Dr Tebogo Tsele-Tebakang
Speaker
Dr Tebogo Tsele-Tebakang
HOD at the Department of Complementary Medicine
University of Johannesburg
Dr Tsele-Tebakang is the HOD at the Department of Complementary Medicine at the University of Johannesburg. She is a qualified Homeopathic practitioner.
She obtained her master’s degree at the University of Johannesburg in 2006 and started lecturing in 2009 in the Department of Homeopathy at the University of Johannesburg.
In 2020, the Department of Homeopathy changed its name to the Department of Complementary medicine. In 2014 she assumed the position of the Head clinician in her department until 2020, where she managed the Homeopathy training centre.
She has supervised 26 master’s students to completion.
She has marked 14 master’s dissertations at UJ and 3 master’s dissertations at the Durban University of Technology.
She has published 3 articles in accredited journals and 2 in non-accredited journals and reviewed 4 peer-reviewed journal articles.
Presentation:
Herb-drug interactions: Perception and revelations of nurses in primary healthcare clinics, South Africa | Day Three
Introduction: Research has shown that a large percentage of the population globally uses herbal medicine (HM) in conjunction with conventional medicine. Considering this, primary healthcare (PHC) nurses should educate and make patients aware of potential herb-drug interaction (HDI). This study explored and described the perceptions and revelations of PHC nurses regarding the use of herbal medicine and herb-drug interactions. A qualitative, exploratory, study was conducted in PHC clinics in South Africa in Gauteng, Free State, and Mpumalanga provinces. Eight PHC nurses participated in the study. Data was transcribed verbatim and coded using content analysis. Five themes emanated from the interviews: nurses' perception and personal use of herbal medicine; nurses' knowledge of herbal medicine and herb-drug interaction; enquiring about the use of herbal medicine use; nurses’ behaviour, and patient disclosure on herbal medicine use. The sub-themes were nurses pursuing knowledge of herbal medicine, the advice given to patients, and the discouragement of herbal medicine use.
Conclusion: This study revealed that in-depth knowledge regarding the use of herbal medicine could enable PHC nurses to communicate effectively with their patients about the dangers and benefits of such use. Bearing in mind that a large proportion of the South African population uses herbal medicine, the healthcare stakeholders specifically the nurses’ profession should consider introducing an educational intervention to enable nurses’ responses to patients’ questions regarding the use of herbal medicine. This study recommends that a history case-taking form should be utilized as a standardized approach to address the use of herbal medicine among patients. This is currently not mandatory in the South African primary healthcare system.