The articles on issues faced by nurses addressed commitment and emigration intentions of South African nurses, the emotional intelligence of a group of critical care nurses in South Africa, nurses’ and care worker’s perceptions of their nurse-patient relationship, nurse managers’ perceptions of cardiopulmonary resuscitation practices in selected Botswana hospitals, shaping the role of sub-Saharan African nurses and midwives, the Delta^® and Beta^® nursing measure, nurses’ experiences and understanding of workplace violence in a trauma and emergency department and an exploration of how spiritual care is applied to clinical nursing practice. Nursing education was also the focus of several articles, which addressed experiences of the clinical learning environment by pupil-enrolled nurses at the South African Military Nursing College, nurse educators’ and student neophytes’ perceptions of good interaction in the classroom setting, post-basic nursing students’ reflections on their experience of dialogic mediation and students’ perceptions regarding the objective, structured, clinical evaluation as an assessment approach.

On the topic of individuals infected and affected by HIV, AIDS and tuberculosis, the articles addressed issues such as HIV-positive patients and their families, comprehension of HIV and AIDS-related information, an application of the integrated model of behaviour prediction, voluntary counselling and testing for young adults in Limpopo, initiation of antiretroviral therapy at rural primary health care clinics in KwaZulu-Natal, maintenance of the selected infant feeding methods amongst postnatal mothers at risk of HIV in the Eastern Cape, factors influencing the quality of patient data captured by nurses for the tuberculosis programme in Oshakati districts in Namibia and evaluation of caregivers, knowledge, beliefs and practices regarding oral lesions in HIV patients.

The topic of issues regarding the elderly was discussed in articles examining the promotion of health and treatment of the elderly. These articles included predicting older adults’ wellness, social and health determinants of gender differences in disability amongst older adults in South Africa, the nutrition situation of free-living elderly in Umlazi township in South Africa and the eyes of older adults.

The health issues for adolescents that were discussed in published articles include factors influencing the uptake of contraception services by Vatsongo adolescents in rural communities of Vhembe district in Limpopo, perceptions of health promoters about health promotion programmes for families with adolescents orphaned as a result of AIDS in the rural Hammanskraal region in South Africa, aftercare to chemically addicted adolescents and gender differences related to the health and lifestyle patterns of university students.

The last topic addressed in the 2013 edition of this journal is multidisciplinary health professionals, including the allied health professionals, support professionals health professionals and traditional health practitioners. Articles about allied health professionals address sportsmen’s experiences receiving a sport massage at a somatology clinic, the experiences of private somatology therapists on their self-management in a private practice and a randomised pilot study of the efficacy of milking cream and a homeopathic complex topical cream on diaper dermatitis. The support professionals’ article was on training medical doctors, examining plastinal technology for anatomical studies in Nigeria. An article on the location of community pharmacies and prevalence of oral conditions in the Western Cape highlighted the role of the pharmacist and another on home prepared soymilk’s potential to alleviate protein-energy malnutrition in low-income communities in South Africa focused on the important role of a nutritionist in promoting health. Traditional healers are also part of the multidisciplinary team as highlighted in the article on perceptions of traditional health practitioners on violence in the Helderberg municipal area in the Western Cape.

Authors of articles in this edition represent most South African universities: Vaal University of Technology, Mangasotho University of Technology, Durban University of Technology, University of Venda, North-West University (Mafikeng and Potchefstroom campuses), University of the Western Cape, University of Johannesburg, University of the Witwatersrand, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, University of the Free State, University of KwaZulu-Natal, University of South Africa, University of Fort Hare, University of Limpopo, University of Limpopo (Medunsa campus), University of Stellenbosch, University of Cape Town and University of Pretoria. Other African universities are the University of Uyo (Nigeria), University of Namibia, University of Buyo (Cameroon) and University of Botswana. Authors also represent the Ministry of Health in Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo) and the Ministry of Health in Nyiami (Niger). International authors are from the University of Lisbon (Portugal), the Romanian Association of Person-Centered Psychotherapy and the University of Utrecht (Netherlands).

The 2013 edition of Health SA Gesondheid truly reflects the topical issues in health in Africa and contains contributions from authors from different settings and countries.