Sick leaves among nursing professionals in basic healthcare centers of the Brazilian National Unified Healthcare System - SUS - in the city of Campinas

This report aims to analyze sick leave rates among healthcare professionals from 16 Basic Healthcare Units of the Brazilian National Unified Healthcare System (SUS) in the Municipality of Campinas during 2002. Data on worked days and sick leaves of 311 nurses and nursing aides working at Healthcare Centers of the North and East regions of the municipality of Campinas were obtained at the central administration, in order to calculate the frequency, severity and proportion of lost working time. Variables used were time on the job, job title, gender and weekly hour load. Results of the present study were compared with other published reports on sick leave rates in hospitals, manufacturing, and service settings. Most of the studied population comprised nursing aides and other healthcare technicians (82.6%), 90.6% had a weekly work load of 36 hours, and 93.5% of the group were women. Absenteeism frequency rate was of 2.88 new sick leaves per employee/year. The severity index was of 12.27 lost working days per employee/year, and the proportion of work time lost was 5.56% a year. Registered Nurses had lower frequency rates than nursing aides and technicians. Findings pointed to higher indexes and rates when compared with hospital data from other publications. A proposal is presented to minimize this phenomenon that results from the impact of conditions that are unfavorable to workers' health, through the reduction of the workload and the improvement of public health policy for this group of workers.O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar índices de absenteísmo-doença entre profissionais de enfermagem de 16 Unidades Básicas de Saúde do Município de Campinas durante o ano de 2002. Foram obtidos junto à seção de Recursos Humanos Descentralizados dados de assiduidade de 311 trabalhadores de enfermagem de Centros de Saúde dos Distrito Norte e Leste do Município de Campinas, e calculados os índices de freqüência, gravidade e proporção de tempo perdido. As variáveis disponibilizadas foram tempo de trabalho na função, categoria funcional, sexo e carga horária semanal. Dados de pesquisas realizadas sobre absenteísmo com pessoal de hospital e do ramo industrial e empresarial foram utilizados para a análise e comparação com o presente estudo. A função de técnico ou auxiliar de enfermagem representou a maioria da população (82,6%), a jornada de trabalho de 36 horas semanais foi realizada por 90,6% dos pesquisados e 93,5% eram do sexo feminino. O índice de freqüência de absenteísmo foi de 2,88 afastamentos iniciados por empregado/ ano, o de gravidade foi de 12,27 dias perdidos por empregado/ano, e a proporção de tempo perdido foi de 5,56% ao ano. Os enfermeiros tiveram índice de freqüência menor que o de auxiliares e técnicos. Os índices encontrados neste trabalho foram maiores do que a maioria dos estudos realizados com profissionais de hospitais. A fim de minimizar o fenômeno como reflexo do impacto das condições desfavoráveis para a saúde do trabalhador, propõe-se diminuir da exposição às cargas de trabalho e melhorar a política de saúde do trabalhador para os servidores da categoria.40140

Determination of the quark coupling strength vertical bar V-ub vertical bar using baryonic decays

In the Standard Model of particle physics, the strength of the couplings of the b quark to the u and c quarks, vertical bar V-ub vertical bar and vertical bar V-ub vertical bar, are governed by the coupling of the quarks to the Higgs boson. Using data from the LHCb experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, the probability for the Lambda(0)(b) baryon to decay into the p mu(-)(nu) over bar (mu) final state relative to the Lambda(+)(c)mu(-)(nu) over bar (mu) final state is measured. Combined with theoretical calculations of the strong interaction and a previously measured value of vertical bar V-ub vertical bar, the first vertical bar V-ub vertical bar measurement to use a baryonic decay is performed. This measurement is consistent with previous determinations of vertical bar V-ub vertical bar using B meson decays to specific final states and confirms the existing incompatibility with those using an inclusive sample of final states

International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortiu (INICC) report, data summary of 43 countries for 2007-2012. Device-associated module

We report the results of an International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) surveillance study from January 2007-December 2012 in 503 intensive care units (ICUs) in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. During the 6-year study using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) U.S. National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) definitions for device-associated health care–associated infection (DA-HAI), we collected prospective data from 605,310 patients hospitalized in the INICC's ICUs for an aggregate of 3,338,396 days. Although device utilization in the INICC's ICUs was similar to that reported from ICUs in the U.S. in the CDC's NHSN, rates of device-associated nosocomial infection were higher in the ICUs of the INICC hospitals: the pooled rate of central line–associated bloodstream infection in the INICC's ICUs, 4.9 per 1,000 central line days, is nearly 5-fold higher than the 0.9 per 1,000 central line days reported from comparable U.S. ICUs. The overall rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia was also higher (16.8 vs 1.1 per 1,000 ventilator days) as was the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (5.5 vs 1.3 per 1,000 catheter days). Frequencies of resistance of Pseudomonas isolates to amikacin (42.8% vs 10%) and imipenem (42.4% vs 26.1%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates to ceftazidime (71.2% vs 28.8%) and imipenem (19.6% vs 12.8%) were also higher in the INICC's ICUs compared with the ICUs of the CDC's NHSN