The Effect of Clinical and Demographic Factors on Quality of Life in End-Stage Renal Disease. A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study

The aim of this study was to assess the quality of life (QoL) in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients undergoing hemodialysis and to examine the clinical and demographic attributes associated with it. This is a multicenter, cross-sectional study, conducted in 2018, in which 367 patients with ESRD undergoing hemodialysis were recruited. Data were collected through a two-part anonymous, self-completed questionnaire. The first part contained questions regarding demographic, social, and clinical information, and the Greek version of Missoula–Vitas Quality of Life Index-15 (MVQoL-15) scale was used to assess QoL. Descriptive and inferential statistical methods were applied. All reported p-values were two-tailed, and the statistical significance level was set at 0.05. Of the study participants, 62.1% were male, with a mean age of 61.80 ±15.11. Of the participants, 67.3% were living in urban areas and 59.1% were married. The majority of the Hemodialysis (HD) patients evaluated possessively all the domains of MVQoL except the wellbeing Domain. QoL was found to be influenced, among others, by age (0.001), occupation (0.002), education (0.003), and additional health problems (<0.001). The role of patient characteristics in QoL is an area of interest, and early and proper intervention is important to enhance QoL

Borderline personality disorder and nursing approach

Introduction: Borderline Personality Disorder, is one of the ten Personality Disorders. These Disorders are split into three categories, with the Borderline being part of the second one where elements of dramatization and emotional instability are frequently evident. Purpose: The purpose of the present study is to investigate and highlight the characteristics, the treatment and nursing approach for people with this disorder. Methodology: The study material consisted of articles on the topic found in Greek and international databases such as: PubMed, Cochrane, Hellenic Academic Libraries Association (HEAL-Link), Scopus and PsycINFO, using keywords as: “Borderline Personality Disorder”, “Diagnosis”, “Therapy”, “Treatment”, “Holistic Care”, “Nursing Care”. Results: Bordeline Personality Disorder is characterized as a condition in which a person differs significantly from the average of people, about how he thinks, perceives, feels or relates to others. Treatment for this Disorder does not exist, however medication is used to remission the symptoms. Nurses are part of the treatment team. They’re going to help the patient learn to live with the symptoms of his disorder. As these people are special patients, nurses must learn from their training not to focus on the patient's problem, but on the patient himself. Conclusions: The key characteristics of Borderline are impulsivity and instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image and emotions. As there is no treatment, nurses as members of the treatment team must develop a relationship of trust with the patient in order to be able to help him in his recovery. It is important for nurses to be able to properly approach the person with Borderline Personality Disorder to learn to adapt according to his personalit

Professionalism among nurses in Malaysia : Does it exist?

Professionalism has been discussed among nurses for years. Nursing in Malaysia also experiences a gradual progression toward professionalism despite the rapid development of nursing education. Anecdotally, every nurse will rather admit that they are professional. However, there might be a possibility of speaking of it rather than doing it. This paper explores the existence of professionalism among nurses in Malaysia empirically and discusses pertinent research and/or studies that were conducted within the Malaysia context in the recent years. Numerous literature pertinent to professionalism in nursing were discussed. Several pertinent papers explored and discussed diversely in the context of professionalism in nursing nevertheless mainly conceived from the western countries’ perspectives. Furthermore, a marginalized amount of literature discuss professionalism in nursing within Malaysia context. This paper is likely to suggest the need to amplify the needs of researching the existence of professionalism in nursing practice and to reinstate the significance of the elements of professionalism among nurses in Malaysia in education and practice. KEYWORDS: Professionalism, nursing, Malaysi

Dokimološki utemeljeno vrednovanje znanja u strukovnom obrazovanju zdravstvenih radnika

Diversity of teaching curriculum in vocational subjects requires the application of different didactic-methodical approaches to teaching, and thus different methods for students’ knowledge evaluation. Objective assessment of knowledge is the imperative of the quality vocational education of healthcare professionals; in the evaluation of students’ progress and final assessment of students’ knowledge, the formative and summative methods are commonly used during or after the course of a particular subject. Modern higher education insists on objectivity and scientific foundation of the evaluation process, which is the main reason why the didactic docimology has finally received a deserved place in the pedagogical practice in the last decades. The aim of this paper is to emphasize the importance of the unconditional appliance of scientific principles in students’ knowledge evaluation, critically analyze elements of the existing objective methods of assessment in vocational education of healthcare professionals, and to emphasize the social and professional significance of the student’s final grade, which should be an unambiguous indicator of acquired professional skills of a graduate student of healthcare sciences.Raznolikost nastavnoga plana i programa u stručnim predmetima zahtijeva primjenu različitih didaktičko-metodičkih pristupa poučavanju, a samim tim i različitih metoda ocjenjivanja znanja studenata. Objektivno ocjenjivanje znanja imperativ je kvalitetnoga strukovnog obrazovanja zdravstvenih radnika. U vrednovanju napretka studenata i konačnoj procjeni njihovoga znanja, uobičajeno se koriste i sumativne i formativne metode, tijekom ili nakon pojedinoga nastavnog tečaja. Moderno visoko obrazovanje uvjetuje na objektivnosti i znanstvenoj utemeljenosti procesa vrednovanja, što je glavni razlog zašto je didaktička dokimologija u posljednjim desetljećima konačno dobila zasluženo mjesto u pedagoškoj praksi. Cilj je ovoga rada naglasiti važnost bezuvjetne primjene znanstvenih načela u evaluaciji znanja studenata, kritički analizirati elemente postojećih objektivnih metoda ocjenjivanja u strukovnom obrazovanju zdravstvenih radnika te naglasiti društveni i profesionalni značaj studentove završne ocjene, koja bi trebala biti nedvosmislen pokazatelj stečenih profesionalnih vještina diplomiranoga studenta zdravstvenih znanosti

Alcohol Use and Mental Health Status Among University Students in Greece

Alcohol abuse is a common incident in college student’s communities. The purpose of this research study was to evaluate the rates of alcohol use among university students in Greece and to search if there is a relation between alcohol use disorders and mental health status (depression, anxiety, stress)

Emotional Intelligence and Caring Behaviors of Mental Health Nurses in Greece

The purpose of this descriptive study of correlation of the synchronic type is to investigate the level of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and Caring Behaviors exhibited by nurses in mental health, as well as the relationship with their individual characteristics

Impact of job burnout on mental health among social workers in public and private sector in Greece

Purpose: This study examines the impact of job burnout on the social workers’ mental health in public and private sector. Material and Method: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in which 103 social workers who were working in public (n=56) and private (n=47) sector of the Thessaly region in Greece. Data were collected with a questionnaire including socio-demographic and work-related characteristics, the Maslach Burnout Inventory - Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28). Independent t-test, anova and Pearson coefficient were used in statistical analysis. Results: Emotional exhaustion was positively related to somatic symptoms (r=0.470, p<0.001), anxiety/insomnia (r=0.429, p<0.001), social dysfunction (r=0.365, p<0.001), depression (r=0.252, p=0.010) and overall mental burden (r=0.518, p<0.001) of social workers. Personal achievements were negatively related to somatic symptoms (r=-0.326, p=0.001), anxiety/insomnia (r=-0.266, p=0.007), social dysfunction (r=-0.321, p=0.001), depression (r=-0.444, p<0.001) and overall mental burden (r=-0.444, p<0.001). Also, depersonalization was positively associated with somatic symptoms (r=0.218, p=0.027), anxiety/insomnia (r=0.317, p=0.001) and overall mental burden (r=0.258, p=0.009). Conclusion: All dimensions of burnout had a significant effect on mental health disorders of social workers in labo

Assessment of psychological distress in university students: A Quantitative study

Introduction: Psychological health is the expression of harmonic expression ofhuman’s personality and is often disrupted by multiple factors. Especially duringacademic years human has to confront various stressful situations that endanger hisPsychological health.Purpose: This study aims to assess psychological distress in university students and toexamine possible factors that are associated with it.Material and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in which 206 universitystudents were participated. Data were collected by the Hospital Anxiety and DepressionScale, HADS and a sheet contain information regarding demographic, social andacademic background special design for the purpose of the study. Spss v. 21 was usedfor analyzing data and the signicant level was set in p?0,05.Results: From the total of 206 students 76,2% were women (n=157) and 23,8% weremen with a mean age 30.1 ±7.15. Anxiety symptoms were negative associated withcohabitation and marital status (p=.019 and p=.001 respectively). While place ofresidence was also negative associated (p=.000).While monthly income and duration ofwere associated with the experience of anxiety symptoms. One the other handdepression was associated with sex (p=.004) place of residence and origins of students(p=.038 and p=.058 respectively). Finally the number of uncompleted courses andsexual preferences were associated with depression to (p=.009).Conclusions: Within the context of student life that is characterized by anxiety, crises ofinterpersonal relationships and uncertainty maintaining student’s mental health andwellbeing must be a top propriety among university services

Quality of life among elderly population

Introduction: Quality of Life (QoL) among elderly is an important issue that reflects the status of well-being of this vulnerable population. Aim: This study aims to assess quality of life among elderly population and to examine possible correlations with associated demographic, social and health factors. Material and Method: A cross sectional study was conducted, in which 257 elderlies from Greece were participated. For the data collection the WHOQOL-BREF (30-items Greek version) questionnaire was used as well as a questionnaire with questions about demographic data, social & health factors. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, means, percentages and standard deviations have been utilized. Inferential statistics such as t-test and pearson r correlation have been used to determined correlations between relevant variables. Level of significance accepted is p < 0.05. Results: From the total 257 elderlies 55.6% (n=143) were women and 44.4% (n=114) were men with a mean age 75.12±8.39. The mean score of overall QoL is 14.14±2.87 and the mean of each factor of WHOQOL-BREF is 13.56±2.79 for physical health, 13.61±2.74 for mental health, 13.72±2.60 for social relationships and 13.70±1.96 for environment. Age, marital status, number of children, level of education, residence area, lifestyle, chronic diseases and serious illnesses are the factors that affects levels of QoL among Greek elderly population Conclusions: Results indicates that levels of QoL between elderly are moderate and many demographic, social and health factors are correlated with QoL status

Клінічні та поведінкові практики лікарів первинної ланки при призначенні антибіотиків у Греції

Aim: To evaluate primary health physicians’ clinical and behavioral practices towards antibiotics administration in a specific region in Greece. Materials and methods: A cross sectional study was conducted using a questionnaire in all structures of primary health care (PHC) of the Peloponnese Region. The study was conducted in May-October 2020. Results: In total, 306 out of 404 primary healthcare physicians completed the questionnaire (response rate of 75.8%). Our results showed that most of physicians used to prescribing antibiotics empirically in common diseases, except for the prevention of secondary respiratory tract infection. Overall, 66.3% answered that they do not feel diagnostic uncertainty that would lead them to prescribe antibiotics. Approximately 40% of the physicians stated an increase on antibiotics use and patients demand for antibiotic prescribing, however 71.4% “rarely/never” affected by this requirement. 51.9% of the sample used to prescribed brand name antibiotics. Statistically significant differences were found between demographic and professional characteristics, and physicians’ clinical and behavioral practices (p≤ 0.05). Conclusions: Our findings could provide decision makers with information on how to manage antibiotic prescribing in primary health care in the country, focusing mainly on the use of specific diagnostic tests as well as relevant guidelines and protocols for changing prescription behavior.Мета: оцінити клінічну та поведінкову практику лікарів первинної медико-санітарної допомоги щодо введення антибіотиків у конкретному регіоні Греції. Матеріали і методи: Було проведено перехресне дослідження з використанням анкети у всіх структурах первинної медико-санітарної допомоги (ПМСД) Пелопоннесу Дослідження проводилося у травні-жовтні 2020 року. Результати: Загалом анкету заповнили 306 з 404 лікарів первинної ланки (відсоток відповідей 75,8%). Наші результати показали, що більшість медиків звикли призначати антибіотики дослідним шляхом при поширених захворюваннях, крім профілактики вторинної інфекції дихальних шляхів. Загалом 66,3% відповіли, що не відчувають діагностичної невизначеності, яка змусила б їх призначати антибіотики. Приблизно 40% лікарів заявили про збільшення щодо використання антибіотиків та попиту пацієнтів на призначення антибіотиків, однак 71,4% «рідко/ніколи» не постраждали від цієї вимоги. 51,9% вибірки звиклих до призначення антибіотиків. Статистично значущі відмінності були виявлені між демографічними та професійними характеристиками, а також клінічними характеристиками лікарів і поведінкових практик (с≤ 0,05). Висновки: Наші висновки можуть надати особам, які приймають рішення, інформацію про те, як керувати призначенням антибіотиків у первинній медико-санітарній допомозі в країні, зосередження уваги головним чином на використанні специфічних діагностичних тестів, а також відповідних керівних принципів та протоколів для зміни рецептурної поведінки