Patients’ satisfaction received from nursing staff in the Home Care Programme run by the Ministry of Health in Cyprus

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the home care patients’ satisfaction received from the nursing staff in the public home care program in Cyprus. Patients’ satisfaction has become an important part in evaluating the quality of health care services. Patients are the ones who can identify better than anyone else the aspects of nursing care which need improvement. Home care services are quite new and still developing in Cyprus while the need for these services is increasing rapidly. This study, utilized the QPP survey questionnaire, in depth semi-structured interviews and observations. The questionnaire was delivered to the home care patients who received long term care during the period of February 2011 to May 2011. A purposive sample was used for the interviews of the patients, the nursing staff and the management staff of the home care program and for the observations of the home care visits. The results of this study showed that the home care patients of the public home care program in Cyprus are very satisfied from the services they receive from the home care nursing staff. The quality of care, QPP index was found of the highest score in all items of the questionnaire. This study revealed high standards in the elements relating to the humane approach, the medical competence, the information and advising provided to the patients. At the same time, this study identified a deficiency in the abilities of the nursing staff to provide psychological support in difficult cases and the patients’ inadequate control of their medical care according to their desires rather than by the procedures of their home care nurse. It also identified the need of the home care patients for help in the activities of daily living (ADLs). Additionally, this study surfaced the aspects of the nursing care which the home care patients consider more important and highlighted the characteristics of an ideal home care nurse through the patients’ eyes; placing the humane approach as the most important aspect, followed by the psychological support provided and then by the nursing knowledge. A deviation was identified between the nursing and management views, with the later placing the nursing knowledge as first, followed by leadership skills and then by the humane approach. This study, also identified those problematic areas of the program which negatively influence the nursing services; these were the absence of a team of health professionals in the program, the limited operating hours, the non-implementation of the concept of prescribing nurses, the non- eligibility of the nurses to refer the patients to other health professionals, inadequate technology, insufficient financial support of the program, and the cumbersome procedures of the public sector. Home care patients’ satisfaction from the nursing staff is very high; yet there are some areas which need improvement. Recommendations emanated from the project include the enhancement of the nursing undergraduate and post graduate education in home care nursing, with courses and workshops on the psychology of home care patients, on gerontology, on leadership and communication skills. Recommendations also include individual and organizational development interventions for providing more support to the home care nurses, higher quality of care to the home care patients within a client-centred environment and feedback strategies

Antecedents and outcomes of consumer environmentally friendly attitudes and behaviour

With the intensification of problems relating to the environment, a growing number of consumers are becoming more ecologically conscious in their preferences and purchases of goods. This paper presents the results of a study conducted among 500 Cypriot consumers, focusing on the factors that shape consumer environmental attitudes and behaviour, as well as on the resulting outcomes. The findings confirmed that both the inward and outward environmental attitudes of a consumer are positively influenced by his/her degree of collectivism, long-term orientation, political involvement, deontology, and law obedience, but have no connection with liberalism. The adoption of an inward environmental attitude was also found to be conducive to green purchasing behaviour that ultimately leads to high product satisfaction. On the other hand, an outward environmental attitude facilitates the adoption of a general environmental behaviour, which is responsible for greater satisfaction with life. The findings of the study have important implications for shaping effective company offerings to consumers in target markets, as well as formulating appropriate policies at the governmental level to enhance environmental sensitivity among citizens

Developing and utilizing coopetitive relationships: Evidence from small and medium-sized enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa

The study proposes the notion of coopetition capability as an ability to cooperate and compete with rival firms simultaneously. We draw on the tenets of the resource-based and dynamic capability theories as well as insights from in-depth qualitative studies of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in two Sub-Saharan African markets – Kenya and Zambia – to explore the conceptual domain of the coopetitive capability phenomenon. We further examine how external and internal environmental forces trigger the development of coopetition capability, and how coopetitive capability contributes to firm success outcomes. Findings from the study indicate that coopetitive capability is manifested in SMEs’ ability to proactively develop, coordinate, and learn from portfolios of inter-firm relationships with competitors. The study further finds that interactivities between regulatory requirements, customer demands, and firm-specific learning processes are major triggers of SMEs’ propensities to develop and benefit from coopetition capability. The study extends the literature on inter-organizational relationships by highlighting the conceptual domain and drivers of coopetition capability

Religious Experience and the Modernist Novel

Output Type: Book Revie

Economic liberalization and the antecedents of top management teams: evidence from Turkish 'big' business

There has been an increased interest in the last two decades in top management teams (TMTs) of business firms. Much of the research, however, has been US-based and concerned primarily with TMT effects on organizational outcomes. The present study aims to expand this literature by examining the antecedents of top team composition in the context of macro-level economic change in a late-industrializing country. The post-1980 trade and market reforms in Turkey provided the empirical setting. Drawing upon the literatures on TMT and chief executive characteristics together with punctuated equilibrium models of change and institutional theory, the article develops the argument that which firm-level factors affect which attributes of TMT formations varies across the early and late stages of economic liberalization. Results of the empirical investigation of 71 of the largest industrial firms in Turkey broadly supported the hypotheses derived from this premise. In the early stages of economic liberalization the average age and average organizational tenure of TMTs were related to the export orientation of firms, whereas in later stages, firm performance became a major predictor of these team attributes. Educational background characteristics of teams appeared to be under stronger institutional pressures, altering in different ways in the face of macro-level change

Ad Hoc Reviewers-Journal of Macromarketing Volume 33, Number 4, December 2013

[No abstract available

Restless legs syndrome in Multiple Sclerosis patients: a contributing factor for fatigue, impaired functional capacity, and diminished health-related quality of life

Objectives Restless legs syndrome (RLS) symptoms are common in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients. The aim of the current study was to examine for the first time whether RLS could affect the functional capacity and various contributing parameters related to quality of life and fatigue in MS patients. Methods According to their RLS status, 50 relapsing-remitting MS patients were divided into the RLS (n = 10) and non-RLS groups (n = 40). Specific questionnaires were used in order to assess the health-related quality of life (HRQoL), fatigue levels, sleep quality, daily sleepiness, and depression symptoms of the patients. Functional capacity was examined using a battery of functional tests. Total body and visceral fat levels were assessed via bioelectrical impedance analyzers. Results Sleep quality, depression, fatigue, and HRQoL levels were found to be significantly worse in the patients with RLS compared to their free-RLS counterparts (P < 0.05). In addition, patients with RLS were found to exhibit further impairments in their performance in various functional tests related mainly with strength levels of lower extremities (P < 0.05). Finally, the patients with RLS were found to have significantly higher both total and trunk fat levels compared to patients without RLS (P < 0.05). A strong correlation was observed between the severity of RLS symptoms, sleep quality, fatigue, and QoL levels. Discussion It seems that RLS contributes even further to impairments on sleep quality, fatigue, functional capacity, and therefore HRQoL levels in relapsing-remitting MS patients, whilst for the first time a link between high fat levels has been revealed

Identidad étnica y redes personales entre jóvenes de Sarajevo

After fieldwork conducted among young people in Sarajevo, we found a relation between the discourses sustained by them and the ethnic categories they use to classify people and to identify themselves. Also we have found that people self-affiliated as "Bosnians" play an important role in the network of multiethnic relationships, in which strong ties, surprisingly, are still very important. Finally we found a relationship between the composition of personal networks and the ethnic discourses that are maintained.Después de un trabajo de campo realizado con un grupo de jóvenes en Sarajevo, hemos constatado la existencia de una relación entre los discursos que sostienen y las categorías étnicas que utilizan tanto para clasificar a los demás como para auto-identificarse. Asimismo hemos encontrado que los jóvenes que se autodenominan "Bosnios" juegan un rol importante en la red de relaciones multiétnicas, en la que los lazos fuertes, sorprendentemente, son muy importantes. Finalmente hemos hallado una relación entre la composición de las redes personales y los discursos étnicos que se sostienen. Vivimos, o creemos vivir, en múltiples "comunidades", imaginadas o no. Al mismo tiempo, el individuo y no el lugar, la familia o el grupo, se sitúa en el centro de la vida social y de las comunicaciones (Cf. Wellman, 2001). En este contexto, inducido por el avance del capitalismo flexible (Castells, 1996), pensamos que para entender adecuadamente la identidad o identidades postuladas por los individuos es necesario estudiar las redes personales y su dinámica. Desde esta perspectiva no podemos hablar de "etnias" o "multietnicidad" sin más precisiones, pues son conceptos basados en una concepción esencialista y estática de la identidad individual. El concepto de "sociedad multiétnica" es utilizado de una manera engañosamente progresista y objetiva, pues lo que en realidad legitima es la existencia de diferencias esenciales entre personas, alejando en lugar de acercar. Sin embargo, somos plenamente conscientes que los discursos esencialistas de la identidad étnica son omnipresentes, con enormes efectos políticos e individuales. Que planteemos que la concepción esencialista de la identidad sea inapropiada desde un punto de vista académico, no significa que ésta no se utilice políticamente y por lo tanto tenga consecuencias formidables en las relaciones sociales. Precisamente el estudio de las redes personales nos permite situarnos en una perspectiva que no utiliza con pretensiones analíticas conceptos "folk", como son los de "etnia", "pueblo" o "nación", sino que los sitúa en el terreno de los discursos sustentados por los actores (y los estados y medios de comunicación) y nos permite contextualizarlos mediante conceptos etic, es decir, impuestos por los investigadores. Sólo así podemos superar las tautologías que abundan en los discursos étnicos

International trade and domestic competition: Evidence from Belgium

We investigate the effect of domestic market competition on firm-level export intensity. We employ a comprehensive dataset of Belgian firms from 2005–2008, when the fall in the number of firms engaged in trade was accompanied by a growing amount of transactions. The resulting increase in the domestic concentration of Belgian firms has sparked numerous debates, since the direction of causality between domestic market structure and export performance is unclear. We apply the fractional logit estimator and control for both self-selection and simultaneity bias. We find that a positive linkage exists between the level of competition and export intensity