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School of Applied Human Sciences

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://hdl.handle.net/10413/6451

The School of Applied Human Sciences (SAHS) consists of Criminology and Forensic Studies, Psychology, The Centre for Communication, Media and Society (CCMS), and Social Work.

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Browsing School of Applied Human Sciences by Author "Ackerman, Dianne Megan."

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    The association between job strain and psychological well-being in national health insurance pilot clinics.
    (2016) Ackerman, Dianne Megan.; Petersen, Inge.; Petrus, Ruwayda Chantelle.
    A review of literature revealed that South Africa is faced with a quadruple burden of disease that is exacerbated by the high incidence of co-morbid depression amongst chronic patients. In a country where mental disorders are still highly stigmatised, providing integrated care becomes a challenge. Dealing with mental health requires caregivers to provide a service that they are not sufficiently trained for or comfortable providing. With the introduction of the National Mental Health Care policy framework and action plan in South Africa, through Primary Care 101 (PC101) which is an integrated set of chronic care guidelines, nurses are receiving additional training on mental health in order to facilitate the process of integration. In the context of all these changes, the aim of this study was to establish the association between job strain and its constructs with psychological well-being. In addition, the study aimed to investigate the relationship between self-efficacy and psychological well-being. The study made use of a quantitative measure in the form of a cross-sectional survey. The study was conducted at the National Health Insurance (NHI) pilot clinics in Klerksdorp, in the North West province as part of the Programme for Improving Mental Health Care (PRIME-SA) project. The sample consisted of professional nurses (n=137). Data was analysed using SPSS 22.0 through frequencies, descriptives and correlations between job strain, psychological job demands, decision latitude, self-efficacy and psychological well-being, and finally multiple regression analysis was conducted. The study findings indicated that nurses who experienced high levels of job strain would be more likely to possess low levels of psychological well-being. Furthermore, nurses who reported higher levels of control over their environments were likely to have higher levels of psychological well-being. Additionally, an increase in levels of self-efficacy was associated with an increase in the levels of psychological well-being. The relationship, however, between psychological job demands and psychological well-being indicated that increased psychological job demands was associated with a decrease in the levels of psychological well-being. Multiple regression analysis showed that self-efficacy was the only construct which made a unique positive predictive contribution to psychological well-being. The results of this study suggest that possible interventions to enhance decision latitude and self-efficacy of nurses may help enhance psychological well-being of nurses. Self-efficacy, making the only unique positive predictive contribution to psychological well-being, will have important implications for future interventions; hence the focus of this study is on self-efficacy when suggesting interventions. Such interventions may help attract and retain nurses and ultimately contribute to the success of the re-engineering of primary health care and the NHI.
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    The experience of care workers for abused women in the area of Durban.
    (2018) Shezi, Mbaliyethemba.; Buitendach, Johanna Hendrina.; Ackerman, Dianne Megan.
    A perusal of various studies that had been conducted among the victims of abuse and those who took care of them revealed that the researchers tended to focus on the victims rather than on the people who took care of these abused women. These studies unintentionally did not bear in mind that people working with victims of abuse may experience a number of challenges when working with such women. Such experiences may have an influence on their ability to provide appropriate services. Therefore, the aim of this research project was to establish which experiences that were encountered by care workers involved with abused women impacted the services they were able to render. This was achieved by initially consulting various literatures by different authors with regards to the experiences encountered by care workers involved with abused women. This was done by assessing at how being Factors that were investigated were the training experiences and knowledge base of care workers and to establish what influences these factors had on the caring process. The study employed a qualitative design and interviews were conducted with volunteer care taker respondents in order to obtain rich data that would inform the questions of this research study. The study was guided by Kurt Lewin’s Field Theory: Individual Psychology and career.According to Adair and Mowsesian (1999: 335), the totality of coexisting facts [i.e., those guiding human behaviour] are conceived as mutually interdependent in influencing an individual’s career. This theory gives emphasis to the significance of several life roles and their interactions with a person’s career (Adair &Mowsesian, 1999), and for this reason it was selected as an appropriate theory to give impetus to the current study. The results obtained from the interviews with the care workers involved with abused women emphasized the importance of training in care work. The care worker participants touched on issues such as the language barrier, cultural differences, and different social statuses as their concerns when providing services to the victims of abuse. Not being able to communicate because of a language barrier, not knowing how different cultures dealt with women abuse, and having to deal with women who derived from different social contexts proved to be barriers in their efforts to render effective services. It is argued that this study add value to care departments as it has revealed the powerful challenge that their employees experience. This knowledge supports policy and decision makers in coming up with solutions to address the negative experiences encountered by their employees. This study also adds value to those who are interested in taking the same career path or who wish to work with abused women in the future in the sense that they may be prepared to face the challenges that they will encounter. This study also educates society at large about the dreadful phenomenon of women abuse and the reasons for and effects of its occurrence as seen through the eyes of care workers. In conclusion, the limitations of a qualitative approach as they affected this study are discussed, and recommendation for practice, policy and further research are offered.