Traditional health practitioners' training needs on biomedical knowledge and skills in a South African township

BACKGROUND

Traditional health practitioners (THPs) play an important role in communities by providing necessary health services for a variety of health problems. Possessing complementary biomedical knowledge and skills is vital in saving lives of patients. However, less is known about biomedical knowledge and skills among THPs.

AIM

This study aimed to explore and describe the training needs of THPs on biomedical knowledge and skills in urban townships in South Africa.

SETTING

The study was conducted in a township in the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality of Gauteng province, South Africa.

METHODS

A qualitative, explorative, descriptive design with 18 THPs was employed through snowballing sampling. Data were collected through a lekgotla group discussion and thematic content analysis undertaken.

RESULTS

Themes that emanated include knowledge of the basic physiological functioning of the human body; biomedical knowledge and skills required for the assessment of patients; managing emergency health conditions and understanding diagnostic concepts used in traditional health practice versus biomedical systems.

CONCLUSION

Traditional health practitioners have demonstrated interest in being trained on certain skills used within the biomedical system to care for patients. Performing the necessary first-aid skills by THPs will assist patients in the communities while waiting for emergency services or referrals. Provision of training programmes for THPs on first aid interventions during emergencies is therefore recommended.Contribution: The study revealed that capacitating THPs with biomedical knowledge and skills can improve their ability to promote healthy living and prevent health problems in communities where access to resources is limited.

Indigenous Psychology as a General Science for Escaping the Snares of Psychological Methodolatry

Contemporary society has blurred the territorial borders that colonialism used to divide nation-states. Information about different peoples that have survived the impact of brutal violence perpetrated for centuries reaches everywhere in the world through information networks and disputes visibility. The modernization of the sciences happened during the period of consolidation of the so-called modern societies, in a process directly linked to the invasion of the indigenous territories of Abya Yala/Pindorama. Contemporary science is descendant of a large-scale colonialist process. The territory of knowledge has been colonized by economic and political interests that put researchers to work for purposes increasingly far from the desired freedom of thought. This paper argues that a escape from the entrapments of psychological methodolatry depends on the implication of a researcher connecting science to ethics, breaking the vicious cycle of reaffirmation of supposed scientific truths when they prove to be insufficient to approach basic human questions.