Training infection control and hospital hygiene professionals in Europe, 2010 : agreed core competencies among 33 European countries

The harmonisation of training programmes for infection control and hospital hygiene (IC/HH) professionals in Europe is a requirement of the Council recommendation on patient safety. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control commissioned the ‘Training Infection Control in Europe’ project to develop a consensus on core competencies for IC/HH professionals in the European Union (EU). Core competencies were drafted on the basis of the Improving Patient Safety in Europe (IPSE) project’s core curriculum (CC), evaluated by questionnaire and approved by National Representatives (NRs) for IC/HH training. NRs also re-assessed the status of IC/HH training in European countries in 2010 in comparison with the situation before the IPSE CC in 2006. The IPSE CC had been used to develop or update 28 of 51 IC/HH courses. Only 10 of 33 countries offered training and qualification for IC/ HH doctors and nurses. The proposed core competencies are structured in four areas and 16 professional tasks at junior and senior level. They form a reference for standardisation of IC/HH professional competencies and support recognition of training initiatives.peer-reviewe

Colloque "Martyre et suicide dans l'Islam contemporain" - Présentation: Ouverture du colloque "Martyre et suicide dans l'Islam contemporain"

Le martyre et le suicide dans l'Islam contemporain revêt une double importance. D'une part, on enregistre, dans le monde chiite et sunnite, une production intellectuelle extrêmement importante sur le sujet, qui non seulement concerne les religieux musulmans mais intéresse aussi les autres penseurs et par-delà la reflexion en Occident. D'autre part, les événements actuels en terre d'Islam et ailleurs montrent l'importance de ce phénomène qui interroge les sciences sociales. Le martyre est ici abordé sous différents aspects, afin d'en cerner la signification multiple, par des spécialistes de différentes disciplines: sociologues, anthropologues, politologues, psychologues et chercheurs en communication.François HEISBOURG présente les intervenants du colloque « Martyr(e) et suicide dans l'Islam contemporain » et le contexte de recherches français sur ces questions. Il présente également la publication en 2006 de l’ouvrage « Le Terrorisme en France aujourd'hui » (avec Jean-Luc Marret) et l’International Institute for Strategic Studies

Colloque "Martyre et suicide dans l'Islam contemporain" - Discussion I. : Discussion autour des interventions de Maher SHARIF, Farhad KHOSROKHAVAR et Faleh A. JABAR

Corpus "AGORA"Le martyre et le suicide dans l'Islam contemporain revêt une double importance. D'une part, on enregistre, dans le monde chiite et sunnite, une production intellectuelle extrêmement importante sur le sujet, qui non seulement concerne les religieux musulmans mais intéresse aussi les autres penseurs et par-delà la reflexion en Occident. D'autre part, les événements actuels en terre d'Islam et ailleurs montrent l'importance de ce phénomène qui interroge les sciences sociales. Le martyre est ici abordé sous différents aspects, afin d'en cerner la signification multiple, par des spécialistes de différentes disciplines: sociologues, anthropologues, politologues, psychologues et chercheurs en communication.La discussion autour des interventions de Maher SHARIF, Farhad KHOSROKHAVAR et Faleh A. JABAR aborde les problèmes politiques liés à la question des martyrs et de la lutte entre chiites et sunnites dans l’Islam contemporain

The role and utilisation of public health evaluations in Europe: a case study of national hand hygiene campaigns

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked Files. This article is open access.Evaluations are essential to judge the success of public health programmes. In Europe, the proportion of public health programmes that undergo evaluation remains unclear. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control sought to determine the frequency of evaluations amongst European national public health programmes by using national hand hygiene campaigns as an example of intervention.A cohort of all national hand hygiene campaigns initiated between 2000 and 2012 was utilised for the analysis. The aim was to collect information about evaluations of hand hygiene campaigns and their frequency. The survey was sent to nominated contact points for healthcare-associated infection surveillance in European Union and European Economic Area Member States.Thirty-six hand hygiene campaigns in 20 countries were performed between 2000 and 2012. Of these, 50% had undergone an evaluation and 55% of those utilised the WHO hand hygiene intervention self-assessment tool. Evaluations utilised a variety of methodologies and indicators in assessing changes in hand hygiene behaviours pre and post intervention. Of the 50% of campaigns that were not evaluated, two thirds reported that both human and financial resource constraints posed significant barriers for the evaluation.The study identified an upward trend in the number of hand hygiene campaigns implemented in Europe. It is likely that the availability of the internationally-accepted evaluation methodology developed by the WHO contributed to the evaluation of more hand hygiene campaigns in Europe. Despite this rise, hand hygiene campaigns appear to be under-evaluated. The development of simple, programme-specific, standardised guidelines, evaluation indicators and other evidence-based public health materials could help promote evaluations across all areas of public health