Verification of the Physical Load in Work of Nurses in Slovakia and Poland

Musculoskeletal complaints represent a common occupational problem for health care workers throughout the world. This study provides shortened results of review by Nordic Questionnaire, which was modified for review reasons. The aim of the study is verification of work-related load Slovak and Polish nurses in their work and mutual comparison of the results. Comparison of statistical sample of Slovak nurses (468) and Polish nurses (48 for this moment) points to certain common features in the field of pain and the determination of their causes. Verification of the knowledge base of nurses in the field of ergonomics, principles of manipulation of load and kinestetika shows slightly better results for Polish nurses. The study will continue to compare larger statistical samples, identify the most common pains and their causes to the reason prevent them

Musculoskeletal disorders at nursing work

Ergonomics in healthcare is still in its infancy. The responsibilities of healthcare personnel include taking care of the health of the whole population. That is why it is very important to care about healthcare personnel. This article is a presentation of a survey conducted in Slovakia. The survey focused on nurses who work directly at their patients’ beds. The objective of the survey was to verify the physical load of nursing profession and to determine the most frequently musculoskeletal disorders of nurses. The survey was conducted in the form of the Nordic Questionnaire. The results of the survey confirmed the most serious difficulties for nurses with the musculoskeletal apparatus. The results also showed pain-related dependence in one body part of a nursing professional depending on his or her profile. However, the analyses included in this article can be applied to any company management, not only nurses

Chlamydiosis in farmed chickens in Slovakia and zoonotic risk for humans

Introduction. Chlamydia psittaci is an obligate intracellular Gram-negative bacterium causing respiratory disease (chlamydiosis) or asymptomatic carriage in poultry. In humans, it is a zoonotic agent of ornithosis/psittacosis. Due to low awareness of the disease and variable clinical presentation, psittacosis is often remains unrecognised as such by general practitioners. Zoonotic transfer occurs through inhalation of contaminated aerosols, and originates from feathers, faecal material and respiratory tract exudates. Objective. The aim of this study was to investigate chickens for the presence of Chlamydia sp. from pharyngeal and cloacal swabs and review the zoonotic risk for humans. Materials and method. 138 clinically healthy chickens from farms in Slovakia were examined for the presence of Chlamydia sp. The age of the chickens was 6 months. Two different samples were used – pharyngeal swabs and cloacal swabs. Each sample was examined by the molecular PCR method, and in the case of a positive result the identity of the obtained sequences was examined by a BLAST search. Results. Of the total number of 276 examined samples from 138 chickens, 19 (6.9%) showed positivity for C. psittaci infection, 12 (8.7%) which were positive from pharyngeal swabs and 7 (5.1%) from cloacal swabs. None of the chickens were positive in both samples. Phylogenetic examination of the 19 isolates identified in the study, based on the 23S rRNA gene sequence, revealed that the isolates obtained were identical with C. psittaci, and genetically very close to genotypes B and genotype E. Conclusion. C. psittaci infections are apparently emerging in chickens. Chicken-processing plant employees should be considered a risk group for human psittacosis. There is a need for higher awareness and for efficient risk assessment and management