The effects of dissection-room experiences and related coping strategies among Hungarian medical students

Background: Students get their first experiences of dissecting human cadavers in the practical classes of anatomy and pathology courses, core components of medical education. These experiences form an important part of the process of becoming a doctor, but bring with them a special set of problems. Methods: Quantitative, national survey (n = 733) among medical students, measured reactions to dissection experiences and used a new measuring instrument to determine the possible factors of coping. Results: Fifty per cent of students stated that the dissection experience does not affect them . Negative effects were significantly more frequently reported by women and students in clinical training (years 3,4,5,6). The predominant factor in the various coping strategies for dissection practicals is cognitive coping (rationalisation, intellectualisation). Physical and emotional coping strategies followed, with similar mean scores. Marked gender differences also showed up in the application of coping strategies: there was a clear dominance of emotional-based coping among women. Among female students, there was a characteristic decrease in the physical repulsion factor in reactions to dissection in the later stages of study. Conclusions: The experience of dissection had an emotional impact on about half of the students. In general, students considered these experiences to be an important part of becoming a doctor. Our study found that students chiefly employed cognitive coping strategies to deal with their experiences. Dissection-room sessions are important for learning emotional as well as technical skills. Successful coping is achieved not by repressing emotions but by accepting and understanding the negative emotions caused by the experience and developing effective strategies to deal with them. Medical training could make better use of the learning potential of these experiences

The Reduction Of Anxiety And Pain During Venous Blood Sampling Using Hypno-eft (Emotional Freedom Techniques) Method

Background: Venous blood sampling has several risks of complication, the basic cause was emotional factor, such as anxiety and pain, which remain important to be solved. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of hypno–EFT to reduce the anxiety and pain during venous blood sampling. Methods: The design of the study was quasi experimental, with pretest posttest with control group design. The sampling technique was simple random sampling to select 52 respondents. Anxiety was measured using a Hamilton anxiety rating scale (HARS) modification and pain was measured using the Visual analogue scale (VAS) method. Wilcoxon and Manova multivariate test were used for data analysis.Results: Before hypno-EFT there was 1 person (2.9%) did not experience anxiety, 9 people (25.7%) with mild anxiety, 20 people (57.1%) with moderate anxiety and 5 people (14.3%) with severe anxiety. After hypno-EFT therapy, there were 23 people (65.7%) did not get anxiety, mild anxiety were 11 people (31.4%) and severe anxiety was found in 1 person (2.9%). For the average pain of respondent in venipuncture before hypno-EFT was 3.20 with a median 3.00 and a standard deviation was 1.91. The minimum value of pain was 0 and 9 in maximum. After therapy Hypno-EFT, the average pain was 1.54 and the minimum value of pain was 0 and 6 at maximum. Statistical result showed that the p-value of anxiety and pain was 0.000 (<0.05)Conclusion: There was a significant effect of hypno-EFT therapy to decrease the anxiety and pain during venous blood sampling. This method is recommended as an alternative procedure in venous blood sampling with complicating factors

An emerging ground-based aerosol climatology: aerosol optical depth from AERONET

Long-term measurements by the AERONET program of spectral aerosol optical depth, precipitable water, and derived Angstrom exponent were analyzed and compiled into an aerosol optical properties climatology. Quality assured monthly means are presented and described for 9 primary sites and 21 additional multiyear sites with distinct aerosol regimes representing tropical biomass burning, boreal forests, midlatitude humid climates, midlatitude dry climates, oceanic sites, desert sites, and background sites. Seasonal trends for each of these nine sites are discussed and climatic averages presented.Pages: 12067-1209