching and learning strategies for spirituality. Overall, the findings indicated that the phases of transformative learning could be used to integrate spiritualty and spiritual care in occupational therapy education. This study suggests a basis for development of guidelines to assist the educators and students to address the need for integrating spirituality in the occupational therapy classroom.Item An exploratory factor analysis into the applicability of the Spirituality Care-Giving Scale, the Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale and the Spirituality in Occupational Therapy Scale to the South African context(Occupational Therapy Association of South Africa, 2016) Mthembu, Thuli G.; Roman, Nicolette V.; Wegner, LisaSpirituality and spiritual care are both considered as important elements of health sciences education; however, limited research has been conducted with occupational therapy students using spirituality scales. Therefore, this study assessed the internal consistency component of reliability and carried out factor analyses of three spirituality scales which examined the perceptions and attitudes of South African undergraduate occupational therapy students regarding spirituality and spiritual care. This study used a cross-sectional survey design using convenience sampling to recruit 100 participants. The internal consistency of the instruments evaluated showed satisfactory reliability: i.e. the Spiritual Care-Giving Scale (α=0.946), the Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale (α= 0.764) and the Spirituality in Occupational Therapy scale (α=0.868). The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of Sampling Adequacy values was 0.862, 0.883, and 0.868 respectively, indicating the appropriateness of the factor analysis. Factor analysis from varimax rotated results was also performed to identify the patterns of spirituality and spiritual care within the instruments. The total variances of the instruments were acceptable at 59.1, 67.6 and 69.8% respectively. An implication of these findings is the possibility that exposing occupational therapy students to spirituality and spiritual care could be useful for them to gain insight into and be sensitive to the clients’ spiritual needs. Further research should be undertaken in other institutions of higher learning that offer occupational therapy programmes.Item Exploring occupational therapy students' perceptions of spirituality in occupational therapy groups: a qualitative study(Taylor & Francis, 2017) Mthembu, Thuli G.; Wegner, Lisa; Roman, Nicolette V.An exploratory-descriptive qualitative research approach explored occupational therapy students' perceptions of spirituality in occupational therapy groups during the group fieldwork process. Four focus group discussions were conducted and thematically analyzed. Four themes related to the metaphoric expressions of spirituality emerged: (1) occupational group therapy is a vehicle for spirituality; (2) spiritual journey in occupational therapy groups; (3) engaging in occupations facilitates spirituality; and (4) make use of the resources to service the driver and vehicle. Occupational therapy groups appeared to be the facilitators of spirituality through engagement in occupations, which enhanced quality of life, health, and well-being of group members.Item Guidelines to integrate spirituality and spiritual care in occupational therapy education: A modified Delphi study(Taylor & Francis, 2018) Mthembu, Thuli G.; Wegner, Lisa; Roman, Nicolette V.This modified Delphi study aimed to develop educational guidelines for integrating spirituality and spiritual care into occupational therapy education. The first round comprised a self-administered questionnaire, the second round used a faceto-face workshop, and last round reviewed the developed educational guidelines, which reached the highest agreement and median values greater than 3.25. A panel of 18 comprised occupational therapy educators, clinicians, and nursing experts were recruited. A total of 126 out of 142 items reached the highest agreements from the panel participants, categorized based on the content knowledge-based, importance, skills, ethics, pedagogical approaches, teaching and learning strategies, and assessment of student learning.Item Legacy beliefs across generations: Comparing views of older parents and their adult children(SAGE, 2019) Meuser, Thomas M.; Mthembu, Thuli G.; Roman, Nicolette V.This mixed-methods study examined legacy beliefs (i.e., anticipated remembrances and linkages to the self after death) as understood in 14 older parent and adult child pairs. This work validates and expands on a 2005 typology of legacy beliefs from gerontologists, Elizabeth Hunter and Graham Rowles. A structured interview was administered separately to parents and children, coded for legacy examples (i.e., those unique to the parent, overlapping, unique to the child), and analyzed with respect to expectations of similarity reported by each participant. Most predicted moderate to high overlap in mutual understanding of parent legacy. This was not the case, as there were far more unique legacy examples given than shared. Pairs agreed least with respect to material legacies, with half showing no agreement. All reported finding the structured discussion of legacy to be beneficial, with some indicating an intention to continue these discussions further. This work may constitute a new approach to intervention.Item Perceptions and experiences of adolescents living with a substance-abusing sibling regarding parental autonomy support(University of Western Cape, 2020) Dudley, Marilyn; Wegner, Lisa; Mthembu, Thuli G.Substance abuse has become a major concern in the Western Cape Province of South Africa as it devastates many lives and negatively influences families and communities. When there is a substance-abusing sibling in the family, the wellbeing of other family members and non-substance abusing siblings tends to be neglected. This may mean that families could grapple with parental autonomy support to meet the psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness of the non-substance abusing siblings within the family. However, prior to this study, there was scant insight into the perceptions and experiences of adolescents living with a substance-using sibling regarding parental autonomy support.Item The relationship between spirituality, health related quality of life and occupational balance among adults with chronic diseases(University of the Western Cape, 2019) Parker, Yasmeen; Mthembu, Thuli G.Background: One of the most significant current discussions in public health and occupational therapy is the challenges facing adults with chronic diseases. Adults living with chronic diseases experience challenges of activity limitations and occupational disruptions which may influence their health, quality of life and well-being. Chronic diseases seem to have implications for adults’ areas of occupation, client factors and performance patterns as well as performance skills. Spirituality is considered as important in the lives of adults living with chronic diseases as a coping strategy assisting them to deal with the challenges of life in relation to physical, social, emotional and functional well-being. Despite the importance of spirituality in adults with chronic diseases, there is little known about the relationship between spirituality, health-related quality of life and occupational balance among adults with chronic diseases in the Western Cape, South Africa. Aim: The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between spirituality, healthrelated quality of life and occupational balance from the perspectives of adults living with chronic diseases. Methods: A sequential exploratory mixed methods two phase design approach was used for the purpose of the study. Thus, to examine the perspectives and determine the relationship on spirituality, health related quality of life and occupational balance of adults living with chronic diseases. Furthermore, to explore and describe the perceptions of adults with chronic diseases regarding the relationship between spirituality, health related quality of life and occupational balance.Item Spiritual care – ‘A deeper immunity’ – A response to Covid-19 pandemic(AOSIS, 2020) Roman, Nicolette V.; Mthembu, Thuli G.; Hoosen, MujeebCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has presented unprecedented health challenges across all strata in society throughout the world. The COVID experience has caused us to reflect on quality of life, health and well-being and, just as important, end of life. During this time, spiritual care forms a vital component of holistic health management, especially in terms of coping, coming to terms with illness, suffering and ultimately death. The relationship with the transcendent or sacred has a strong influence on a people’s beliefs, attitudes, emotions and behaviour. Populations, communities, families and individuals have always found solace through their religious or philosophical beliefs during times of personal adversity and widespread anxiety or disaster. Although spiritual care has always been a part of the domain of religious beliefs, a more contemporary perspective is that spiritual care forms part of the human psyche and thus forms part of human care, health and well-being for families, patients and healthcare workers. Spiritual care deals with the provision of compassion and empathy during periods of heightened stress, distress and anxiety within care. This article provides insights into the necessity of providing spiritual care as a means of coping and well-being for families, patients and healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.