This study aimed to understand the knowledge possessed by informal medicine vendors regarding antibiotics and antibiotic resistance, identify the perceptions held by informal medicine vendors about antibiotics and their uses and examine the practices employed by informal medicine vendors in the sale and distribution of antibiotics.

Exploratory qualitative study using semi-structured interviews and direct observations.

Markets and shops across 11 villages in the Nanoro health district, Burkina Faso.

23 informal medicine vendors, aged between 25 and 55 years and with 8–30 years of experience, were recruited through snowball sampling in the Nanoro health district of Burkina Faso.

Informal medicine vendors exhibited a limited understanding of antibiotics, often confusing them with other treatments and referring to them using local terminologies based on perceived use and effectiveness. Antibiotics were perceived as universal remedies, supported by therapeutic belief, empirical reasoning and community solidarity, with empirical diagnosis, approximate dosing and informal preparation techniques passed on through imitation. These findings emerged across themes including perceptions, symbolic attributes and sales practices.

Informal medicine vendors in rural Burkina Faso demonstrated limited understanding of antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance, with practices shaped by local beliefs and empirical experience. These findings underscore the need for context-sensitive interventions that include tailored education and regulatory engagement to improve antibiotic stewardship and mitigate the spread of resistance.

Dysphagia, or difficulty in swallowing, significantly impacts the quality of life of the affected individuals. Diagnostic approaches, including video fluoroscopic swallowing studies and flexible endoscopic evaluation of swallowing, are the most commonly used methods for assessing swallowing function. Recent advancements have led to the development of artificial intelligence (AI), including machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL), which will provide innovative approaches to dysphagia diagnosis and treatment planning. There is a limited synthesis of literature on AI tools in dysphagia. There is an urgent need for a more rigorous and structured scoping review that can address the existing gaps, provide a more comprehensive evidence synthesis, and establish clearer guidelines for the clinical implementation of AI in assessments and management of dysphagia. This review will include studies focusing on AI tools such as ML, DL and computer vision for assessing and managing dysphagia. The context will be clinical or therapeutic settings, and all language articles will be considered for the review. Studies not involving AI technologies, those without clinical outcomes and ethical approval, and those focusing solely on the paediatric population will be excluded. This scoping review will systematically map and synthesise the existing literature on the use of AI tools for the assessment and management of dysphagia.

This scoping review will follow JBI methodology and PRISMA ScR guidelines. Information to be searched from January 2000 to May 2025 will include MEDLINE (via Ovid), Scopus, CINAHL (via EBSCOhost), Cochrane Library, JBI Evidence Synthesis, ProQuest and Google Scholar. The titles, abstracts and full texts will be screened by two independent reviewers. Data extraction will use a study-specific customised form, with descriptive analysis employed to categorise studies by AI tools and outcomes.

Ethical approval is not mandatory for this scoping review as it does not entail the collection of any individual patient data. Secondary data from publicly accessible research papers will be used. All the data sources will be appropriately cited. The findings will be propagated through peer-reviewed publications and scientific presentations.

Open Science Framework: DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/DYCE9.

To explore the experiences of different stakeholders on the balance of package training and deployment of highly skilled Human Resources for Health for specialised services in Tanzania.

An exploratory qualitative case study was used as part of a larger tracer study conducted by Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) for its postgraduate programmes being a requirement for quality assurance. Semi-structured interview guides were used for in-depth interviews (IDIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs). Qualitative content analysis was adopted to analyse the data.

The trace study was carried out in all seven geopolitical zones of the Tanzania mainland and Unguja in Zanzibar.

We conducted 14 FGDs and 301 IDIs. Participants included alumni, immediate supervisors at employment sites, MUHAS faculty, continuing students at MUHAS and management of professional councils in Tanzania.

Key findings revealed variations in demands and recognition within the scheme of services, even after registration by professional councils. Five main themes emerged from the qualitative interviews: Package training to improve service provision, Unprofessional collegial relationships or issues related to professionalism within interdisciplinary teams, Silence of scheme services on super specialisation in the medical cadre, Silence of scheme services on specialisation in the nursing cadre, Integrated scheme of services for specialties in pharmacy.

The findings highlight the demand for specialised training, challenges with professionalism and inconsistencies in the recognition and remuneration of specialists across medical, nursing and pharmacy cadres within existing service schemes. There is a need for harmonisation between specialisation/super specialisation and the scheme of services. This harmonisation is crucial to ensure the provision of quality healthcare services. Furthermore, harmonisation requires multistakeholder engagement to realise universal health coverage strategies.