Barriers to Health Care Utilization Facing Prostate Cancer Survivors Living in Gaza Strip

There are several studies that aimed to identify barriers to health care utilization, but none of them was conducted in a developing country that addressed barriers to health care utilization facing prostate cancer survivors. This study aimed at identifying barriers to health care utilization facing prostate cancer survivors who live in Gaza Strip. A qualitative approach with a semi-structured interview was used to collect data. Participants reported several barriers to health care utilization. These barriers were categorized under the following major categories: 1) barriers due to unavailability, 2) organizational barriers, 3) communication barriers, 4) geographical barriers, 5) socioeconomic barriers, and 6) barriers related directly to the blockade imposed on Gaza Strip. Within each category several subcategories emerged

Quality of Life and Barriers to Health Care of Prostate Cancer Survivors Residing in Gaza Strip

Prostate cancer is the second common type of cancer worldwide and in Palestine. The use of different treatment options helped prostate cancer survivors to get cured or to live for longer periods of time. Because of the several complications of treatment options, issues related to quality of life (QOL) became highly important in the decision of which option to use

Quality of life in prostate cancer survivors in developing countries: The case of the Gaza Strip, Palestine

Background & Aim: Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in males and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in Palestine. Although, many studies were conducted in de-veloped countries to evaluate quality of life (QOL) in survivors of prostate cancer, the researchers could not find any study that was conducted in a developing country including Palestine. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the QOL of prostate cancer survivors residing in Gaza Strip, Palestine, as an example of a developing country, and compare it with the literature. Methods & Materials: A total of a 121 men who were diagnosed with prostate cancer and live in Gaza Strip participated in this cross-sectional study. The University of California at Los Angeles Prostate-Specific Index including the RAND 36-Item Health Survey v2 was used to assess QOL of participants. Results: Age of participants’ ranged between 52 and 89 years with a mean of 71.80 (SD 7.66). The greatest majority of participants (n= 94, 77.67%) were diagnosed with prostate cancer after the age of 60. The mean scores for the entire general QOL items was 47.93 (SD= 22.46) and the mean for all Prostate Cancer Index-University of California items was 44.20 (SD= 16.16). Conclusion: Prostate cancer survivors living in Gaza Strip, Palestine have lower level of QOL than their counterparts who live in developed courtiers. These differences could be related to early screening and advanced technology used to treat prostate cancer in developed countries. Health care providers and health care policy makers need to improve provided health care services and introduce screening

End of Life-Decisions: An Islamic Perspective

Patients who live with a low quality of life and suffer from chronic pain may wish to end their suffering through different means such as active euthanasia, passive euthanasia, and physician-assisted suicide. These alternatives to end one’s own life create many ethical dilemmas for health care professionals, patients, and family members. Some of these decisions are forbidden in Islamic Religion, while others are permitted. In this paper, the authors will discuss how Islam looks at these decisions. Knowing about how Islam deals with such decisions will be of great help for health care providers who take care of Muslim patients. It will also help patients and their families in making their decisions at the end of life

The rights of an accused person in Malaysia / Mohd Nasser Mohd Noor

The object of this project is to set forth the various rights of an accused person in Malaysia now in force at the Pre-Trial, Trial and Appeal Stages, to stress on the defects, to explain on their effect and operation by reference, where necessary to decided cases and, wherever possible, to suggest reforms or amendments to the existing law and practice relating thereto. Research for this project paper was conducted at several Libraries namely Perpustakaan Tun Abdul Razak at Mara Institute of Technology, The British Council Library, Perpustakaan Penyelidikan Tun Fuan Stephen, Yayasan Sabah, Kota Kinabalu and the Kota Kinabalu State Library. The writer however, does not profess to be an exhaustive catalogue of the rights discussed in the paper, nor, in so far as it does deal with them, does it profess to do so fully. Moreover, in some cases, as for instance the section dealing with the right of Appeal and the Doctrine of Double Jeopardy, it has not been the writer's intention to provide solutions to problems, but to provoke thought and to provide material from which possible solutions to these problems may be arrived at

Cardholders' Attitude And Bank Credit Card Usage In Malaysia: An Exploratory Study

The study is aimed at validating attributes that influence the differences in attitudes among active and inactive cardholders. By focusing on relevant attributes that have been identified, it is believed that credit card issuing banks can position themselves effectively via their marketing strategies to activate their existing cardholders' usage rate as well as to attract new active cardholders. Thirteen important attributes were used to measure credit cardholders' attitude. These attributes include acceptance level, credit limit, interest-free repayment period, annual fee, application approval period, ancillary functions, handling of cardholders' complaints, issuing bank image, gift/bonus to new applicants, card design, leaflet to describe the card,and advertising by the issuing bank. Acceptance level, credit limit, interest free repayment period, ancillary functions, handling of cardholders' complaints, bank image, and bank advertising were found to be the most important attributes that influenced cardholders' attitudes in distinguishing active from inactive cardholders. Based on the results of the study, several suggestions are forwarded to credit card issuing banks as a step to stimulate credit cardholders' usage level. Among these are to work closer with various retailers to promote the credit card payment mode, to provide adequate credit limit to cardholders, to extend interest free repayment period from 20 days to 30 days, to implement strategic alliances with firms involved in travelling, entertainment, insurance, and telecommunications and, to advertise more so as to create a brand name for the issuing bank

End of Life-Decisions: An Islamic Perspective

Patients who live with a low quality of life and suffer from chronic pain may wish to end their suffering through different means such as active euthanasia, passive euthanasia, and physician-assisted suicide. These alternatives to end one’s own life create many ethical dilemmas for health care professionals, patients, and family members. Some of these decisions are forbidden in Islamic Religion, while others are permitted. In this paper, the authors will discuss how Islam looks at these decisions. Knowing about how Islam deals with such decisions will be of great help for health care providers who take care of Muslim patients. It will also help patients and their families in making their decisions at the end of life

Identifying and Prioritizing the Research Needs Related to Mental Health in Gaza Strip-Palestine

Background: An important function of research is to identify community needs in certain fields. As mental health is a vital issue to us, identifying and prioritizing mental health needs is important to policy makers to help them in setting goals for different programs that meet the needs of a specific community in a certain health area. Purpose: To identify the health research needs in the field of mental health in Gaza Strip, Palestine. Design and Methods: The design was a qualitative design using focus group, need assessment and non-structured interview for data collection. Participants: Participants included three focus groups. First group consisted of students enrolled in a master program of community mental health nursing; second group included seven faculty members who were specialists in mental health; and third group included six key persons from the ministry of health and the chair of community mental health program in WHO at Gaza Strip. Results: Results of this qualitative study revealed several themes that emerged from the thematic analysis. Many health research needs were identified by participants. These needs included the following topics: stigma, family integration, aggression of children born to substance-abuse fathers, post-partum depression, counseling, talking therapy in clinical practice, behavioral problems, tramadole abuse, risk factors leading to drug dependence, autism, exploring the role of religion in mental health, and Wellness Recovery Action Plan. Implication for Practice: Well designed studies will help to identify and prioritize the health needs for a specific community. Identifying the needs related to community mental health is one of the first steps to help in pushing these needs into the agenda of health policy makers, who then will work to set goals and design policies and programs that aiming to meet the needs of the community, which hopefully will produce a community with less mental health problems.Background: An important function of research is to identify community needs in certain fields. As mental health is a vital issue to us, identifying and prioritizing mental health needs is important to policy makers to help them in setting goals for different programs that meet the needs of a specific community in a certain health area. Purpose: To identify the health research needs in the field of mental health in Gaza Strip, Palestine. Design and Methods: The design was a qualitative design using focus group, need assessment and non-structured interview for data collection. Participants: Participants included three focus groups. First group consisted of students enrolled in a master program of community mental health nursing; second group included seven faculty members who were specialists in mental health; and third group included six key persons from the ministry of health and the chair of community mental health program in WHO at Gaza Strip. Results: Results of this qualitative study revealed several themes that emerged from the thematic analysis. Many health research needs were identified by participants. These needs included the following topics: stigma, family integration, aggression of children born to substance-abuse fathers, post-partum depression, counseling, talking therapy in clinical practice, behavioral problems, tramadole abuse, risk factors leading to drug dependence, autism, exploring the role of religion in mental health, and Wellness Recovery Action Plan. Implication for Practice: Well designed studies will help to identify and prioritize the health needs for a specific community. Identifying the needs related to community mental health is one of the first steps to help in pushing these needs into the agenda of health policy makers, who then will work to set goals and design policies and programs that aiming to meet the needs of the community, which hopefully will produce a community with less mental health problems

Assessing Spiritual Well-Being of Arab Muslim Prostate Cancer Survivors: A Reflection for a New Spiritual Health Care Policy

Religious and spiritual beliefs are some of numerous factors that influence quality of life outcome of cancer survivors. Spirituality is believed to be an important component of overall well-being and it is especially significant in relation to how cancer survivors cope with their morbidity. The purpose of this study was to explore spiritual well-being of Arab, Muslim prostate cancer survivors living in Gaza Strip, Palestine. A cross-sectional design was used in this study using the Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS). A total of 117 Arab, Muslim patients diagnosed with prostate cancer from Gaza Strip participated in this study. Results revealed high scores of SWBS. Score for the total SWBS was 101.16 (±5.47) while was 58.91 (2.06±) for Religious Well-Being (RWB) subscale and 42.25 (±4.58) for Existential Well-Being (EWB) subscale. Scores were not affected by demographic characteristics of participants

An evidenced-based study :Measuring the effect of implementing an Infection Control Program on health care providers ' Compliance to Infection Control Measures'

In Palestinian, 10% of deaths among children under the age of five are related to infections. Practice of infection prevention and control reduces the number of hospital-acquired infections. The purposes of this study were to explore health care team perceptions of causes of hospital-acquired infections and to develop, implement and measure the impact of infection prevention program in the ICU of a specialty pediatric hospital in Gaza Strip. A quasi experimental with pretest-posttest design was used. All nurses and physicians were included in this study. Five dimensions were measured and investigated pre and post-intervention. An infection control educational program was designed and implemented. After implementing the staff-developed program, the five dimensions were improved: using sharp box increased from 46.6% to 90%, doing gloves and scrubbing improved from 53.3% to 55%, frequency of hand washing increased from 47.2% to 79.3%, awareness of Palestinian protocol of infection prevention increased from 27.5 to 80% and positive swabs cultures decreased from 56% to 34.6%. The study recommends rebuilding an the infection control committee, motivating and encouraging work team to apply control infection measures through training and continuous education, providing the necessary medical supplies. These are besides continuous monitoring and follow up from the administration.In Palestinian, 10% of deaths among children under the age of five are related to infections. Practice of infection prevention and control reduces the number of hospital-acquired infections. The purposes of this study were to explore health care team perceptions of causes of hospital-acquired infections and to develop, implement and measure the impact of infection prevention program in the ICU of a specialty pediatric hospital in Gaza Strip. A quasi experimental with pretest-posttest design was used. All nurses and physicians were included in this study. Five dimensions were measured and investigated pre and post-intervention. An infection control educational program was designed and implemented. After implementing the staff-developed program, the five dimensions were improved: using sharp box increased from 46.6% to 90%, doing gloves and scrubbing improved from 53.3% to 55%, frequency of hand washing increased from 47.2% to 79.3%, awareness of Palestinian protocol of infection prevention increased from 27.5 to 80% and positive swabs cultures decreased from 56% to 34.6%. The study recommends rebuilding an the infection control committee, motivating and encouraging work team to apply control infection measures through training and continuous education, providing the necessary medical supplies. These are besides continuous monitoring and follow up from the administration