Correlation between quality of healthcare and safety culture in Saudi Arabia organizations

Background: The current study aimed to examine the association between hospital nurses’ attitudes about the safety culture and patients’ views about the quality of healthcare services delivered to them during their hospitalization. Methods: This study was cross section study as well as adopted the correlational design. The study used the hospital survey on patient safety culture to assess nurses’ perceptions about the safety culture, and the consumer assessment of healthcare providers and systems survey to assess patients’ experience of care. The current study was conducted in a tertiary healthcare organization in Riyadh city in Saudi Arabia. Results: The response rates for nurses and patients were 79% and 80%, respectively. In nurses’ sample, the majority 92.9% was female and 90.6% was non-Saudi; while 43.5% of patients were male and the majority was Saudi 97.1%. More than half of the nurses 57.2% were married and 35.4% identified themselves as single. On the other hand, the majority of patients 81.5% were married and 48.7% of patients had a diploma or high school or less. Conclusions: The results of canonical correlation analysis showed positive and strong correlations between nurses’ perceptions of safety culture (facilitators and threats to patient safety) and patients’ perceptions of quality of healthcare (interpersonal care communication and technical quality of care). The canonical variates for both root pairs (canonical correlation coefficients = 0.89 and 0.81). This finding clearly proves that in workplaces where staffs have more positive perceptions of patient safety culture, patients have more positive experiences of care

Moral dilemma: is there a moral difference between killing and letting die in healthcare?

The purpose of this paper was to prove that there was no moral difference between killing and letting one die in healthcare. It was important to be aware of the moral equivalence of killing and letting die. The Abrahamic religions; Islam, Christianity and Judaism, all argue for the sanctity of life. The world’s major religions Islam, Christianity and Judaism all have doctrines concerning the sanctity of life and they support the main arguments of this paper that there is no moral difference between killing and letting die. In relation to patient autonomy and the patient's right to die, it is very important to highlight that doctors have a moral and legal responsibility to save lives. In addition, we discussed the distinction centres on the true definition of patient autonomy and who was responsible for defining the quality of life. The intention and foresight were critical points that supported the thesis statement that killing and letting one die were one in the same. The acts and omissions doctrine as described in this paper showed that there were no moral difference to kill a person or to let him die. Finally, we extensively discussed the various viewpoints regarding whether or not there was a moral difference between killing and letting die. There is no doubt that the debate over killing and letting die will continue for years to come. It is critical that the issue be addressed at this particular time in history with the advent of modern medical technology

Developing dialogic interactions : teacher talk in Saudi Arabian secondary schools' English language classes

University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.This study investigated the nature of teacher talk in Saudi EFL secondary school classrooms. The study explores how teacher talk assisted or hindered the development of the students’ dialogic skills. By analysing aspects of teacher talk (TT), in particular the role of the F-move in the IRF (initiation, response, feedback) interaction sequence, it investigated how TT was affected by certain cultural, educational and teaching practices in learning of the target language. This is a qualitative research, in which data were collected from naturalistic settings through classroom observations, audio recordings of classroom interactions and interviews with 18 EFL teachers teaching in six different secondary schools within Hafr Al-Batin province (a region in Saudi Arabia). The findings showed that the F-moves of repetition and evaluation were commonly used in Saudi EFL classrooms, whereas the F-moves of elaboration and reformulation were less dominant in teacher talk. The former are less likely to promote discussion and dialogue; they restrict learners’ engagement with meaning-making in classroom talk because both F-moves function as indirect corrective feedback which impedes students’ output and uptake and encourage low order thinking. Students were not provided with appropriate learning opportunities but were merely exposed to teachers’ subject matter knowledge, specifically, grammatical knowledge. The brief nature of the exchanges was insufficient to stimulate learning. The study also found that some teachers failed to utilise macro-teaching strategies that encourage productive teacher talk, especially in the areas of negotiated interaction facilitation, promoting learner autonomy, raising cultural awareness and maximising learning opportunities. Instead, the teacher’s role did not promote dialogic talk but merely reinforced teacher authority. Some teachers spent considerable time on managing students’ behaviour; as a result, they paid little attention to building positive relationships in the classroom. The findings also showed that there is a strong interconnection between pedagogy and culture. In other words, dialogic teaching is not independent of the sociocultural setting of the classroom, institution and community in Saudi Arabia. Accordingly, classroom talk cannot be transformed into dialogic talk without cultural modifications in EFL teaching, such as providing freedom of speech and space for dialogue and debate. It is therefore. recommended that professional development programs include material related to dialogic talk/teaching in order to increase teachers’ awareness and understanding of the role of TT in managing classroom talk and to enhance their ability to help students achieve their full potential in language learning and development

Antiplatelet Intake Medications for Patients Undergoing Dental Surgery

This study aims at exploring the patients taking antiplatelet medications who are undergoing dental surgery, physicians and dentists must weigh the bleeding risks in continuing antiplatelet medications versus the thrombotic risks in interrupting antiplatelet medications. Bleeding complications requiring more than local measures for hemostasis are rare after dental surgery in patients taking antiplatelet medications. Conversely, the risk for thrombotic complications after interruption of antiplatelet therapy for dental procedures apparently is significant, although small. When a clinician is faced with a decision to continue or interrupt antiplatelet therapy for a dental surgical patient, the decision comes down to “bleed or die.” That is, there is a remote chance that continuing antiplatelet therapy will result in a (nonfatal) bleeding problem requiring more than local measures for hemostasis versus a small but significant chance that interrupting antiplatelet therapy will result in a (possibly fatal) thromboembolic complication. The decision is simple: It is time to stop interrupting antiplatelet therapy for dental surgery

Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes among Youths in Jordan: Incidence and Trends for the period (2011-2016)

This study aimed at analyzing the incidence of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes among youths in Jordan for the period (2011-2016), the researchers adopted the survey methodology for the period of five years from the records of the medical centers (public and private) in Jordan. Also investigated the differences between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes in diagnosis and treatments. Results showed significant upward trend in the incidence of type 1 diabetes was observed overall with considerable variation across demographic subgroups of age, sex. And also showed among youths who were 10 to 19 years of age, unadjusted models revealed significant increases in the incidence of type 2 diabetes with increases observed across all age and sex

Awareness and Regulatory Measures in Caffeine Addiction: Medical Statistical Review

This study aimed at analyzing the degree of awareness and regulatory measures in the caffeine addiction within a medical statistical survey in Jordan, by attempting to answer the study two questions: What are the level of awareness and regulatory measures in caffeine addiction for positive psychological effects (alertness, attention and concentration)?, and: What are the level of awareness and regulatory measures in caffeine addiction for negative psychological effects (anxiety, depression and irritable)? The results of the study showed that there will be a statistically significant differences at the level of significance (α=0.05) of the awareness of caffeine addiction for both positive psychological effects (alertness, attention and concentration) and negative psychological effects (anxiety, depression and irritable) in Jordan. The researchers recommended to educate university students about the importance of controlling their caffeine intakes, and encourage university students to exploit the medical information provided by the medical studies about the risks of high doses of caffeine intakes

Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease and Their Quality of Life

This study aimed at exploring the assessment of Quality of Life (QOL) in patients with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), and aiming at assessing the QOL of patients with stages 1–5 Chronic Kidney Disease CKD on conservative treatment in order to identify a possible association between Quality Of Life QOL and progression of kidney insufficiency. The results were compared with those obtained for patients on hemodialysis. Sociodemographic, clinical and laboratory data were also evaluated. And the study concluded that research efforts have expanded significantly to determine the state of pediatric CKD patient HRQOL and the factors that impact HRQOL across all stages of CKD and all modalities of renal replacement therapy. Data from all studies suggest that children with a renal transplant fare better with respect to HRQOL than those receiving dialysis.

Predicting passengers’ feedback rate for airport service quality

Airport service quality evaluation is commonly found on social media sites, including Google Maps. The reviews by users of Google Maps are longer in terms of the number of words than those found on Twitter. They also include a rating, whereas those on Twitter need to be labelled. However, they are less well known than those on Twitter amongst researchers who focus on sentimental analysis. This study attempts to fill the gap in the current literature and develops architecture that is based on Long-Short Term Memory Neural Networks and Convolution Neural Networks. The combined model developed receives meta-data, such as the number of words in the review and the number of likes the review receives in addition to the key review words. The two models, the first of which predicts polarity and the second reviews ratings, were tested under several variations of parameters and showed consistency in results. The dataset was collected from Google Maps and focused on two crowded airports in the Arabic Peninsula (Doha and Dubai). They were found to be unbalanced, with positive reviews being more abundant than negative reviews

Multiclass sentiment prediction of airport service online reviews using aspect-based sentimental analysis and machine learning

Airport service quality ratings found on social media such as Airline Quality and Google Maps offer invaluable insights for airport management to improve their quality of services. However, there is currently a lack of research analysing these reviews by airport services using sentimental analysis approaches. This research applies multiclass models based on Aspect-Based Sentimental Analysis to conduct a comprehensive analysis of travellers’ reviews, in which the major airport services are tagged by positive, negative, and non-existent sentiments. Seven airport services commonly utilised in previous studies are also introduced. Subsequently, various Deep Learning architectures and Machine Learning classification algorithms are developed, tested, and compared using data collected from Twitter, Google Maps, and Airline Quality, encompassing travellers’ feedback on airport service quality. The results show that the traditional Machine Learning algorithms such as the Random Forest algorithm outperform Deep Learning models in the multiclass prediction of airport service quality using travellers’ feedback. The findings of this study offer concrete justifications for utilising multiclass Machine Learning models to understand the travellers’ sentiments and therefore identify airport services required for improvement

MOLECULAR EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDIES ON TRYPANOSOMA EVANSI TYPE A AND TYPE B IN CAMELS (CAMELUS DROMEDARIES) FROM FIVE DIFFERENT REGIONS OF SAUDI ARABIA USING THE ITS1 RDNA AND ROTAT 1.2 VSG GENE

Trypanosoma evansi is the most widespread of the pathogenic salivarian trypanosomes and cause a serious disease called (surra) that is affect the domestic animals such camels and horses in Tropical and subtropical countries and often leads to reduced productivity and economic losses. Therefore, the objectives of the present study were to determine the prevalence rates of trypanosomiasis using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) among camels from five different regions of Saudi Arabia and to sequence and characterized the T. evansi from these animals. In the current study, 832 camel blood samples collected from five different regions of Saudi Arabia for detecting T. evansi. A generic ITS1-PCR and RoTat 1.2 VSG gene were applied in this study to analyze camels’ blood samples. Molecular analysis was performed using ITS1-PCR which showed that the highest prevalence of trypanosomes was observed in Al-Qaseem province (50.1%) followed Riyadh province (49%), whereas in Hail and the Northern Borders, there were fewer infections with trypanosomes (28.4% &17.6%), respectively. PCR amplification was carried out targeting RoTat 1.2 VSG gene on TS1-positive samples and some of them were negative for RoTat1.2. The test negative in RoTat 1.2 PCR but ITS1 PCR positive could suggest T. evansi type B. Presence of T. evansi type B is interest to the international community, as this has a message to redesign the existing molecular and serological diagnostic markers. However, to our knowledge this the first study demonstrating T. evansi type B out of Africa. Keywords: Trypanosoma evansi, Camels, ITS1 rDNA , RoTat 1.2, PCR, Saudi Arabia