Female Sex Worker Social Networks and STI/HIV Prevention in South China

Reducing harm associated with selling and purchasing sex is an important public health priority in China, yet there are few examples of sustainable, successful programs to promote sexual health among female sex workers. The limited civil society and scope of nongovernmental organizations circumscribe the local capacity of female sex workers to collectively organize, advocate for their rights, and implement STI/HIV prevention programs. The purpose of this study was to examine social networks among low-income female sex workers in South China to determine their potential for sexual health promotion.Semi-structured interviews with 34 low-income female sex workers and 28 health outreach members were used to examine how social relationships affected condom use and negotiation, STI/HIV testing and health-seeking behaviors, and dealing with violent clients. These data suggested that sex worker's laoxiang (hometown social connections) were more powerful than relationships between women selling sex at the same venue in establishing the terms and risk of commercial sex. Female sex workers from the same hometown often migrated to the city with their laoxiang and these social connections fulfilled many of the functions of nongovernmental organizations, including collective mobilization, condom promotion, violence mitigation, and promotion of health-seeking behaviors. Outreach members observed that sex workers accompanied by their laoxiang were often more willing to accept STI/HIV testing and trust local sexual health services.Organizing STI/HIV prevention services around an explicitly defined laoxiang social network may provide a strong foundation for sex worker health programs. Further research on dyadic interpersonal relationships between female sex workers, group dynamics and norm establishment, and the social network characteristics are needed

Comparing safety culture and learning culture

This article examines the alignment of learning and safety culture in organisations. It tests the hypothesis that factors that indicate a good learning culture might also signify good safety and vice versa. The hypothesis was tested through an intensive literature review. Areas of alignment of learning culture and safety culture were identified. Six components of learning culture and safety culture can be measured by the same instrument. These components form guiding principles for measurement of safety culture and learning culture. Another eight component areas were identified where learning culture and safety culture partially align. Four further components were found to be relevant to either safety culture or learning culture and do not align. Overall, there is a relationship between learning culture and safety culture, but gauging one does not provide a reliable measure of the other

Variations in activity and practice patterns: a French study for GPs

Medical activity, Practice profiles, General practitioner, Cluster analysis, Hypothesis test, I 11,

Effect of Part-time Practice on Patient Outcomes

Primary care physicians are spending fewer hours in direct patient care, yet it is not known whether reduced hours are associated with differences in patient outcomes. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether patient outcomes vary with physicians' clinic hours. DESIGN: Cross-sectional retrospective design assessing primary care practices in 1998. SETTING: All 25 outpatient-clinics of a single medical group in western Washington. PARTICIPANTS: One hundred ninety-four family practitioners and general internists, 80% of whom were part-time, who provided ambulatory primary care services to specified HMO patient panels. Physician appointment hours ranged from 10 to 35 per week (30% to 100% of full time). MEASUREMENTS: Twenty-three measures of individual primary care physician performance collected in an administrative database were aggregated into 4 outcome measures: cancer screening, diabetic management, patient satisfaction, and ambulatory costs. Multivariate regression on each of the 4 outcomes controlled for characteristics of physicians (administrative role, gender, seniority) and patient panels (size, case mix, age, gender). MAIN RESULTS: While the effects were small, part-time physicians had significantly higher rates for cancer screening (4% higher, P = .001), diabetic management (3% higher, P = .033), and for patient satisfaction (3% higher, P = .035). After controlling for potential confounders, there was no significant association with patient satisfaction ( P = .212) or ambulatory costs ( P = .323). CONCLUSIONS: Primary care physicians working fewer clinical hours were associated with higher quality performance than were physicians working longer hours, but with patient satisfaction and ambulatory costs similar to those of physicians working longer hours. The trend toward part-time clinical practice by primary care physicians may occur without harm to patient outcomes.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73810/1/j.1525-1497.2003.20401.x.pd