Apheresis training in Turkey.

Continuing education and standardization are of utmost importance in apheresis science as every field in medicine. Especially, the last 5 years witnessed remarkable progress in apheresis science in Turkey, both in terms of increased numbers of therapeutic apheresis centers, therapeutic apheresis procedures performed per year, and also in terms of quality and standardization. This brief report summarizes the current status of apheresis training in Turkey and milestones of its development

The ideas about advanced life support and affecting factors at the end-stage of life in a hospital in Turkey.

BACKGROUND: The participation of the people in health decisions may be structured in various levels. One of these is participation in decisions for the treatment. "Advanced directives" is one of the examples for the participation in decisions for the treatment. AIM: We wanted to determine the decisions on advanced life support at the end-stage of life in case of a life-threatening illness for the people themselves and their first degree relatives and the factors effecting these decisions. DESIGN AND SETTING: The cross-sectional study was conducted with volunteers among patients and patient relatives who applied to all polyclinics of the Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital except the emergency, oncology and psychiatry polyclinics between 15.12.2012 and 15.03.2013. METHOD: A questionnaire, the Hospital Anxiety Depression (HAD) scale, and Templer's Death Anxiety Scale (TDA) were applied to all individuals. SPSS for Win. Ver. 17.0 and MS-Excel 2010 Starter software bundles were used for all statistical analysis and calculations. RESULTS: The participants want both themselves and their first degree relatives included in end-stage decision-making process. Therefore, the patients and their families should be informed adequately during decision making process and quality communication must be provided. CONCLUSION: Participants who have given their end-stage decisions previously want to be treated according to these decisions. This desire can just be possible by advanced directives.When moral and material loads of end-stage process are taken into consideration, countries, in which advanced directives are practiced, should be examined well and participants' desire should be evaluated in terms of practicability

Validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the COPD exercise self-regulatory efficacy scale

Çetinkaya, Funda ( Aksaray, Yazar )Introduction: The concept of self-efficacy in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and the development of self-efficacy in individuals are extremely significant. Increasing the self-efficacy level in individuals with COPD will contribute to the effective management of symptoms. Moreover, exercise is essential in COPD management and nursing care. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the results of the validity and reliability study of the Turkish version of the COPD Exercise Self-Regulatory Efficacy Scale (Ex-SRES) developed by Davis et al. Methods: This is a methodological study conducted with 160 patients diagnosed with COPD. Data were collected using the Personal Information Form and COPD Ex-SRES. Moreover, the Cronbach's α value was calculated, and the test-retest reliability was performed for reliability analysis. Results: The item total correlation scores of the Turkish version were between 0.608 and 0.853 points. The total score correlation coefficients of all the items in the scale were over 0.30. In this respect, the item total correlation values of the Turkish version of the Ex-SRES were at an appropriate level of reliability. In addition, the total Cronbach's α coefficient of the scale was calculated as 0.96. Conclusion: The Turkish version of the Ex-SRES was found to have high validity and reliability and to be a precise tool that specifically measures exercise self-efficacy in the COPD patient group