Ethical climate in a Belgian psychiatric inpatient setting: relation with burnout and engagement in psychiatric nurses

Research suggests a relation between the ethical climate – that is, the organisational conditions and practices that affect the way ethical issues with regard to patient care are discussed and decided - and job satisfaction of nurses. Yet no study to date has investigated the relationship between ethical climate and job satisfaction in psychiatric nurses. This study aimed to address this critical gap in our knowledge by investigating the relationships among ethical climate and features of both burnout and engagement based on the Job Demands-Resources Model (JD - R model) in a large cross-sectional study of 265 nurses working in a large psychiatric inpatient hospital in Flanders, Belgium. Correlational and multiple hierarchical regression analyses were used to investigate the relationship between ethical climate, burnout and engagement. In addition, based on the JD-R model, we also investigated whether engagement mediated the relationship between ethical climate on the one hand and job satisfaction and turnover intention on the other and whether ethical climate moderated the relationship between emotional burden and burnout. Results showed that a positive ethical climate was related to lower levels of emotional exhaustion and distancing and higher levels of engagement and job satisfaction. Furthermore, although ethical climate did not buffer against the effects of emotional burden on burnout, higher levels of engagement explained in part the relationship between ethical climate and job satisfaction

Urinary tract infections with <i>Aerococcus urinae</i> in the south of the Netherlands

Aerococcus urinae is an uncommon urinary tract pathogen that causes infections predominantly in elderly persons with local or general predisposing conditions. During a one-year study, the clinical features of Aerococcus urinae urinary tract infections (≤ 105 cfu/ml) were investigated in two large medical microbiology laboratories in the Netherlands. The incidence of Aerococcus urinae urinary tract infections ranged between 0.31 and 0.44% for the two laboratories. The median age (range 35-95 years) of patients with this infection was 82.5 years for women and 77.5 for men. Men had significantly (p &lt; 0.01) more local predisposing conditions than did women. Underlying systemic diseases such as diabetes mellitus, malignancy, and dementia were found in 67.5% of patients. Most patients (97.5%) had the classic signs of a urinary tract infection, but none of them developed serious symptoms. All isolates tested were susceptible to penicillin, amoxicillin, and nitrofurantoin, 78.3% were susceptible to norfloxacin, and all were resistant to sulfonamides. The majority of patients were treated with amoxicillin, amoxicillin with clavulanic acid, or norfloxacin.</p

Urinary tract infections with <i>Aerococcus urinae</i> in the south of the Netherlands

Aerococcus urinae is an uncommon urinary tract pathogen that causes infections predominantly in elderly persons with local or general predisposing conditions. During a one-year study, the clinical features of Aerococcus urinae urinary tract infections (≤ 105 cfu/ml) were investigated in two large medical microbiology laboratories in the Netherlands. The incidence of Aerococcus urinae urinary tract infections ranged between 0.31 and 0.44% for the two laboratories. The median age (range 35-95 years) of patients with this infection was 82.5 years for women and 77.5 for men. Men had significantly (p &lt; 0.01) more local predisposing conditions than did women. Underlying systemic diseases such as diabetes mellitus, malignancy, and dementia were found in 67.5% of patients. Most patients (97.5%) had the classic signs of a urinary tract infection, but none of them developed serious symptoms. All isolates tested were susceptible to penicillin, amoxicillin, and nitrofurantoin, 78.3% were susceptible to norfloxacin, and all were resistant to sulfonamides. The majority of patients were treated with amoxicillin, amoxicillin with clavulanic acid, or norfloxacin.</p