Collaboration between traditional health practitioners and biomedical health practitioners: Scoping review

African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Collaboration between traditional health practitioners and biomedical health practitioners: Scoping review
 
Creator Jama, Ngcwalisa A. Nyembezi, Anam Ngcobo, Sekgameetse Lehmann, Uta
 
Subject gerneral practice; primary health care; rural health biomedical health practitioners; traditional health practitioners; traditional healers; collaboration; integration; bidirectional collaboration; pluralistic healthcare; mental health
Description Background: Collaboration between traditional health practitioners (THPs) and biomedical health practitioners (BHPs) is highly recommended in catering for pluralistic healthcare users. Little is known about bidirectional collaborations at healthcare service provision level.Aim: To map global evidence on collaboration attempts between THPs and BHPs between January 1978 and August 2023.Method: We followed the Arksey and O’Malley framework in conducting this scoping review. Two reviewers independently screened articles for eligibility. A descriptive numerical and content analysis was performed on ATLAS.ti 22. A narrative summary of the findings was reported using the PRISMAScR guideline.Results: Of the 8404 screened studies, 10 studies from 12 articles were included in the final review. Studies came from America (n = 5), Africa (n = 2), China (n = 2) and New Zealand (n = 1). Eight studies reported case studies of bidirectional collaboration programmes, while two studies reported on experimental research. All collaborations occurred within biomedical healthcare facilities. Collaboration often entailed activities such as relationship building, training of all practitioners, coordinated meetings, cross-referrals, treatment plan discussions and joint health promotion activities.Conclusion: This study confirmed that practitioner-level collaborations within healthcare are few and sparse. More work is needed to move policy on integration of the two systems into implementation. There is a need to conduct more research and document emerging collaborations.Contribution: This research illuminates the contextual challenges associated with sustaining collaborations. The data would be important in informing areas that need strengthening in the work towards integration of THPs and BHPs.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor South African Research Chairs Initiative of the Department of Science and Technology and the National Research Foundation of South Africa (Grant No. 98918) Bongani Mayosi National Health Scholars Programme from funding received from the Public Health
Date 2024-07-31
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf application/pdf application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/phcfm.v16i1.4430
 
Source African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine; Vol 16, No 1 (2024); 11 pages 2071-2936 2071-2928
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/4430/7458 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/4430/7459 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/4430/7460 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/4430/7466 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/4430/7467 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/4430/7461
 
Coverage Global January 1978-August 2023 Papers reporting on Traditional Health Practitioners; Biomedical Health Practitioners
Rights Copyright (c) 2024 Ngcwalisa A. Jama, Anam Nyembezi, Sekgameetse Ngcobo, Uta Lehmann https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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